HuffPo editor resigns, keeps digging

Fausta Rodriguez Wertz
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HuffPo editor resigns, keeps digging

Remem­ber the HuffPo arti­cle ask­ing that men be denied the right to vote? Not all men, only white men, and not for­ever, just for twenty years?

Yeah, the arti­cle sup­pos­edly writ­ten by the female phi­los­o­phy student?

That article.

Well, the writer was not a female named Shelly Gar­land but a guy named Mar­ius Roodt, who suc­ceeded in out­ing the HuffPo’s polit­i­cal bias. I cer­tainly was out­raged at the pro­posal, but thought that sort of asinin­ity is almost in keep­ing with the HuffPo daily fare.

As it turns out,

The CEO of Media24, which oper­ates Huff­Post in South Africa, issued a state­ment call­ing the article’s pub­li­ca­tion “hugely dam­ag­ing” to their reputation.

Back at the farm they call that “clos­ing the barn door after the horse ran away,” espe­cially since it took some doing from an out­side ombudsman:

South African press ombuds­man Johan Retief found that the con­tro­ver­sial blog post was both dis­crim­i­na­tory and con­sti­tuted hate speech.

Verashni Pil­lay, the edi­tor who first approved the arti­cle, resigned but (oh yes, but) in a post where she bemoaned “our lack of racial heal­ing,” she declared,

Despite the pres­sure for me to recant my thoughts in my ini­tial response I can­not, authen­ti­cally, do that.

I still believe that despite the gains for equal­ity and uni­ver­sal human rights in the last cen­tury, the fact is that white men still enjoy dis­pro­por­tion­ate power. And yes, I believe that a loss of oppres­sive power is nec­es­sary to cre­ate a truly level play­ing field.

This will come about through

more hon­est, inclu­sive con­ver­sa­tions, fewer accu­sa­tions and grow­ing sus­pi­cion of each other and even­tual, authen­tic healing.

Because noth­ing leads to “hon­est, inclu­sive con­ver­sa­tions” that reduce sus­pi­cion which bring about “authen­tic heal­ing” like deny­ing men of any race their unalien­able rights to vote, to own prop­erty, to legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion and to any­thing that Marx­ists don’t agree with.

In other words, stan­dard fem­i­nist theory’s idea of “authen­tic healing.”

$5 says Ms Pil­lay lands a better-​paying job at a lib­eral entity before the month is over.

Fausta Rodríguez Wertz writes in U. S. and Latin Amer­ica at Fausta’s blog.

Remember the  HuffPo article asking that men be denied the right to vote? Not all men, only white men, and not forever, just for twenty years?

Yeah, the article supposedly written by the female philosophy student?

That article.

Well, the writer was not a female named Shelly Garland but a guy named Marius Roodt, who succeeded in outing the HuffPo’s political bias. I certainly was outraged at the proposal, but thought that sort of asininity is almost in keeping with the HuffPo daily fare.

As it turns out,

The CEO of Media24, which operates HuffPost in South Africa, issued a statement calling the article’s publication “hugely damaging” to their reputation.

Back at the farm they call that “closing the barn door after the horse ran away,” especially since it took some doing from an outside ombudsman:

South African press ombudsman Johan Retief found that the controversial blog post was both discriminatory and constituted hate speech.

Verashni Pillay, the editor who first approved the article,  resigned but (oh yes, but) in a post where she bemoaned “our lack of racial healing,” she declared,

Despite the pressure for me to recant my thoughts in my initial response I cannot, authentically, do that.

I still believe that despite the gains for equality and universal human rights in the last century, the fact is that white men still enjoy disproportionate power. And yes, I believe that a loss of oppressive power is necessary to create a truly level playing field.

This will come about through

more honest, inclusive conversations, fewer accusations and growing suspicion of each other and eventual, authentic healing.

Because nothing leads to “honest, inclusive conversations” that reduce suspicion which bring about “authentic healing” like denying men of any race their unalienable rights to vote, to own property, to legal representation and to anything that Marxists don’t agree with.

In other words, standard feminist theory’s idea of “authentic healing.”

$5 says Ms Pillay lands a better-paying job at a liberal entity before the month is over.

Fausta Rodríguez Wertz writes in U. S. and Latin America at Fausta’s blog.