Huffpost editor argues white men shouldn't vote and lose all their stuff.
Two weeks ago, a solution to global inequality was proposed in the site's opinion section: Ban white men from voting.Not just in South Africa, but everywhere.
Not forever. For a generation or so, a “philosophy student” wrote for the site — until the rest of the world could seize white men's assets and “equitably distribute them to those who need them.”
The article went viral and drew widespread accusations of racism. But HuffPost South Africa's editor in chief defended the piece and its “blindingly obvious” arguments.
Until last week, when the article's author was revealed to be not a female philosophy student, but a man in a wig — a hoaxer who said he never expected HuffPost (formerly known as the Huffington Post) to publish his intentionally outrageous submission.
But since it did — and even defended the piece — South Africa's media regulator accused HuffPost of publishing hate speech last week, prompting its regional editor in chief to resign over what began as an elaborate gag.“Could It Be Time To Deny White Men The Franchise?” (since deleted and archived) appeared below a photo of a woman dubbed “Shelley Garland,” whom a HuffPost editor later defended as “an activist and feminist” before discovering that she did not exist.
*snip*
Pillay chided her readers, telling them to think more carefully about the article. Garland's critique of white male wealth and power was “pretty standard for feminist theory,” Pillay wrote.
“Those who have held undue power granted to them by patriarchy must lose it for us to be truly equal. This seems blindingly obvious to us.”
But it was not obvious to everyone, including the real author of “Could It Be Time To Deny White Men The Franchise?” — who HuffPost now says is a 37-year-old man named Marius Roodt.
Hilarious.