Comments on: Who’s who in the non-white Web 2.0 South African Zoo

By: South Africa, Ra..

South Africa, Ra.. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:19:14 +0000

[...] journalist, recently wrote an article for ITWeb, a South African news technology site titled who`s who in the web 2.0 zoo. The post was about South African innovators, complete with a short summary and a description of [...]

By: Excuse Me! Where..

Excuse Me! Where.. — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:42:21 +0000

[...] would not have been a story, had it no been that a certain guy Ramon Thomas wrote a post calling her article insensitive. He found it such because she called South African [...]

By: South Africa’s..

South Africa’s.. — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:10:36 +0000

[...] from celebration of those social media types mentioned in the story to anger from Ramon Thomas who compiled his own list because he believe Mandy’s list was “lazy journalism” without any non-whites and frustration [...]

By: The Not-So Inclu..

The Not-So Inclu.. — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:01:25 +0000

[...] thing she forgot to include was an ample supply of melanin. Ever observant, Ramon Thomas rebutted with this post that cited a number of web professionals, all of whom weren’t Caucasian. This also sparked it’s [...]

By: ExMi

ExMi — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:18:10 +0000

I’d also highly recommend Saaleha Bamjee-Mayet.

She writes at http://www.saaleha.com and http://www.electricspaghetti.blogspot.com

she’s and amazingly talented Muslim woman. Powerful and poetic.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:50:10 +0000

seems for all the posturing, racial discrimination isn’t dead. That you felt you needed to write this because the initial article mentioned some people and none of them happened to be of colour is sad. I’m glad you’ve highlighted people who are at the forefront of IT and social media in South Africa, the same as the other list. The difference is Mandy, although she could be accused of laziness, was at least apologetic for the ‘white’ list. She didn’t populate it, she asked a select group of people who gave their list.

What you’ve done is emphasize the divide by purposely putting out a list of non-white experts. Your’s, unfortunately, smacks more of racism than hers does. but maybe that’s the point.

I don’t see why we can’t be valued for our content and skills regardless of colour or race. This is the internet – by its very nature, it’s without boundaries or borders (barring maybe china, and a few other segregated areas). To bring our racism to this medium is both backwards-facing and counter-productive, and does nothing to promote one nation, one people working together regardless of race, et al (although mindful of culture, I presume).

By: Ramon Thomas

Ramon Thomas — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:56:11 +0000

Thanks for the reminder Rory because there are indeed some influential bloggers who do NOT blog about technology and I will post a revised version of this article shortly.

By: Rory Williams

Rory Williams — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:53:10 +0000

Well OK, I guess the point of the article is that there is lack of racial diversity in the high-profile list of “usual suspects” blogging in South Africa. But it intrigues me that nobody questions the focus on people who blog about the web and IT. Why are these people the ones who are considered influential? Would we put Telkom technicians up on a pedestal and talk about what they’ve done for telecommunications, and quote them ad nauseum just because they have something to say about their particular medium?

I applaud the attempt to raise awareness of the fact that there is greater diversity out there than some commentators would have us believe, but this post is still perpetuating the myth that life is all about technology. And yes, I understand that that’s the focus of this site, but that doesn’t excuse the misplaced sense that the “important bloggers” are the ones who write about SEO and Web 2.0. Time to move beyond talking about the medium and start focusing on real content.

I am not knocking these individuals. I have met Rafiq, and he seems a terrific guy — humble and happy to engage with non-tech bloggers — and the others are probably the same. But how about people who deliver “the news” that has nothing to do with the medium? They deserve some profile. And I wouldn’t be surprised to find that they are a diverse bunch too. They just haven’t been “discovered” by the inner circle.

By: El Oso » A..

El Oso » A.. — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 09:21:28 +0000

[...] The first step for any White South African bloggers reading this post (or anyone else for that matter) is to subscribe to the feeds of all the bloggers featured by Ramon Thomas in “Who’s who in the non-white Web 2.0 South African Zoo“. [...]

By: Maslow’s h..

Maslow’s h.. — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:18:08 +0000

[...] figures in the South African blogosphere and almost all of them turned out to be white. One coloured blogger quickly reacted with a counter-list of non-white South African “Web 2.0″… and his post was severely criticized by many on the “white list” as being divisive and [...]