SAHRC hears there's no racism within adverting industry
There is no racism in the South African adverting industry, according to the Institute of Race Relations.
Head of Campaigns Gabriel Crouse has been testifying at the South African Human Rights Commission inquiry into alleged racism in the advertising industry.
He's been taking a close look at five advertisements from 2014, brought to the commission as examples of allegedly racist advertising.
He says few of them have evoked criticism and controversy.
READ: Racists must be punished, Ndlozi tells SAHRC
"The terms of reference of the commission's inquiry only include five impugned adverts out of potentially 80 million flighted ads in that period.
"As far as I can tell even if all five of them were racist, this would be to say it's a very small problem comparing five to 80 million, but since the equality court found that the TRESemmé Clicks hair ad exculpated that advert, it seems all of the other ads should have a similar finding, which is that they are not racist."
Anti-racism activist Zulaikha Patel told the HRC this week that the hair ad, which labelled black people's hair as "dry, damaged, frizzy and dull" and white people's hair as "normal" was another example of an advert dehumanising black people.
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