So these past few days have seen another ‘blackface’ incident at Stellies, although it stands alone as the incident that has most divided opinion.

Let’s just start from the beginning with this one and rehash what we wrote yesterday in the interest of clarity.

Here is the picture that caused all the uproar:

Then this photo quickly began to circulate showing one of the girls in a slightly different light:

Yes, those are tinfoil antennae on her head. The outfit for the space-themed party they attended also included tinfoil shoes and glitter.

Now in the midst of all of this Open Stellenbosch issued a strongly worded statement calling for the girls to be expelled for their antics. Here’s their ‘About’ bio from their official Facebook page:

A collective of students and staff working to purge the oppressive remnants of apartheid in pursuit of a truly African university.

Once it became clear that they may have over-reacted somewhat they issued the apology below on February 8:

The thing is they then had a dramatic change of heart, deleting that apology you see above and releasing another statement calling for the expulsion of Poekie and her mate. Here’s that statement in full with the highlighted sections below done ourselves:

OPEN STELLENBOSCH STATEMENT ON THE BLACKFACE DEVELOPMENTS.

A blackface incident ‘rocked our campus’ on Friday which angered and painfully touched a lot of black people and students on campus. In the midst of the outrage that was displayed at the meeting held at Heemstede residence, with the presence of university management who facilitated discussions of the incident, it was the general consensus of students and the university that this was in fact a blackface incident. Since the release of the first statement on Saturday 6 February, however, new information has surfaced that challenged our understanding of the “blackface” incident and created confusion. In response to this new information an apology was quickly released yesterday, 8 February, in a rush to reconcile our understanding with that information.

This apology was however issued without the consensus of the collective and should not be considered to be the current stance of OS on the “blackface” incident. We recognise that the incident is now not generally considered (by the media and the white hegemonic institution that is Stellenbosch University community) to be blackface. We as OS maintain that the fact that the student filtered the photo to appear black and then knowingly continued to upload the photo herself onto social media clearly confirms that this is a blackface incident. Hence we retain our stance calling on Stellenbosch University to put an end to blackfacing and to expel the two students involved in this incident with immediate effect, and to remove the residence head and committee which allowed this incident to take place under their watch.

It is important to consider that this incident took place in the context of the current racial tensions in the country, Stellenbosch University racist dynamics and previous blackface incident of 2014. So even if the colour of the paint was indeed purple at the time the picture was taken, it would be naive for a white student to upload such a picture without reasonably foreseeing the possibility of it being perceived as blackface. Moreover, it is also difficult to imagine any South African to be so ignorant of the effects of colonization, apartheid and their legacies and how they continue to determine the ‘black condition’ of the majority of black South Africans.

Black facing speaks to all the racist persecutions committed against black people across the whole of our country, continent and the world. It is about the land taken away from us, generations of lives and livelihoods that were lost to racism. And more importantly, to the current socioeconomic status of the black majority in this country.

In light of this, the fact that people went to great lengths to technically dismiss the incident as not blackface shows the extent to which white privilege is still powerful in this country. The argument from white people that says “this time around I didn’t cross the line, I just stepped on it so what’s the fuss” is revealing of this problem. It is unbelievable that 22 years after apartheid, beneficiaries of the system are comfortable enough to take racism so light that they are okay with stepping on the ‘line’ every now and then.

Black students at Stellenbosch University constantly have to navigate racism, this is despite the fact that no white South African to date would admit to be racist. So it is important for us to really consider how painful a blackface is to someone who live both structural and covert racism on a daily basis if we are truly concerned about fairness. And it is important that we engage from a perspective that has the eradication of racism as its point of departure.

Blackface is bad, very bad, and if we never see another incident of it in this country it will be too soon. But here’s a thought – just how strictly are we policing what those attending university can reasonably do without the threat of expulsion?

Is misusing an Instagram filter grounds for expulsion from a tertiary institution?

And come now Open Stellenbosch, you’ve put forward a number of sound arguments to do with the issue of racism and then you do this?

It’s all gone mad, it’s out of control and it’s tiring.