The “firing” of David Bullard has kept my mind busy all weekend because I have an uncomfortable sense that something is very wrong with the situation and its various interpretations.
Aside from these concerns, something that concerns me even more is that I don’t feel safe writing this post because I suspect the same mindset that accuses Bullard of racism will accuse me of being a racist too, for pointing out the logical flaws in the same accusation. For the record and before I begin, I have had substantial run-ins with Bullard myself so I know what it feels like being on the wrong end of his stick. I also know the type of outrage that prompts one to wish him to be fired.
I would like to suggest, however, that the racism in Bullard’s column is in the reading of it, not in its writing. Let me start with a simple example.
When Bullard says, “Every so often a child goes missing from the village, eaten either by a hungry lion or a crocodile. The family mourn for a week or so and then have another child,” there are a few ways you can interpret this. The first is to understand it as a statement about the way family systems work in a “primitive” social order and the pragmatism surrounding death in an environment where the size of your family is directly related to its survival. Furthermore, when survival is of primary concern, it follows that mourning will be intense but not debilitating.
The second way to read it is to think the author is trying to convince us that black people breed like flies. If you got the second option, your reading is either rife with racial stereotypes or you simply believe it to be true.
The way Bullard’s column is constructed asks us to make some imaginary leaps that clearly were not historically possible — it asks us to imagine the possibility that our country could remain isolated from European colonialism and the “development” that came with it; it asks us to imagine that the people themselves were not exposed to modern technology until the present day.
The column’s construction depends on the reader making the distinction between an imaginary scenario and a prediction, in order to be set up for the final snide point about people needing other people to blame. Bullard’s failure is assuming that his readers will be able to make that distinction in the racially charged climate in which the reading takes place.
But for a moment let’s assume that Bullard is asking us to imagine too much, that what he is actually trying to do is convince his readers that primitive people, left to their own devices and in complete isolation, would not develop their own technology or some sort of equivalent “progress”.
There are very few cases in the world where this type of isolation has been possible: Papua New Guinea is one example. Partly because of the climate and physical conditions of the island and partly because it was never colonised, the people there have remained relatively isolated and live in traditional societies by means of subsistence farming. Is it fair to say the people of Papua New Guinea are racially inferior because they have lived in the same way for thousands of years? Let me put it another way: it is racist to read the retention of traditional social structures by a society as a sign of racial inferiority.
Bullard’s column makes no attempt to imply racial inferiority. The “rustic idyll” is presented precisely as that; if anything, it is Western culture and consumerism that takes the most criticism. So how is it, then, that there are so many people speaking about racism in this column? Could it be that in their minds, traditional social structures are the sign of an inferior race?
There is, of course, an insult — that people need someone else to blame in order to achieve true happiness. This is the message of Bullard’s column and it is an unpleasant one that is not, however, racist, because it can be said of anyone. It alludes, no doubt, to a sense that colonialism and apartheid are sometimes used as a crutch to make us feel better about the current state of things. Ironically this point can be applied equally to everyone in the country.
Now let’s get a few things straight here: Bullard has written much worse during his tenure at the Sunday Times. The thing that springs to mind is the time he said that all black people in South Africa hired as a result of BEE policy were incompetent. Now that is racist, so what you have to ask yourself is this: What has changed between the publication of the BEE column and the one he was fired for last week?
Could it be the Empire Magazine column he wrote recently? There he says:
“So I’ve decided to part company with the Sunday Times and write no more motoring pieces for them. It’s not only about the money, although that is a large part of it. It’s about the lack of vision, the pettiness and the creeping mediocrity.”
It has been a long time coming — Sarah Britten, who shared a blogging platform with Bullard, chose the following words:
“Those of us who have been watching this brew for a while …”
So it’s clearly not about the racist column alone; the column is a convenient way to axe him without having to go through the tedious process of firing him according to labour regulations. Racism is a trump card; you can’t beat it even if you’re innocent, and no one will listen to you defend yourself.
