Charles Ash
A recent podcast clip has gone viral in South Africa, showing Black presenters making racist and vile remarks about the Coloured community. The backlash has been swift, loud, and politically opportunistic – with figures like Gayton Mackenzie diving head-first into the outrage to score points.
But this isn’t new. We’ve seen it before – Kuli Roberts, other celebs, social media influencers-openly demeaning Coloured people with little reflection or consequence. And while politicians exploit the chaos, the same tired dynamic plays out: Black and Coloured people fighting in public while white supremacy watches, unbothered and unscathed.
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Coloureds Face Persistent Racial Discrimination
Let’s be clear: Coloured South Africans face real, persistent racial discrimination. White supremacy still treats the Coloured identity as lesser, but what’s more disturbing is how some Black South Africans mirror that contempt-seeing Coloured people as culturally deficient, morally questionable, or somehow “less Black.” This attitude is not only false – it’s toxic, divisive, and dangerous.
South Africa’s population is roughly:
Black African: 81%
Coloured: 8.2%
White: 7.3% (Stats SA, 2024 mid-year estimates)
Lack of SABC-funded media
So how is it that a group as large as the Coloured population has zero SABC-funded media platforms speaking to its unique history, culture, and identity? This silence from state media helps breed ignorance. Coloured South Africans have been denied the same platforms given to other groups, treated as invisible by those in power-including the ANC and the SABC – which continues the apartheid-era myth that Coloured people are “not enough” of anything to deserve representation.
This is the deeper issue. The racism is not just in careless words on a podcast – it’s in policy, in media neglect, in cultural erasure. If we don’t build media, institutions, and platforms by and for Coloured South Africans, these racist narratives will persist, unchecked.
Stop the Cycle
Let’s not fall for the bait. Every time we tear into each other, we do the work of racists, capitalists, and the apartheid architects who want the working class fragmented and bitter. The only way out is together.
This podcast scandal will blow over. Another will come. And another. Unless we break the cycle.
Let’s stop shouting at screens and start building. Together.
