Richard Branson apologises for photo

12-11-2019 2:29pm #1

I see Richard Branson has apologised for posting a picture that didn't contain any people of colour/ethnic people/non-white *insert-term-that-is-acceptable-this-hour*.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50386594

I see absolutely no reason for an apology. Am I wrong?

Overheal · 12-11-2019 2:34pm

OP how familiar are you with South Africa

HorrorScope · 12-11-2019 2:34pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I see Richard Branson has apologised for posting a picture that didn't contain any people of colour/ethnic people/non-white *insert-term-that-is-acceptable-this-hour*.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50386594

I see absolutely no reason for an apology. Am I wrong?

He has no reason to apologise, I don't see why there needs to be token diversity in every little thing nowadays.

This quote was interesting though:

One of the critics is South African fashion designer Thula Sindi, who says: "Where did you find so many white people in South Africa?"

Is that OK in the new PC world? What do you think the reaction would be if "white" was replaced with "black" in that question??

12-11-2019 2:35pm

Overheal wrote: »

OP how familiar are you with South Africa

I would say I know quite a bit.

Anyway, please tell me why you feel he should apologise (if that's how you feel).

12-11-2019 2:38pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I would say I know quite a bit.

Anyway, please tell me why you feel he should apologise (if that's how you feel).

I think he means that SA has become rather racist against white people in the last few years. Everything has to be very "black" if it wishes to be accepted.

Overheal · 12-11-2019 2:39pm

If he wants to apologize then good for him. It did certainly give off the impression Branson had hand selected a whitewashed team for his venture in SA - which historically in SA is a bit of a problem, to say the least.

I’m not the people he is apologizing to or the market he now finds himself in so I don’t really have the good sense to say whether the apology is warranted or not.

sbsquarepants · 12-11-2019 2:40pm

What a steaming pile of shíte. What is he supposed to do have a racially diverse entourage travel with him just in case someone takes a photo. Absolute nonsense.

12-11-2019 2:40pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I think he means that SA has become rather racist against white people in the last few years. Everything has to be very "black" if it wishes to be accepted.

I doubt very much that is what he meant. Wait and see.

**EDIT** didn't take long

If he wants to apologize then good for him. It did certainly give off the impression Branson had hand selected a whitewashed team for his venture in SA - which historically in SA is a bit of a problem, to say the least.

I’m not the people he is apologizing to or the market he now finds himself in so I don’t really have the good sense to say whether the apology is warranted or not.

yeah didn't think so.

Overheal · 12-11-2019 2:41pm

sbsquarepants wrote: »

What a steaming pile of shíte. What is he supposed to do have a racially diverse entourage travel with him just in case someone takes a photo. Absolute nonsense.

Branson chose the photo, and tweeted it himself?

riffmongous · 12-11-2019 2:44pm

HorrorScope wrote: »

He has no reason to apologise, I don't see why there needs to be token diversity in every little thing nowadays.

This quote was interesting though:

Is that OK in the new PC world? What do you think the reaction would be if "white" was replaced with "black" in that question??

Token diversity in a country where 80% of the population are black? Gimme a break

HorrorScope · 12-11-2019 2:47pm

riffmongous wrote: »

Token diversity in a country where 80% of the population are black? Gimme a break

Maybe that's the group he traveled over with??

If you and your white colleagues went on a business trip to Africa lets say, would you all be "wacists" for not pulling in a token black man to join the photo? Even though he is completely unrelated to your trip??

12-11-2019 2:48pm

riffmongous wrote: »

Token diversity in a country where 80% of the population are black? Gimme a break

You are right, there should be 8 black people in every photo that contains 10 people.

If there are ten white people and they took a nice photo, why the hell should you be worried about tweeting it out? I would argue it would be more racist to think "****, need a few black people here to show I am not a racist"

That's pretty much textbook tokenism

Duane Dibbley · 12-11-2019 2:49pm

Its funny that white people are no longer allowed to take a photo together.

sbsquarepants · 12-11-2019 2:49pm

Overheal wrote: »

Branson chose the photo, and tweeted it himself?

And?

You do realise that just because 80% of the population are black doesn't mean that 80% of all people photographed will be black don't you.

80% of our population are white and Irish, but i'm sitting here with 2 Pakistanis a Brit and a Brazillian! If someone took a photo it wouldn't require an apology!

