Proving once again that Social Media is NOT the right platform in which to engage the world in with weighty topics such as Race, Religion, Politics or Sex (REMEMBER: These are all the topics your Mom warned you against discussing around the dinner table?) is the recent incident at the Bungalow Restaurant in Clifton, Cape Town where a waiter, Mike Dzange, described the patrons (Scott Magethuka and partner Sivuyile Madikana) on his table ticket as ‘2 BLACKS’.
Scott’s Tweet (@Scott_Maq) said; “The Bungalow in Clifton (@KoveCollection) still sees us by the colour of our skin” and was accompanied by an image of the reprinted bill showing the offending description of “2 BLACKS’.
The ensuing Shit Storm fire was fuelled with click bait headlines from media desperate for eyeballs and made a mockery of the clearly bemused waiter on live television.
The Zimbabwean Waiter, Mike Dzange then apologised unreservedly stating; “I’d like to apologise deep from my heart for the trouble I have caused, it happened without the intention of hurting anybody. I’d sincerely like to apologise to Mr Scott and partner.”
Scott then tweeted an image of his reply (a common way for people to tweet more than 140 characters and explain better) which said; “In light of Mike Dzange’s public apology regarding the Bungalow incident on Sunday, I’ve been moved to publicly accept his apology.”
The first line in the second paragraph of Scott’s tweet is the one that everyone needs to take note of, saying; “Regardless of race, racial profiling is unacceptable & that is what my tweet served to highlight.”
Big bleeding heart Scott then says in the last paragraph; “I also trust that the internal procedures that are underway are fair & that Mike Dzange will not be at threat of dismissal as it would be very unfortunate, especially at this time of the year.”
I am sorry Scott – this incident is a bit like Pandora’s Box – it is difficult to close or stop the inevitable havoc that will ensue – in the normal course of events, Mike will lose his job, The Bungalow will shrug off the incident, you will continue to be treated to R190.00 Fish and Chips, the Moet will continue to flow and Mike will descend into despair and poverty.
Now this is where the media are at fault – they took the ranting of a 20 year old and ran with it, twisting the story into another ugly racial incident. Fuelling the fire were the Twitts on Twitter escalating and fanning the fires of the ‘shock, gasp, horror’ incident from the ‘racist capital of South Africa’ – Cape Town. The censure continued and became political when Helen Zille wondered (before the waiter was identified) how the ‘2 BLACKS’ description would be viewed if the waiter had been of the same race.
Of course Helen needs to go to diversity school and stop classifying Xhosa, Zulu, Zimbabwean, Nigerian et al as the same race, but we will leave that for another time Tannie!
The REAL MEAT of this matter is Scott’s line; “Regardless of race, racial profiling is unacceptable & that is what my tweet served to highlight.” I must point out that the ensuing Shit Storm would have been much less if Scott had initially tweeted that he had been racially profiled by a Black Zimbabwean waiter.
Although, the journo in me does wonder why the scenario could not have rather been one where a White ex-Rhodesian had been the waiter referring to his table as ‘2 BLACKS’ – now that would have got people clicking, but I digress.
If Scott’s comment on racial profiling had been included with his initial tweet then he (and the waiter) would have received a lot more sympathy but certainly not the amount of media coverage that it did get – something that savvy Social Media people are well aware of.
I find it interesting that Scott’s acceptance of the apology was in the form of an image of his words rather than in a series of tweets – my hyper cynical mind is led to ask; “Why did Scott not then fully explain his viewpoint in his initial tweet?”
My sad non racial mind agrees whole heartedly with Scott about being sick to death of racial profiling.
BUT, my hyper cynical mind accepts that institutionalised racial profiling is a sad reality of modern South Africa. How would we identify criminals? How would we be able to chart our progress towards an integrated society without the forms to be filled in for BEE Quotas? How would we chart our progress towards diversity in terms of race, gender and sexual orientation? Unfortunately the list goes on. Our racial profiling is a deep insidious cancer within a government obsessed with race. Our country is full of government AND political parties AND citizens practicing transference by pointing a finger at other people are ‘guilty of racism’ whilst forgetting that whilst they point one finger they have at least three of their own fingers pointing back at them.
And what of Scott’s companion at the table, Dr Sivuyile Madikana, you may ask? His tweets on that fateful day – 19 December – are only concerned with his upcoming Cape Talk radio interview; “Coming up on @CapeTalk at 11pm… Sex Questions You Were Afraid to Ask with Dr Sivuyile Madikana @thesivu #noholesbarred #letstalkaboutsex”
Surely as a fellow outraged diner there would have been mention of this ‘2 BLACKS’ incident?
Brings to mind what Modern Family cast member, Cameron Tucker pointed out to fellow cast member and life partner, Mitchell Pritchett in a recent episode saying that true partners (read friends) support each other even if the other one is wrong!
No wonder more and more people are quitting Social Media and returning to the long form article!
In his Twitter profile Scott describes himself as; “20 years old. Black. Gay. YouTuber. Lover of good food & wine.” See his most viewed video titled; “COMING OUT TO AFRICAN PARENTS!” below:
Watch the whole video and then learn TWO lessons:
- “Making someone uncomfortable or persecuting them on the basis of their skin colour, sex, religion, political persuasion or sexual orientation is just plain wrong.”
- “Put yourself in the shoes of your ‘target’ before you release the bomb that could adversely affect their lives forever! In other words – practise empathy and have a private conversation with the person you feel aggrieved by – before going public. Lets change hearts and minds one at a time, people”
Alan Straton
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Abovenamed is described as being selected as the “Best Junior Doctor for 2016″…In his description he names himself as “black”……But for his attitude and his actions all I would add to that ‘profile’ is “HYPOCRITE”……