Seeing the world in black and white

August 16th, 2006

This story revolves around a mystery woman called Zeng. And it takes place in an online discussion group. It is a tale of how, even in virtual reality, when we can’t see skin colour or hear accents and everyone can hide behind nicknames, a person’s race can still shape how we view them and what they say.

It happened on moviezone, an internet discussion forum dealing with African film and video. Generally, moviezone runs job and equipment adverts, but now and then it bursts into lively discussion. One such discussion has gripped South African film and television makers in the last few weeks.

A few months ago, someone called Zengiziwe Khuzwayo joined the forum. Zeng, as she signed her missives, described herself in her frequent postings as a black woman with a white mother who had the benefit of a good education. She stirred controversy because she consistently took issue with the coterie of angry black filmmakers who denounced racism in the industry. When this group complained that whites were always telling (or was it appropriating? Or stealing?) black peoples’ stories, Zeng took them on. Where white voices treaded carefully on these sensitive issues, Zeng went in head-first.

Out of the blue, one July day, came a posting pointing out that no-one in the industry knew or had heard of Zeng, that she did not attend industry functions, and that her syntax was, shall we say, very “private school�. “To pretend to be a black woman when you’re actually a white woman. Now that’s heavy stuff. I wonder what a therapist would have to say,� the note concluded, anonymously. Zeng’s black foes had outed her as a fake, or at least that is what they thought.

Another forum member, Derek, hit back: “So in your view it is impossible for a black person to have converging views to a white person. We must always oppose each other, always fight each other.�

Her accuser said it wasn’t what she said or how she said it that convinced him the Zeng was white. It was the fact that nobody every knew or saw this Zeng. “Prove Zeng exists and I will be the first to apologise�.

And then the anger came tumbling out at how they had been misled: “She was that rarity, a black person without race issues, a black person on white peoples’ side in conversations about race … Zeng came across as so educated, so articulate, (that) people commented on how well she spoke.

“Zeng rapidly became the darling of white Liberals who loved her because she said what they really felt. Even better, she said it from the perspective of a black or coloured person … Shame on you for appropriating black identity in order to be a mouthpiece for your own views.�

Zeng hit back: “Is it too much to bear that there can be savvy, critical people with voices out there? Would it be unthinkable that Zeng Khuzwayo is my name … You’ve got a serious case of paranoia and should get it checked out.�

Then Zeng went quiet for a few days. She ignored people giving her their number to phone or offering her jobs to entice her out. She paid no attention to numerous calls for her to clear the air.

This fuelled the discussion. One person said he was disgusted “as I feel her assumed identity has been used as a tool for divisiveness. … Notice who Zeng really took on.�

When one woman jokingly told another to be careful what you say on this forum, “or they will say you do not exist�, it brought a fierce response: “What has happened on this post is very, very problematic. It is deceptive and twisted and just plain effed up. If a black man/woman pretended to be a white woman/man and said that whites’ sense of disenfranchisement was just BS and … would you be as flippant as you are being?�

A “Senor J Onion� wrote: “I don’t understand what the big deal is if Zeng is white/coloured … Surely the ideas you express should be able to stand on their own and should be seen on their merit?�

And another: “What I am seeing on moviezone appears to have the frenzy of a 1950s ‘outing’ of a gay person or the racist ‘outing’ of a ‘nigger lover’.�

Ryan of SkanGaka Publicity expressed some of the visceral anger of the black forum members: “Her fake black identity was a device aimed at muzzling black people, the equivalent of an intellectual Third Force who, whenever she was challenged on the superficiality of her responses, would retreat behind her assumed blackness.

“If we are ever to have open and honest dialogue around issues of race and power in contemporary South Africa, people have to be honest about who they are.�

‘Andile’ was the most vociferous, at least partly because he had suffered a direct tongue-lashing from Zeng when he still thought she was black. “She did not do this (assume the identity of a black woman) to talk truth to power, to subvert and probe …She did it to preserve one of the vilest forms of oppression – white supremacy.�

Zeng reappeared suddenly, saying she had been in Mozambique. The debate, she said, “reads more as a witch-hunt and a virtual lynch-mob.

“In a brown woman who doesn’t fit your most narrowly defined idea of blackness you have found your ‘other’, the one to hurl your hatred at. Isn’t that how the story goes? No one is ever black enough and all whites are evil. How many times in the history of this country hasn’t this story played itself out? Frankly, I see no point in engaging further …�

She still declined to provide evidence of her identity.

Derek from the US sprang to her defence: “That’s the problem with unmoderated forums. People’s true colours show – and you realize that there are loads of rude, uncouth people out there eager to spew their bitterness and hatred.�

But Vikash said honesty was more important. “One of the last things I want to see is ‘politeness’ because civility as we generally understand it usually masks true meaning. This is not the Sunday newspaper. Be as rude as you like.�

You might think that what this really shows us is that film people don’t have enough work to keep them busy. But it also shows how the virtual world allows for a frankness, an ability to confront tough issues, that seldom occurs in the real world. Most interestingly, it showed how even when people can’t see the colour of their interlocutor and are able to hide behind pseudonyms and nicknames, race is still a deeply embedded issue.

As the person who originally ‘outed’ Zeng wrote: “Be real … Did Zeng’s race have any bearing on how you perceived the content of her posts?�

Of course it did, and that was the most sobering part of it. The conversation was virtual, at least some of the characters were virtual, but the angry accusations and counter-accusations of racism were very real.

*To read the full exchange, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/moviezone
*This column first appeared in Business Day, Sept 16, 2006

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Online