So much to write about, so little time and newspaper space.
The whole idea for today was to talk about YoungstaCPT’s reaction to Tyla’s Grammy win and how that perpetuates and advances the cliché of coloured people constantly dragging each other down.
We all talk big about how we want to see other people of colour succeed on the national and global stage. But when that does happen, the green monster of jealousy rears its ugly head and we can’t help but to trash-talk those people.
It’s like, if the success story isn’t our own, then it can’t be anyone else’s either. And if they do manage to navigate all the back-biting and nastiness, then of course they owe us big time.
I wanted to discuss that whole “black tax” phenomenon, where successful people of colour are expected to immediately give back to their old communities, or risk being called all sorts of awful names.
Selflessly helping another talented person of colour reach success, isn’t something we are always very happy to do.
But all of that will have to wait for another day, because I have a much more serious matter to tackle.
It’s the two videos of child torture that emerged on social media over the last two weeks or so. Instead of child abuse, I call it child torture, because that’s exactly what it is.
The first one I saw is a video from 2018 of a crèche teacher relentless beating a small child in a pre-school classroom, while repeatedly asking her why she vomited.
The sobbing little girl is unable to answer, which triggers the woman even more. She pulls down her pants and gives her several hard slaps on her bare bum.
You can hear the blows land, but the little girl remains quiet, almost as if she is used to it. The teacher looms angrily, hands on her hips before walking away to get tissues.
She hands the child one and continues the “why, why, why” question. While the girl wipes her face, the head shots start – 10 of them in quick succession, rocking the child.
And that’s when she caves and starts crying and cowering to escape the blows. There’s a pause, and you think that has to be the end. But no.
“Why you vomit? Why…?” Six more slaps around the head. Then another round of interrogation: “Why you vomit? Tell me. Is it nice to vomit?”
All she gets is confused sobbing mumbles as a response. Which leads to another beating. This time the teacher looms menacingly over the terrified toddler, who is desperately trying to find an answer that will satisfy the woman. But it’s not enough to stop her.
She lets rip with 15 more head blows, a pause and two more for good measure. The recording stops, so we don’t know if that’s the actual end.
Did I mention that throughout the entire ordeal, the poor child is being made to clean up the little green plastic table, which she presumably threw up on moments earlier.
That teacher was eventually arrested and charged after the video was leaked by another care giver.
The other video is a lot more recent and involves a young boy being brutalised by grown men in Klapmuts, while being ridiculed by female voices off camera.
Those same voices encourage the main torturer, who at one point uses his full weight to force the child into a crouching position.
They beat him with a belt, cable-tie him to a broken saw and attempt to electrocute him with jumper cables connected to a car battery.
This all before dumping the kid head-first into a wheelie bin filled with water.
It’s all a bit much to watch and I found myself in tears.
Both for the terror that child must have felt, but also in utter disbelief that we supposedly civilised humans can do such things to each other, especially our vulnerable young, who rely on our protection.
This boy doesn’t just need the community’s protection, but guidance as well.
So while the boy is accused of having stolen money, his alleged crime is because of a lack of such guidance.
In other words, they punished their own creation for doing exactly what he was taught to do.
The fact that those grown men – three of whom who have since been arrested and charged – took such pleasure in terrorising a defenceless child on camera with gleeful spectators, is something that should strike us all to the very core of our beings.
Both these incidents are only known because someone used their phone to take videos.
Knowing how these things play out in this day and age, it still surprises me that people are prepared to commit such terrible acts while a camera is rolling.
How many children are being brutalised daily in similar ways? It would explain a lot about the state of our moral decay as a society.
As a coping mechanism, these children’s traumas are one day likely to manifest either as wasteful addiction, or as heartless violence against other defenceless people. And then we will again wonder where it all went wrong.
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