Smashing the labels of division
JOBURG -– Stereotypes of whatever form could soon be a thing of the past.
The days for stereotypes such as ‘inkonkoni’ for the gays, ‘iswafi’ for the Albinos and ‘makwerekwere’ for foreign nationals could soon be numbered if the launch of Castle Lager’s #SmashTheLabel revolution takes off.
The campaign to smash the stereotypes was launched at Johannesburg’s Constitution Hill in Braamfontein, whose construction and development happens to share a birth with the founding of a popular South African beer, Castle Lager.
Development around the Constitution Hill commenced in 1893 and lasted until 1896 while Charles Glass founded Castle Lager, a beer brewed from only South African ingredients, in 1895, which is a birthday described as smacking of an amazing synergy between the country’s two most important iconic institutions.
Speaking at the launch, Vaughan Croeser, brand director of Castle Lager, said the idea of smashing the stereotypes was an ideal campaign “I personally feel deeply attached to and something I will fight for, something I will strive towards its achievement.
“Just imagine a South Africa without all these labels that we attach to one another day-in and day-out. It would be an ideal country [that] I would want my kids to grow old in.
“We continue to call each other names and these stereotypes then become the biggest inhibitors of our noble programme of social cohesion as enunciated by Tata Madiba,” Croeser said at the launch packed with media personalities and celebrities.
South Africa’s wheelchair tennis ace Kgothatso Montjane, better known as KG, said growing up with a disability meant she was labelled with all sorts of stereotypes but ‘here I am today, smashing labels on my road to success as a wheelchair tennis superstar’.
Boitumelo Mainganya, better known as ‘Gaddafi de Poet’ and living with Albinism, said, “I grew up with the fear of venturing into the streets and not knowing when someone will kidnap me to make money from my body parts that have suddenly become pricey.”
Former South African Human Rights Commissioner Lindiwe Mokate said labelling in ‘our society seems to be getting worse as more and more labels are coming up than before’.
“But I am happy we have started the conversation [of smashing the labels] which I hope will ignite into a full-blown wildfire that will destroy the stereotypes that keep us apart and spark a social revolution that would smash all these labels.”
Mokate cautioned against people clutching hard onto their handbags because somebody shabbily dressed was coming towards them, not aware that he may not be coming to snatch their handbag but that something unknown was happening in that person’s life.
She emphasised that social inclusion was about being part of [something], having a contribution to make, feeling there was something for you and trusting in the society, the people you live with, the community and that you can better your life in the process.