And then there is the issue about editorial culpability, which Kathan Pillay has argued well. There are some rebuttals by Robert Brand and Anne Taylor here.
I don’t care whether Bullard stops working for the Sunday Times; he was clearly unhappy there anyway. It is unfortunate that this was not kept as a quiet agreement between Bullard and Mondli Makhanya to part ways because the racism herring is very destructive and makes them both look bad.
Many of the readers crying foul about racism are clearly applying a big, heavy, blunt instrument to a text that requires a little more subtlety. Alternatively, what this all means is that everything remotely related to race must be reduced to a black and white issue with no debate or intelligence permitted in between.
Ed,
Ed,
Now matter how you skin it, Hitler waged war out of hatred. Hatred is not often an irrational reaction or action. It can be cold and calculated.
Apartheid was hatred and it was cold and calculated.
so, I think you are the one missing the meaning of love and hate.
Will,
I am really not sure what you are on about. If a black journalist has made offensive remarks about whites, then his employer has a right to act according to their rules and regulations. Feel free to provide examples, however other than this generalization.
Unlike you, I do not believe we should excuse racism because someone claim they did not mean to offend. How many criminals claim they did not mean to rape, murder their victims?
VINCENT 1. When Bullard says, “Every so often a child goes missing from the village, eaten either by a hungry lion or a crocodile. The family mourn for a week or so and then have another child” (THAT SHOWS DESRESPECT TO HOWEVER THE LINES ABOVE WERE POINTING TO) how about i say “every so often a child gets molested by a priest (lion or crocodile) and month later millions are paid out to the families of melested kids and few weeks another ones is molested how about that.
2. try technologicaly inferior not racial inferiority, thats racist
Len, I think you are being deliberately obtuse. Offensiveness is very much in the eye of the beholder, as the Bullard case clearly shows. If causing offense to the opposite race was illegal, white reporters would have been precluded from reporting on much of what is of public interest, especially the corruption and cronyism of the current regime. I would have had a field day suing the SABC for all the offensive ads and prejudicial reporting it carries about Afrikaners. Offensiveness may be a necessary condition of what constitutes racism, but it is not a sufficient one.
MFB
John Perlman went to KayaFM. Unfortunately I can’t pick up the station on my radio – only on the computer, which my husband also uses. But they dissapear every April – the presenters at SAFM. It has just happened again. They appear to only have 1 year contracts – which I find very bad policy of the SABC. No job security.
Cat
News 24 appears to me to be an ANC propaganda website. I have been refered to it twice on blogs and find it very one sided.
Robert
The schools, hospitals and railways were used by all. Yes there were seperate carriages and seperate wards and seperate schools – but no-one was turned away from a hospital, unlike the Zimbabwean who died this week. Nor were there the long queue and people being sent home untreated. I know. I took people to both Grote Schuur and Red Cross Childrens hospital on many occassions.
Vincent and Jackson
“blacks breed like flies”. It is not blacks but the poor, of any colour , that breed like flies. In Egypt there was a woman reported on that complained there was not enough bread being given out for her and her enemployed husband and five children. On TV this week the widow of the Zimbabwean who died was interviewed. She is a widow at 20 years old, with 4 children. How old was she when she had the first? If her husband has lived – would she have had 10 children by age 30? David Bullard told “an inconvenient truth”.
Katse
“Every black gets appointed on merit, no reservations”. Sorry honey – not true.
There was a letter to the Cape Times a while back from a water engineer who applied for a government job. He had 8 years experience in Australia (also a dry country) but was told outright that the job was only for blacks. Trouble is that there are no qualified blacks – so the position remains vacant, and Cape Town did not get an engineer.
