How quickly we jump to conclusions these days! And how quickly we make the worst possible assumptions about our fellow man.
And, most importantly, how quickly we jump onto social media to complain and let everybody know how horribly disgusted and offended we are.
These days the first port of call for just about anything seems to be Facebook and Twitter.
People run to social media before even checking the facts or attempting to do anything about it.
It’s called slacktivism and it’s really starting to work on my nerves.
The latest example is of the Eastern Cape farmer who got some ugly death threats after someone posted a picture of him giving a young woman a lift.
Problem was, she was sitting inside a cage on the back of his bakkie.
Now, I can understand how this may have looked and how it may have infuriated the person who took the picture.
So much so that they promptly went onto Facebook and posted a message about it.
Of course, others went bos and expressed their immediate disgust and condemnation.
I find it laughable, especially the fact that the person who took the pic didn’t make any effort to find out the real story behind what she had seen.
She didn’t stop the farmer to ask why he was doing such a “despicable” thing to another human being.
She didn’t rally her friends around to track the man down and ask some direct questions about his “racist” and “degrading” action. No, instead, she grabbed her computer mouse and angrily typed on her keyboard, as if that was going to change the “plight” of the woman in the cage.
Fortunately it turned out to have been another case of jumping to conclusions.
Because it was a hot day, the woman – Linda Steenekamp from Cradock in the Eastern Cape – had chosen to sit on the back of the bakkie, after the farmer Johan Erasmus offered her the lift.
The cage is, in fact, a pen used to transport livestock, and because there was limited space on the back, she chose to sit inside the cage.
It’s an unlikely story, but it does kinda make sense.
Had our slacktivist bothered to find out more, she would have discovered the innocence of the situation, and in that way avoided the nastiness that followed.
Often, things are not always as they appear to be.
But there is something to be said for how the story played out.
Johan was on radio explaining how confused he was over the outrage, since he was doing a good deed, by giving someone a lift.
In fact, he sounded a bit aggrieved by how he had gone from good Samaritan to racist villain.
There’s a lot to be said for that kind of ignorance; his complete and utter obliviousness to why the image would cause such outrage.
He clearly doesn’t understand how the sight of the white baas riding in comfort in front, while a Black worker is on the back, is too much of a reminder of a bitter past.
Add insult to injury by putting that Black person inside a cage, and the brutality of our past comes flooding back to haunt us.
So Johan needs to brush up on his sense of empathy and social consciousness.
Then there’s the video that was made in support of Johan, where Linda is asked to tell die regte storie.
That video is extremely difficult to watch and makes me very uneasy, because of how intimidated Linda looks.
The woman with her hand on Linda’s shoulder dominates in every sense and it doesn’t help that – while fidgeting uncomfortably – Linda uses the word “ baas” and the woman refers to “die meneer” every now and again.
While I have no doubt that Johan was genuine in offering Linda a lift, the whole experience does highlight the very subtle ignorance and sad disregard that’s hurtful at best and that borders on racism at worse.
But hopefully it also says that we shouldn’t be so quick to assume and allow our social media to judge situations that are best dealt with face to face.