My name is Modibe Julius Modiba from Benoni and i'm a 23 year old pan-African who believes in African Renaissance as the cornerstone for Africa's development. I'm currently a BA International Relations and Diplomacy student at the University of South Africa and i also write frequent opinion pieces which feature in numerous South African newspapers.
Tuesday 8 July 2014
Feed a Child commercial. Social or racial issue?
Greetings to you all
After seeing the Feed a Child commercial so much was going through my head, I kept asking myself so many questions like; is the commercial racist or not? Does the commercial portray a social issue or more of a racial issue as some believe. Let's be honest the commercial has sparked so much controversy and people have felt disgusted about the commercial, but let's come back to reality. It's still black children who go to bed hungry without anything to eat and I'm not saying white children don't go hungry, some do but the majority of hungry children are still black kids. The commercial shows a white lady feeding a black child as if the black child is an animal, in-fact even an animal gets more than what the poor black boy receives. As black people the commercial has caused some major roar amongst us but at the very same time it's shown us something that we've always known about although we've done little to change this disturbing issue. The fact is we're black and the majority of hungry children are also black, fine the advert is disturbing and I totally agree it's also very offensive but it shows us something which we don't like seeing everyday something that hurts each and every single one of us and I know we keep asking ourselves why couldn't they use a white child in the commercial, but truth is white kids don't go hungry compared to the number of black children who go to bed hungry, although we don't like seeing it and we feel it's racist and offensive especially seeing a white woman feeding the black boy but, it's the sad reality which we have to face as South Africans. The first step to move forward and change this social issue is to accept that we're black and that it's still our brothers and sisters who go to bed hungry and once this has been done we can now go out and give a helping hand to change this issue. So I leave you with this question, was the commercial more of a social issue or racial issue?
MORENA BOLOKA SECHABA SA HESO !
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Here is the real question ... if you look into the books (if the give you that kind of disclosure) you will find that 99% of the donors are white and 99% of the beneficiaries are black. Black people don't give for charity. White companies has to give for them to score for BEE. Black companies simply go - "WE ARE BEE".
ReplyDeleteThe real question should be why is the white woman feeding a black child - in reality why is a black man not feeding the black child.
For me - this ad was a true reflection of the current scenario. If we wanted it to change, my fellow black South African - we better start giving for organisations like Feed a Child. That is the part that hurts the most.
I can at least say that even among my peeps - I am part of the 1% that does my bit for charity. do you?
I couldn't agree with you more
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