Last week’s front page seen as ‘racist’

IT has come to our attention via social media posts shared with our reporting staff that the front page of the Herald last week was seen as ‘racist’ by a number of people.

For starters, we would like those people to know that we have taken note of their comments and assure them that they have certainly given us food for thought.

In spite of the harsh tone of some posts, we thank you for speaking out. Without dialogue, it would be difficult to fully understand the many differences of opinion in this very diverse country of ours. This, so that we can all make informed decisions, whatever the circumstances.

It was not our intention to insult anyone or any section of the community. However, we do apologise if offence was taken.

The purpose of the front page was to highlight how ‘cheap’ life in general has become in our society and to summarise three different stories placed in full inside the same edition.

To recap: Two stories were about highly respected politicians being assassinated and the third was about a dog that was killed after someone threw battery acid over it.

The headline read: “Why is life so cheap?”

The front page ‘teaser’ did make reference to ‘humans and animals’. However, ‘race’ did not enter into our thinking at the time.

Social media posts took us to task for the juxtaposition, the perception being that we were linking people to animals.

In retrospect, we can see how that would be the thinking of many people in a country like ours which is beset by incidents of racism and disrespect for each other.

Once again, that was not our intention, but we now have a better understanding and appreciate the sensitivities.

We will certainly be wiser in future with a view to creating harmony and not racial division.

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