Why are people shocked at racist comment?

SO another racist social media comment has sparked outrage on social media. A young man said he was never more proud to say that: “….our black South African government are a bunch of K*****s…”

Now one would think that after the Penny Sparrow debacle, nobody would dare say something like that, let alone on a social media platform, but this guy, Matthew Theunissen, did.

Here’s what gets me though: why are people shocked? I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again, thousands of racists live and breathe among us, some just get caught. People need an education on what racism is, because some truly don’t know, but some, like Theunissen, simply don’t care. But if you don’t know, just ask for example, “If I say I have many black friends and in the next breath say I would kill my daughter if she brings a black boy home, am I being racist?”

And yes, some people would argue that they are not being racist. Like I read a tweet this morning where the person said they cannot wait to hear Matthew Theunissen’s apology – me too, I can’t wait. I bet its going to go along the lines of, “If I offended anybody, I am sorry, its just that the move by Fikile Mbalula made me so angry. I have so many black friends, I even drop our domestic worker off in the township sometimes…blah blah blah fishpaste.”

Matthew Theunissen’s comment is obviously racist, but perhaps there are many people out there who truly don’t know when they are being racist, should just ask.