Is the Springbok emblem really racist?
In my honest opinion, and I hope you read this Mr Komphela, I have identified one of the biggest racists left in the country.
One Mr Butana Komphela!!!!
In yet another attack on rugby in SA, he wants us to drop the Springbok emblem in search of something else. Go forbid it be a rabid leopard with green spiky hair.
Mr Komphela, have you ever stopped and considered what the Springbok means to any rugby player? Whether they are white or black, or any color in between?
To pull that green and gold jersey over your head and have the Springbok on your chest, is the ultimate goal for any rugby player, regardless of the colour of the player. Now you want to go take that away? Get real. Clean up your own act first.
He further pukes up some drivel about uniting the country under one symbol. The springbok did more for uniting our people last year than any of the other symbols. We won the world cup, and once again you could see everyone celebrating this together, regardless of colour.
Mr Komphela, you made a bold statement there, but in my opinion, the problems in South African soccer are much bigger than your perceived problems in rugby.
Crisis after crisis happens, yet you say nothing, is this because the administrators are the same colour as you? It sure looks that way.
While we're on the subject of soccer. If we did go the route of having one symbol, and that symbol be the protea, as is the standard in most other sports. How many of your soccer "boys", that's the translation I understand of the current team name, are going to be happy to play in a team named after a flower? Should I hazard a guess?
What rugby did right in my eyes, and this is probably where you picked up your issues, because you perceived the transformation to be slow. Rugby slowed their transformation, to developed players of colour with enough skill to stand their ground in the international arena. If we tossed these guys onto the field with a fired-up All Black team before they were ready, we probably would have lost the player to rugby for good, because of some injury. Rugby is a hard game, and if your body is not conditioned to take the knocks, you'll never make it through the first match in one piece. That's reality.
Rugby also had to slow their transformation to keep the team at a level where they would not lose too many supporters. Supporters are the key to any sport, especially if that sport is a business. If you lose to many of them, you may as well close said business, and go back to the club system.
Now Mr Komphela, what have you done recently to aid in the upliftment of previously disadvantaged players? I've only ever heard about you spewing criticism about what's wrong, but I've never seen any news of you taking any action to help the players at the grassroots level get a step up. I'm talking about school players here, in case you missed that.
I do see the current players and administrators of the sport actually jumping in and helping, but you still sit and criticize.
Then you go on to say that the failure of the Shark players to wear "Say no to racism" on their jerseys is blatant racism from their sponsor's side. Get real sir. Have you ever stopped to think that there isn't significant racism problems in their province, and that they therefore have the choice not to make a big issue out of it, because people of all colour may be more upset by seeing that statement, than not seeing it.
I await your reply, but I definitely will not be holding my breath for it.
Comments
My problem is not that the springbok as an emblem gets replaced. My problem here is that it gets done for the wrong reasons. It is time that our politicians stop using the racism card for everything. We\'ve come a long way in the last 14 years, but our politicians, being removed from the day to day lives of this country, have not realised this, they\'re still stuck in the 80\'s and 90\'s fighting their struggle.
It\'s a little deer (the emblem) it did nothing to anyone. I like buck/deer/kudu, they cute, not racist
either way are you saying the emblem should be removed? What reasons would you give for that?
Paralyzer I like your comment.If the Springbok change the Emblem to the one that\'s being used by other big sports... it will symbolise unity in our country...well there is no such thing as unity in this country,is it?
Those who stir the pot only get attention because others react. The ANC\'s official line is that the Springbok is here to stay. Calm down, everyone!
I\'d hate it if they changed the emblem but what different would it really make? I\'m still going to wear my Springbok rugby shirt and I\'m going to continue calling them \'Bokke.
It\'s like Tswane... just another way for our government to waste our money.
Excuse me.....but what the hell does the Springbok have to do with racism or any of that crap that they seem to be throwing into our faces more and more each and every day? If these damn meddling politicians can rather stick to the things they know (or as is the case these days, do not know) then maybe all the negativety can be directed away from our sports men and women and positive things can become of us as a sporting nation
Ah, now that\'s waht I like, some dialogue. I\'m saying that I\'m ok with them changing the emblem if it\'s for the right reasons, and if there\'s hope that the aim could be accomplished.
I don\'t think it\'s for the right reasons, and I seriously doubt if the aim is, unity, could be achieved by doing this.
Rebranding and renaming is a very costly exercise, and I think it should stop now. Period. We can do a lot more with the money, and why destroy our history because you don\'t like it? It happened, few of the people that orchestrated it are still alive, but everyone still has to suffer because the politicians can\'t let go.
Ah, now that\'s waht I like, some dialogue. I\'m saying that I\'m ok with them changing the emblem if it\'s for the right reasons, and if there\'s hope that the aim could be accomplished.
I don\'t think it\'s for the right reasons, and I seriously doubt if the aim is, unity, could be achieved by doing this.
Rebranding and renaming is a very costly exercise, and I think it should stop now. Period. We can do a lot more with the money, and why destroy our history because you don\'t like it? It happened, few of the people that orchestrated it are still alive, but everyone still has to suffer because the politicians can\'t let go.
Nelson Mandela and the Game that changed the nation.Baldy you are right! there is no reason to change the emblem. For starters, it will cost a lot of money, how about the rugby fans, this means new jerseys, and all that! and the SPRINGBOK, there is a meaning, it unites the nation, has a meaning to a rugby player, the fan, now some sick bastard who just woke up on the wrong side of the bed thinks he can change that in a second! hell no! the nation won\'t let him do that.You might remember that there a time this So called komphela hinted that Bafana Bafana should be nationalised, whatever that means, people stood up to him.Leave the sport alone mr komphela, don\'t f**ing politicise, or you will be changing the face of the nation. You are on your own on this.
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baldy this is a very emotive issue for some people.but wouldnt u agree on the basis that the country has adopted a new sporting emblem the protea why should the springbok continue to hold on to the old one? The green and gold will continue to be the green and gold without the springbok emblem.
as for the soccer team,it has adopted the protea emblem as its sporting code.the issue is not about nicknames but the adoption of the mnew emblem.why should rugby be the only sport that compromises on that?