No More “First Black” Stories
Last week was a good/bad week for “first blacks”. The media made a big fuss over the appointment of South Africa’s first black Springbok rugby coach. And, of course, we have had all the troubles related to South Africa’s first black police commissioner.
But the “first black” story that was the icing on the cake, or the milk in the tea, for me was about Hlengiwe Gcabashe, “the first black female tea taster in Southern Africa”. This story was prominently displayed in the Sunday Times Lifestyle magazine.
I normally switch off when I see “first black” stories. If the newsworthy angle is that the person is black, then it is probably not newsworthy at all. After all, news is something that is new and what is new about being black in a country of more than 40-million black people?
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