[DEBATE] : From Umsebenzi Online / Nzimande trenchant analysis of Bullard racism

[Sean Jacobs]

Some media reactions to David Bullard

This brings me to the issue of David Bullard, a Sunday Times columnist  
for the past 14 years, fired by his editor this week. In this week's  
Sunday Times, Bullard wrote one of the most outrageously racist  
columns, a continuation of many of his other racist columns. In  
essence Bullard is saying black people must thank colonialism for  
taking them out of their barbarism. In fact it had taken the Sunday  
Times too long to fire this (almost congenital) racist!

However, what is most disturbing is the muted response of the media in  
general to this racist diatribe, and even worse some kind of  
justification and even 'rewards' for Bullard, with the Star  
immediately giving him space. One would have expected media outrage at  
such racist rubbish and provocation.

I am for instance flabbergasted by Anton Harber's reaction in his  
Business Day column of 16 April 2008. He concludes it by saying, "If  
editors want to avoid these kinds of embarrassments, they don't need  
to get rid of controversial columnists. They need to invest in more  
good subeditors. The tenor of his column is more on blaming the Sunday  
Times editorial for having allowed this to be printed, rather than  
focusing on the outrageous nature of Bullard's column. Yes, the Sunday  
Times must not be excused for having allowed this column to be  
published. I hold no brief for the Sunday Times editor, but the import  
of Harber's piece is that both Mondli Makhanya and David Bullard are  
equally guilty!

At the very least one would have expected a journalist of Harber's  
reputation to focus on the persistence of racism in the media, and how  
to tackle how to tackle this scourge. One only has to compare media  
outrage directed at the Forum of Black Journalists, and its reaction  
towards the firing of Bullard to understand the extent to which our  
media tolerates racial abuse of blacks. It is as if it is only whites  
who are entitled to non-racial treatment!

Martin Williams, the editor of The Citizen of 16 April 2008, goes even  
further and provocatively defend this column by Bullard. He says,

"In strictly commercial terms Makhanya made a mistake because, love  
him or or hate him, Bullard is a drawcard…

"I am inclined to believe Bullard's assertion that it was payback for  
his repeated refusal to apologise for criticising Sunday Times  
management in an article in Empire magazine"

For Williams there is nothing wrong with Bullard's column! Instead he  
boldly and provocatively tells us, "Last Friday I offered Bullard a  
regular column. If he does come on board he won't be censored, nor  
fired for something already in print". Apart from this being extremely  
offensive to the black majority of our country, it shows the high  
levels of tolerance of the racist abuse of black people by sections of  
South African media. In fact racists like Bullard should have no place  
in our media, 14 years into our democracy!

Some of the justifications for Martin Williams include the fact that  
Bullard is a draw-card in the market place. This essentially means a  
market-place of racism, because Bullard perhaps has had the guts to  
publicly express the many racist beliefs still harboured by many white  
South Africans.

I have no doubts that were similarly offensive remarks made against  
white people, there would have been a huge outcry, possibly even  
parties like the DA and the Freedom Front calling for endless  
parliamentary debates. Yet they are comfortably silent!

As we approach May Day, it is absolutely essential to intensify  
efforts towards the mobilisation of the more vulnerable workers, the  
working class as a whole, to escalate the struggle against capitalism,  
as one of the most important platforms to finally defeat the scourge  
of racism. In this we must continue to be guided by the words written  
by Slovo in 1976!