Whiteness is a swear-word, proclaims Zille

Following a morning of arguing with actor Hlomla Dandala about white privilege and black privilege, outgoing Western Cape premier Helen Zille has set her sights on Thuli Mandosela after the latter tried to get the former to see the error of her ways.

Dear @ThuliMadonsela The era to which you refer, has ended. 2day "whiteness" is a swear-word used to stigmatise and marginalise. I thought our struggle was to judge each INDIVIDUAL on their merits irrespective of race. I will not replace one form of racism with another. Sorry.

— Helen Zille (@helenzille) May 17, 2019

Zille has been tweeting non-stop with those who have engaged her on the divisive content of her tweets and has made a number of proclamations along the way.

Chief among her claims lies the assertion that there is a stigmatization of the term whiteness.

Amazing. People can run around all day making the most outrageous racial generalisations about a tiny minority in this country by stigmatising "whiteness", and the sky fall in when you give them a taste of their own medicine. I am not doing double standards anymore.

— Helen Zille (@helenzille) May 17, 2019

Just ask yourself . How are phrases like "whiteness" and "white privilege" used? In a nuanced way? My point was to show what an outrageous, blunt instrument terms like "white privilege" and "black privilege" and other racial generalisations are. Now wake up and grow up.

— Helen Zille (@helenzille) May 17, 2019

Racism is also legitimised by the use of phrases such as "white privilege". Whites are a tiny minority in SA and they are the target of more and more race baiting every day.

— Helen Zille (@helenzille) May 17, 2019

Please all watch this. I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it. @ThuliMadonsela3 https://t.co/KcUt4Qjs4T

— Helen Zille (@helenzille) May 17, 2019

She concluded by refusing to give in to Madonsela’s demand for an apology.

I will not apologise for rejecting racism and double standards. But I will reflect long and hard about how to keep exposing them.

— Helen Zille (@helenzille) May 17, 2019

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