OK, this is the ABF (absolutely bloody final) on Penny Sparrow in this column. Promise!
But this time the purpose is not to condemn or support her. We have already made our position clear: We say ‘NO’ to racism… period!.
However, we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t show some compassion after our Scottburgh journalist, Juan Venter, interviewed Penny this week and learned first hand how this whole sorry saga has taken its toll on her. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs are quite shocking.
She has aged noticeably and is close to being a broken woman. She has no way whatsoever of paying the R150 000 fine imposed upon her by the Equity Court for her now world (in)famous Facebook post comparing black people to monkeys.
“Serves her right,” some hard hearts might say, but we don’t want to be that cruel.
The fact is that Penny and all of us are now terrified to say or do anything that might offend, even unwittingly. One has to ask: Is freedom of speech dying?
The safest option is to just zip it… just in case.
But then we wouldn’t be doing our job as a newspaper. The Herald is not scared to speak out about what we think is wrong. Some agree with us, others don’t, but we can assure you that we really give our comments and stories much, much more thought now than ever before.
The photograph below – pinched from somebody’s Facebook post – illustrates why. It’s a mine field out there.
Instead of being a ‘homophobe’, ‘xenophobe’, ‘negrophobe’ (the repercussions of mentioning the South African version are too terrible to contemplate) or ‘white-ou-phobe’, perhaps we should all learn to become ‘phobophobes’. We should not only fear, but shun becoming any kind of ‘phobe’.
Let’s all be more open minded and less pedantic about our race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, culture, etc., etc.
Ask yourself: Do you actually listen to what other people are saying? Or, are you one of those who is already thinking of how to reply before the speaker has even finished making his/her point?
