Does the Nazi salute have a 'fun side'?

by Lusanda Bill
28 July 2011

The breakfast team of TUKs FM, the University of Pretoria's campus radio station, published a controversial blog post yesterday urging everyone to "do the Nazi".

The blog post defines the "Nazi" as the "act of displaying oneself in random places in a standing position while your right hand is in the air and your left hand makes a fake moustache".

The post was also accompanied by several images of students and Adolf Hitler doing the Nazi salute.

The post has since been removed by the station. Bush Radio Programme Integrator Adrian Louw took a screenshot, which was viewed 580 times.

Social networking sites have been abuzz since yesterday. Several comments to the screenshot were posted by Twitter users.

@blindcripple: " f*****s at TUKs FM were trying to be funny."

@Simonebiz: "That's seriously tasteless and offensive, what were they thinking"

@StephanieBe: "The DJ @ Tuks FM should be punished and a public apology should be issued.

@HagenEngler: " Nazism: The fun side? A hack? Or a super K*K idea?

Comments on Facebook:

"What goes on in these people's minds?????? Nazi'ing?????? Are they on crack? This coupled with the constant racist comments on sites like News 24 makes me wonder what South Africans are really like deep down? I just don't get it," said Bronwen Heather

David 'Jazz' Tyhala said: "I think that is so flipping shallow altho its a sort of a joke or marketing scheme to promote the web page, I think reverting back to racists politicians is not the way to portray your humour in this day n age of society, we hav enuf ish to worry abt. I think the students of tuks who are rational in mind should take matters further as this only portrays the ideology of the Nazi right wing movement."

Sean Jacobs, known as DollaBrand on Twitter, sent messages to several mainstream media houses and @City_Press responded by asking him to "get the debate going" by writing a piece about why he thought it wasn't funny.

Franz Kruger, Director of Wits Radio Academy, said if it's true that people have been asked to pose in a Nazi salute, it's inappropriate. He added that it is regrettable that people still need to take that direction in their broadcasting.

Repeated attempts by Bush Radio News to get comment from TUKs FM Station Manager, Loutjie van der Merwe, were unsuccessful.

A staff member at Tuks FM said van der Merwe was "unavailable for comment because he had to attend an unscheduled meeting with the university".

Comments

BlindCripple said…
Is there a fun side? No. Simple. I would likely punch someone if I saw this happening.
Linda said…
Is it wrong when I do a "Black Power" salute?
BlindCripple said…
@Linda - Black Power was generally used as part of a freedom movement. Nazism was used to kill millions. No comparison.

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