this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
49 points (91.5% liked)

World News

38987 readers
2133 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

When law student Chidimma Adetshina clinched a coveted spot as a Miss South Africa finalist, her triumph unleashed a vicious backlash, unearthing a seam of xenophobia that lies close to the surface for some in the country.

The 23-year-old’s name hints at her connection to Nigeria, but internet detectives wanted to know more and combed through every inch of her life. They found that her father is Nigerian and though her mother is South African, her family had come from neighbouring Mozambique.

Ms Adetshina is South African, as verified by the organisers of the pageant. She has said in interviews that she was born in Soweto - the township next to Johannesburg - and grew up in Cape Town.

However, the “go-home” sentiment, and even harsher attacks, flooded social media. There was also a petition demanding her removal from the high-profile televised competition that amassed more than 14,000 signatures before it was taken down.

top 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] PostProcess 21 points 3 months ago

Jeepers, looking like that, I'd be shoring up her nationality, not questioning it!

[–] Dkarma 11 points 3 months ago

Can america have her?

[–] FlyingSquid -1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You'd think that South Africans, unless we're talking about the white ones here, wouldn't be like this.

[–] notaviking 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

White Afrikaner here, we support her fully. She was born here, grew up here, she is South African. Unfortunately due to the piss poor ANC government, since the 2008 with Zuma at the helm, South African employment figures started going down where we have the lowest employment rates in the world, 33% officially, closer to 50% realistically. So they started showing fingers to foreigners taking their jobs, basically a scapegoat to hide behind their failures.

Luckily since the end of May, we now have for the first time a coalition government, no more single party ANC that became complacent after 30 years in government.

Also fuck your comments about us white people here in South Africa. Most of us are truly working hard to better our country, we acknowledge our past and the injustices caused, but we will be vocal about discrimination in all its forms, be it xenophobia or like your racist comments.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Right. Only white people have been racist and xenophobic in the whole history of Africa.

It's little known, but the Hutu oppressors in Rwanda who brutalized the Tutsis were very pale skinned.

[–] FlyingSquid 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That's not what I was even beginning to suggest. I was suggesting that you would think people who lived under the oppressive thumb of apartheid for decades would be less closed-minded when it came to racism.

[–] moistclump 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes and no. It takes a lot to unlearn and heal from a system like that. I’m not surprised there’s internalized xenophobia.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And my point was that people, even in South Africa, don't just learn these things from whites. Xenophobia is a human traits. There are many tribes in South Africa with a history that includes conflict.

Yes, colonizers exploited those conflicts to seize power for themselves, much like they did in North America. But they were feeding off existing discord.

[–] moistclump 1 points 3 months ago

Absolutely. Good point.

[–] notaviking 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Sometimes the oppressed becomes the oppressors, take us whites in South Africa, after being put in concentration camps in the Anglo Boer war, which Nazis took inspiration from, became oppressors afterwards to protect Afrikaner interest. Now we realise the injustice of perpetuating injustices. Israel and Palestine really remind me of being oppressed, claiming to protect your people afterwards but letting other people suffer and becoming an oppressor.