Sometimes social media reveals its ugly side, and you’d think an issue like racism would be a thing of the past in these times. Apparently, according to Kahawa Tungu, one of the managers in a Westlands based telecommunications company was posting racist rants on social media.
So this is a manager from Rapid communications Kenya in Westlands racially abusing guys on fcbk pic.twitter.com/EZQw1HS942
— Private Developer (@AleksGee) June 4, 2015
Brijal Rawal, a manager on Rapid Communications Limited allegedly posted these offensive posts targeting African employees on Facebook. Ms Rawal is said to have used demeaning words in reference to employees calling them “black fat ugly bitch cats” and “fat ass black pig”, and wishing they get robbed. Rapid Communications official Facebook account of the company has not released a statement about the reported incident. She seems to have deleted her Facebook account because it is not being shown in Facebook’s search results. But as the internet never forgets, screenshots were already captured of the incident.
This incident is similar to the infamous story of Justine Sacco, then an employee of a communications firm (ironically), where one tweet she posted went viral due to its insensitivity towards Africans.
This tweet generated a hashtag #HasJustineLanded trended because at the time, she was asleep on an 11 hour flight to South Africa. Funny enough, a certain Twitter user posted a picture of her when she arrived at the airport. That tweet had a crushing domino effect on her life: She was fired from her job, her former work colleagues condemned her, her family in South Africa condemned her actions because it tarnished their name, getting a new job afterwords was difficult because her actions would be discovered if they did a simple background check.
In addition, her former employer released a statement: “This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC. Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.”. That was not the only tweet she posted that was insensitive, her timeline according to this post was riddled with careless tweets which revealed negative opinions on people.
There is an unwritten rule on social media: Someone is always watching you. However “small” your account is, any opinion that is regarded as negative or insensitive will be highlighted and you’ll bear the brunt of the consequences , just like Justine Sacco.
[UPDATE] Rapid Communications have made a statement distancing the company from the individual’s remarks.
We are currently conducting an investigation regarding the racial comments made on Facebook by an employee.
We would like to reassure all our clients that any comments made by an individual employee does not represent the organisation as a whole.
