Solidarity please take a sit...

Solidarity recently made news about how retail giant Woolworths was sidelining whites by advertising posts for people of colour(apparently this is unfair to white peopple). This unimportant issue of course generated a huge media furore(mostly by facetious tweeters) much to the trade union's dismay. Infuriated by Woolies "sidelining" whitey's, Solidarity along with some fanatics in the social networking world called for the boycott of the retail gaint. This promted the influx of sarcastic tweets ranging from serious right wingers to liberal humourous lefties. The media immediately jumped on the band wagon(I hate cliche's by hey) by inviting the corporations chief executive for radio and television interviews. What priqued my interest about this is that some idiot with access to a computer and internet managed to cause a storm in a tea cup, for something s/he is not interested in anyway. People need to take a chill pill and recognise that people of colour are still largely unemployed in this country. While I will be the first to say that BEE is hugely flawed, it doesn't know mean people who have been sidelined by the aparthied government should not be given preference over their white countrymen. Perspacacious City Press editor is an example that a person of colour can achieve so much when given the chance. In her piece titled the "Woolworths boycott brigade" she details how she sometimes felt inferior to some of her white classmates(confident as she is, i find that hard to believe) in varsity by not answering questions even though she knew the answers. This is an example of how the apartheid government set in motion a system that even today people of colour are still suffering the conseqences. This whole thing is not about the trade union trying to protect the rights of workers but about a few who feel that Woolies is being racist against white people. I say to them before getting their panties in a knot, consider the many others out there who will do anything to work as a cashier, cleaner or even security guard at a large retail store like Woolies. For them its about survival and putting food on the table for a family of five cramped in a shoddy shack in Khayelitsha. Affirmative action is not about discrminitating against white minority(get over yourself) but a policy designed to empower those who were once oppressed because they were not born white. This is not about racial profiling but about correcting the wrongs of the past that have left a huge divide our society. While this is a serious matter that deserves much scutiny, the euphoria this employment equity scenario did have a humorous side. One of my favourite tweets about this whole situation went like this "If white women boycott Woolies, think of all the white men that will starve. This could end badly." This showed that South Africans know when not to take some things seriously because they not worth the energy.