He wouldn’t have been brave in Stanger!

I read with fascination the irritated responses to my letter “Short-sighted imbeciles stuck in the past” (Courier, July 11).
Hilton Sandberg and E. R. Bussy appear to be peeved at the “race reference” in my letter, and from this they make all sorts of assumptions. In contrast, Ziyanda Madikizela made some positive observations, and was not “preoccupied” with race references. I guess this also is due to the fact that he is black (another race based interpretation perhaps?).
Sandberg and Bussy completely missed the point though, choosing instead to latch on to the “race factor”. Allow me to set them straight: Had he been riding in a town like Stanger, this particular obnoxious biker would not have shouted at me the way he did. There is a thing called “safety in numbers”. Because there is a high concentration of white people (or should I say South African people?) in Ballito, this particular man, who rightly earned himself the colourful label “moron”, clearly feels he can always get away with insulting other people and acting like a complete boor.
Sandberg and Bussy must accept that there will always be “race reference” in the world. The “race factor” cannot be conveniently erased from reality, simply because it now suits them to do so. And only those acting like “short-sighted imbeciles” will be described as such, not everybody.

MUSA MNYANDU
Groutville