A University of Cape Town (UCT) student carried out a survey detailing which race was deemed to be more attractive by students. The results suggested that most students considered white people to be the more attractive race. The results were published in The Varsity News, UCT’s campus newspaper.

The results were published two weeks after Blade Mzimande, Minister of Education and Training set up a committee to assess transformation at tertiary institutions. Amidst a strong backlash, Varsity News was forced to apologise for publishing the results of the survey in an article titled, “Is love colour-blind?” The UCT Student Representative Council, SASCO and the Young Communist League aired their anger on socila media.

The Young Communist League said they would report the publication to the Human Rights Commission, while demanding the article be retracted with a full apology.

The article was written by Qamran Tabo who interviewed 60 students illustrated the article with the use of a pie chart. Accroding to the chart 38% said they considered white people more attractive, with coloured people coming in second with 19%. 14% found Indians the most attractive and 8% found black people the most attractive. Tabo wrote:

In total I surveyed 60 people, 10 from each of the following racial groups: white, coloured (culturally), Indian, East Asian, biracial and African.

Mangaliso Khom, chariman of the UCT branch of the Young Communist League said that race relations on campus were “a work in progress” and the publication of the results yielded from the survey were insensitive.

But according to the Alexandra Nagel, editor-in-chief of the Varsity News the article was a commentary on how race affects social structure in the post-apartheid era. Nagel said:

It was an opinion piece and was taken out of context, Varsity News is a space for people to discuss issues and society. Many students at the university have received the article negatively and feel attacked and offended.

The publication later issued a statement in which they apologised if the article offended anybody.

[Source: TimesLIVE, News24]