Another racism storm on Twitter

Published May 9, 2014

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Johannesburg - Twitter has unearthed yet another racist, with a tweet by Warren Blakeman triggering negative responses.

The Durbanite’s tweet equated the ANC to monkeys and advised people to vote for the DA.

“Vote DA. That’s it… simple… unless you enjoy living in a country run by corrupt monkeys. It’s sad that we still see monkeys voting for monkeys,” he tweeted.

Local rapper AKA, who has about 250 000 followers, brought attention to the racist tweet on Wednesday night, and soon Warren Blakeman was trending.

AKA tweeted Reebok SA, the company listed in Blakeman’s employment information, and asked them to account for their employee’s behaviour.

Reebok responded swiftly and said: “Warren Blakeman has not been employed at Reebok for the last 6 months. We view his statements in bad taste.”

The company responded to each tweet received regarding Blakeman, further distancing themselves.

This response was received well by tweeters such as Thamie (@thamieza), who said: “I see @reeboksa doesn’t want to be associated with bigots and racists, any response from the DA or any of its leaders yet? #WarrenBlakeman.”

The racist tweet by Blakeman, who even changed his Twitter biography following the attention he received over his tweet, wasn’t the only one.

“Every time a white dude mentions the word monkey in a sentence black people go bananas. I’m not a racist. And I have black pals,” he wrote.

Another racist tweet he posted on Thursday said: “I don’t f**k black monkeys. It disturbs me when they see hotness in me.”

Blakeman’s Facebook page, which contains similar racist remarks, was deleted, and there was confusion as to whether the tweets he sent on Thursday were from his original account or another one created after it was suspended.

Blakeman attended Westville Boys High, which made news last year for portraying ANC leaders in an unflattering manner in its matric art exhibition.

Attempts to contact him have been unsuccessful.

However, he tweeted: “You people won’t leave me alone. You even called me all night, and I had to switch off my phone. Just back off.”

Some people on Twitter, like Refiloe Ramogase (@refiloer), alerted the South African Human Rights Commission, saying: “Dear @SAHRCommission pls note hate speech from this @reeboksa employee Warren Blakeman. Please address.”

Similar cases to Blakeman’s involved Viviene Basson, who was fired from her job for a racist comment on social media, and another involving Justine Stacco, who was also fired for a racist, Aids-related tweet.

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