‘White customer would throw money in front of my father’, SA pacer Lungi Ngidi opens up about racism
The South African pacer Lungi Ngidi has shared his family’s struggle with the racism. The speedster, who has already won the South Africa’s cricketer of the year award and earned two IPL champions medals in his relatively short career, stated that it was his parents’ experience with racism that opened his eye.
Talking about how his father, a petrol attendant, was treated differently for the colour of his skin, Ngidi said, “My dad was a petrol attendant and a white customer wouldn’t even put the money in his hand. He just threw it on the floor,”
“I don’t think I’ll ever lose that story. It was just so degrading. For my dad to go on in life as if everything’s fine took a lot of courage but this is how they raised me.
The stories they shared were eye-opening and painful to hear, because those scars never really close up.” he further added in the interview with The Guardian.
Despite his parents facing acute the racism, Lungi Ngidi believes that he still does not assume anything about a person, unless they show their racist side to that him.
“My parents grew up in an era where racism was the rife but apartheid was over when I was born. They wanted me to make the most of that new start and they raised me never to judge a book by its cover, and I live by that today.
Until someone shows me that side of themselves, I will never assume that is who they are.”
Ngidi was one of the first voices to speak amongst the South African camp in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis, The USA, two years ago.
At the time, several former South African cricketers had called out Ngidi and tried to silence his voice.
Deciem Founder Responds to Accusations of Racism
Beauty company Deciem is in hot water after their founder and CEO, Brandon Truaxe, took to Instagram under the brand’s account to personally respond to a comment. The Deciem page has become a topic of discussion ever since Brandon began a new approach to social media, using the @Deciem feed to express his personal opinions. Reactions have been mixed, with some fans welcoming his transparency and others expressing concern and confusion over his posts. Recently, things escalated when followers interpreted a @Deciem comment as Brandon telling a commenter to bleach her skin, Affinity reports.
The incident is the latest in a string of controversies surrounding the brand. A few weeks ago, Brandon made what he now refers to as a “distasteful joke” about competitor company Drunk Elephant, saying that “one would have to be drunk to overpay for Marula oil.” On January 28, he issued an apology post to the company and pledged to donate $25,000 to Save the Elephants as a result of the backlash. Since then, Brandon has announced that he has “cancelled all of [their] marketing plans,” discontinued a product line because it was “not working,” and posted company memos in Instagram captions.
As a result, the brand’s followers have begun to comment on the posts in response to Brandon’s takeover. One Instagram user, @supermormongirl, received a @Deciem response to her “Brandon, are you okay??” post. The reply read, “@supermormongirl Yes but you don’t seem so well. Please use Modulating Glucosides when it’s out. Goodbye.”
While the product in question has yet to be released, the publication pointed out that one of the main ingredients was Ascorbyl Glucoside, a melanin inhibitor often used in skin lightening products. Thus, many interpreted Brandon’s comments to be not just a problematic commentary on a commenter’s appearance, but also an offensive suggestion that she bleach her dark skin. Brandon and Deciem have countered this accusation with the claim that the product is meant to treat inflammatory skin, and has nothing to do with skin tone.