One of my family was very enthusiastic where AA first came in. Many whites were you know – but not any more! He called in his foreman and said he was now making him an equal 50% partner, and he was to do the day to day running of the business. Their main contract was with the municipality, and they were very much the lowest tenderer. They were told they did not count as BEE as the former foreman was brown not black. Guess who the contract went to? The business was liquidated, the former foreman found a job, and that family member now spends half the year in Canada- and imports, not exports!
A friend of mine is a doctor, a specialist in her field, and a world expert on AIDS treatment. She was working in London but wanted to come home. She applied for a teaching/medical job at Groote Schuur/UCT and flew our for an interview. She was much the best applicant. Speaking Xhosa in front of her, not knowing she understood it,they said they did not want “a coolie” but a black man. And she was an activist for PAC in the struggle! She was brown -and will never come back home now.
“entrenched the right to private ownership of property in the constitution”
Had they not done so they would have lost all foreign investment and attracted no more. This is a basic requirement for foreign investment.
It does not mean the government could not have bought and redistributed land, in stead of spending on arms, gautreins and soccer stadiums. There was no political will to do so – and no money allocated in the budget.
“hectares of land which was originally stolen from the indigeneous population”
Not in the Western Cape it was not. The indigenous population has either died out or intermarried with the browns and the whites – both of whom are treated like outcasts in their own land.
Themba
David Bullard has been here since 1980. He keeps his British passport to keep the right to a British pension. This is his land. Maybe you should “return” to your “country” – the Congo perhaps? If you are black your ancestors were also colonists – from Central Africa.
The Atom Bomb
The atom bomb was dropped on Japan because the politicians had a new technology and a new toy they wanted to try out quickly before the war ended.
I HATE politicians!
Racist Columnists
Do any of you read the black columnists in the Sunday Times, including Mondli? See no racism? None as blind as those who will not see! It does not set my knickers in a twist because I come from a culture that approves satire and even insult – like “ring a ring a rosies”. Most of the old childrens rhymes, games and songs were all political satire.
Willem, I think you are being obtuse because you cannot help it.
We have laws against hate speech in the country. There are certan conditions that need to be met to categorise something as hate speech. thankfully, Bullard did the gentlemanly thing instead of arguing for the sake of it.
Lyndall,
I agree with you. None is so blind as those who will not see. When you do see, do let me know and perhaps we can have a debate about this. Until then, I think you are simply too blind to even understand Bullard’s own apology.
There is something to be said about morality and good taste too
Lyndall,
Do you ever read the crap you write? I was born in South Africa of South Africans parents. I was African when it was not kosher for whites to call themselves African. I was African when the likes of you used European only buses. Oh, I am not from the Congo either. My ancenstry is South African and no amount of changing facts will help your people. My background is both Nguni and Khoi, which makes me African. Since there were no borders before colonization, whether I was from the Congo, Cameroon or Cape Town, I am still African. Bullard is a British passport holder who came to the country during the height of apartheid when white meant you received certain rghts (Bullard says so in his apology). So, I really do suggest you get your perspective correctly, Lyndall as you sound rather illusional in your recreation.
As for the Atom Bomb. Like any weapon of mass destruction, it is often applied to innocent individuals under the pretext that such atrocities will accelrate their demise and lead to your victory. I somehow think you would make that decision, if given a chance. so much for hating politicians
Len Van Der Merwe
I read Bullard’s apology. He apologised for offending people – not for what he wrote.
Themba
Africa is a continent – not a colour.Black Africans all come from Central Africa. Above the Sahara and in Southern Africa the original inhabitants were brown. It is very difficult to find much trace of them.You sound Xenophobic to me. Do you want to send home the Somali and Zimabwean refugees as well? After all they were not born here.David Bullard’s wife might have a lot to do with why he stayed in SA.I admit that my husband wanted us to leave in the 80s – but I would not go. I had already left in the 70s – and came home.
As for superior weapons. Shaka also had them, and used them.
On 6 May I wrote
“Do you want to send home the Somali and Zimbabwean refugees as well ? After all they were not born here?”
I hope you are ashamed of what you wrote – you should be!