Vintage Bigot
July 12, 2010 · 19 Comments
John Oliver, a “correspondent” for the comedy news show, “The Daily with Jon Stewart,” has been filing these really funny, but also very illuminating–in fact the best–pieces of journalism from South Africa the last few weeks. (We’ve blogged about it here before.) Last week, he decided to focus on something else: he went in search of “race riots” or racism in South Africa. What follows is predictable. Oliver can’t “find” any race riots or racism as we see in the first 3 minutes of this clip. Oliver’s whole shtick is ridiculous, so we’re not surprised. (The most memorable moment comes when Oliver asks researcher Mapeete Mohale, from the not-radical South African Institute of Race Relations: “What should white people have to do to fully earn your hate?” Her answer: “I think they’ve done all that they can.”)
So the whole thing would be forgettable until Oliver–about 3:20 into the clip–cues an interview he had with one Dan Roodt.
Now for those who don’t know Roodt. He is a white, rightwing Afrikaner figure with some objectionable views. But Roodt refers to himself as an “intellectual” and wears fine cut suits. He regularly goes on about his opposition of “interbreeding” between “the races,” about blacks’ alleged propensity for criminal acts, his opposition to Affirmative Action, and how wonderful Apartheid was for the black majority, among other things. Occasionally Roodt clothes his racism in ambiguity. Despite all this Roodt is taken seriously by South Africa’s mainstream who deem him an intellectual or enjoy his shock tactics. He regularly gets invited onto mainstream panels, is the subject of soft-ball profile articles and is provided endless column spaces and TV time to express these objectionable views. Even bloggers who should know better defend his nonsense.
More recently, he has become a regular on foreign TV news programs (particularly in The Netherlands and Belgium, I understand) and in print media stories about the alleged victimhood of white South Africans. These outlets usually let Roodt off easy.
That’s until the Oliver interview.
Over, what Oliver describes as “the next two and a half hours” Roodt proceeds to mouth the most objectionable racist garbage and “vintage bigotry.” This leads Oliver to conclude that what he had experienced was “… a tasting tour of some of the finest examples of bigotry.”
I found it astonishing that Roodt, who styles himself as somewhat web savvy (he runs an online magazine), appeared to have no clue who Oliver was or the point of The Daily Show.
Maybe because it is not broadcast in Afrikaans.
But that’s beside the point. The video has now gone viral. Roodt is on record now and there’s nothing sophisticated or ambiguous about the stuff he said.
– Sean Jacobs