Kuli Sacked, Labelled Racist - [website] Published: 2nd of Mar 2011 by: (c) Staff Training Reporter
“Jou Ma se Kinders” was the title of the article written by TV presenter and socialite Kuli Roberts that’s sparked outrage from many South Africans over the past week.
Roberts now stands accused of being a racist after her article, Jou Ma se Kinders, failed to get the laughs she says she’d intended.
The article spoke of coloured girls in South Africa with “no front teeth” and that “love to fight in public”, which wouldn’t have been so bad had it been left at that, but this tongue-in-cheek writer took it even further as she relentlessly slammed coloured girls, resulting in her being fired and getting her 7-year-old column scrapped.
I’m usually one of the first to jump to the defence of those accused of things like this – Sepp Blatter being called homophobic for warning gays not to be openly affectionate during the World Cup in Qatar; Paul Chambers, the accountant who jokingly threatened to blow up an airport if the snow continued – but this isn’t a case of a joke not being funny, Roberts crossed a line when she wrote a full article outlining nothing but what she feels are reasons to dislike coloured girls.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Kuli is a racist either – in fact she got the idea for the article while discussing topics to write about with her coloured friends – but I do think it was inappropriate and mean, especially here in South Africa where race issues run rife and reactions are usually disproportionate.
Honestly, what was she thinking writing this?
“You will always be assured of a large family as many of these girls breed as if Allan Boesak sent them on a mission to increase the coloured race.”
“You will never run out of cigarettes.”
“They love to fight in public and are very violent.”
On and on it goes.
But the mother of two coloured children says she didn’t mean to hurt or upset anyone, “and certainly not the coloured people”.
But, Kuli, did you read the column back to yourself before sending it in for publishing?
I don’t think you’re a racist, but if you didn’t realise there would be serious repercussions for this then you’re obviously not the brightest crayon in the box.
However, I don’t speak for everyone; the article is available here from Sunday World, have a look and let us know what you think.
