All you can learn is what you already know

Wow, so it’s only my second post and I am already preparing for a rant. Good times.

 I work on Activate one of Rhodes University’s student newspapers, as the deputy editor.

The biggest news of the past two or three weeks has been a change of venue for our annual intervarsity (we call it Tri-Varsity). This is a sporting event, across a number of sporting codes, and is held between Rhodes, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU – previously the University of Port Elizabeth) and Fort Hare . This year, Rhodes was due to host the event (which meant lots of partying for Rhodes students).

So imagine everyone’s surprise when a “Save Tri-Varsity” meeting was called. This meeting, as part of the “Alcohol Awareness Week” was intended to address the alcohol-related misbehaviours of Rhodes students at Tri-Varsity, and their tendency to end up comatose in a pool of vomit, streaking across the sportsfield or being assaulted by security guards.

Activate sent two reporters to the meeting, and they dutiful reported it.

Part of the meeting saw the SRC president address the fact that the majority of students in attendance at the meeting were white students. Note: he said it. And he questioned why black students aren’t as into the whole Tri-Varsity thing as the white students. Again: he said it.

We ran the story, having focused the majority of the story on the alcohol-related issues surrounding Rhodes students and Tri-Varsity, and dealing with the SRC president’s comment in the last two paragraphs. We also ran a poll: “Would you go to Tri-Varsity at Fort Hare?”

Now here’s the problem. Fort Hare is  stereotyped as an “underpriveleged” and “black” university by a number of people. Yes, this is true. After the story ran on Thursday, we received a number of complaints suggesting that we were “racist” and making this a “race and a class issue”. Our article, apparently, implied that Activate did not feel that Fort Hare was capable of hosting such an event, because it is traditionally black university. And the question we posed in the poll was improper.

Wow, I love student media.

We had never intended for the poll to be a reflection on whether we thought that Fort Hare could or could not host Tri-Varsity. It was not a group of white women sitting in the office saying “I bet you no one will go there because it’s like, a black university”. Not at all. It was asked more from the point of view of ”Would you drive for two to three hours to get to Fort Hare?” Would we have run it if it was decided that NMMU would host it for the second year running? Most likely. Yes, perhaps we could have clarified the poll more. I completely understand. But I also don’t want to have to scrutinise everything and think “Could this possibly be seen as racist?” 

And now you can all string me up from a tree for saying this, but I feel certain individuals are honestly over-sensitive to the race issue. I wrote a story last year, and in it was the phrase “a dark figure behind a torch”. And the crowds went savage. Dude, I’m a dark figure behind a torch, and I’m pale and blonde. But no, it MUST have been racist, screamed the crowds. Oi vey. 

And would I go to Tri-Varsity at Fort Hare? Nope. I wouldn’t even go to the one in Port Elizabeth. Why? I don’t have a car.

Oh, and I changed my template. This one is so much prettier, and hopefully I’ll change the images soon. Don’t worry, I’m not crazy. The last template had grey and white and sad faces and flowers and suns. It wasn’t all just in my head.

Shadow of the Day

And so I have been motivated to start another blog, hopefully one that I will keep up with more regularly.

So much has changed over the last year that I don’t quite know who or what I am anymore. What I do know is that I still am, and that is probably a good thing.

I’ve had two deaths in the family, I’ve moved my digs, I’ve experienced a breakup, and I’m running a newspaper. Each experience builds on top of the other until some days I feel that the next thing may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

I look at the template I chose for this blog, compared to the other. The other was lighter, brighter, more open. And now I am drawn to the darker templates – black, white and greys. Cheerful, isn’t it? I like the flowers, though. And the sun. The little sad face doesn’t quite do it for me, but there you go.

Anyway, now it begins, this journey into 2008. I will write from all my different perspectives: a woman, a daughter, a deputy editor, a new media student.

Good luck to you.
Candace