IAMAMORON · 12-11-2019 2:51pm

Great brand exposure all the same. I look forward to the introduction of Virgin Media products to the townships in January.

Overheal · 12-11-2019 2:52pm

HorrorScope wrote: »

Maybe that's the group he traveled over with??

If you and your white colleagues went on a business trip to Africa lets say, would you all be "wacists" for not pulling in a token black man to join the photo? Even though he is completely unrelated to your trip??

I mean let’s put this in its context: the photo was Bransons announcement about the launch of his SA Entrepreneurship center. It wasn’t some run of the mill business trip where him and his staff just got swept up for selfies.

osarusan · 12-11-2019 2:53pm

Surprised that such a reaction didn't cross his mind or the mind of his media staff before tweeting it.

Overheal · 12-11-2019 2:54pm

sbsquarepants wrote: »

And?

You do realise that just because 80% of the population are black doesn't mean that 80% of all people photographed will be black don't you.

80% of our population are white and Irish, but i'm sitting here with 2 Pakistanis a Brit and a Brazillian! If someone took a photo it wouldn't require an apology!

Still missing the point. Willfully at that it seems.

12-11-2019 2:55pm

Overheal wrote: »

I mean let’s put this in its context: the photo was Bransons announcement about the launch of his SA Entrepreneurship center. It wasn’t some run of the mill business trip where him and his staff just got swept up for selfies.

Lets put this into context: It was a photo taken that had nine smiling people.

Do you think it is wrong that he felt the need to apologise because he didn't have any black people in his photo?

Do you think that if there was a photo of 9 black people, he would feel the need to apologise?

Honestly.

12-11-2019 2:55pm

IAMAMORON wrote: »

Great brand exposure all the same. I look forward to the introduction of Virgin Media products to the townships in January.

He'll probably need to change the name due to slut shaming

riffmongous · 12-11-2019 2:57pm

Deleted User wrote: »

You are right, there should be 8 black people in every photo that contains 10 people.

If there are ten white people and they took a nice photo, why the hell should you be worried about tweeting it out? I would argue it would be more racist to think "****, need a few black people here to show I am not a racist"

That's pretty much textbook tokenism

Don't give me that simplistic crap about 8 out of 10, no one is saying anything like that.

Point is if you are launching a service in a country where the 80% majority have suffered huge oppression and now you pick a photo to represent yourself that has not a single one of those people in it, you're a stupid eejit who needs to apologise.

HorrorScope · 12-11-2019 2:58pm

osarusan wrote: »

Surprised that such a reaction didn't cross his mind or the mind of his media staff before tweeting it.

Maybe he's like most normal people that couldn't give less of a **** about the "woke" optics of taking a simple ****ing photograph?? Just another one of those cases where the virtue signalers are getting their backs up over trivial nonsense.

Overheal · 12-11-2019 2:59pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Lets put this into context: It was a photo taken that had nine smiling people.

Do you think it is wrong that he felt the need to apologise because he didn't have any black people in his photo?

Do you think that if there was a photo of 9 black people, he would feel the need to apologise?

Honestly.

As I said previously I am in no position to judge Branson for feeling personally his need to apologize.

I think a blind man can see why he stepped on his own feet with that announcement/tweet though. I certainly question his judgement to not have non-white South Africans on his - by appearance - leadership team for his new South African center. Certainly leaves a gap in the center’s leadership in a country which we’ve loosely stated is 4/5ths black, with incredibly violent historic tensions between the two groups.

punisher5112 · 12-11-2019 3:00pm

Absolutely sick of all this pure load of b0llox.....

Who gives a fluck we are all human, we all breath, bleed and die so what's with everything been racist ....

Some of the most racist people I've come across are blacks....

I suppose soon black will oy be a word they can use and why do they constantly use the n word all the time especially likes of rappers and gangsters etc and then they are offended?

I would never say it or have I ever but I've still had to listen to your a racist etc load of crap and far from it.

I have foreign friends and some are black and I work with a good few too.

Like anything there are good and bad in all walks of life and just because of skin colour that's no different.

riffmongous · 12-11-2019 3:01pm

HorrorScope wrote: »

Maybe that's the group he traveled over with??

If you and your white colleagues went on a business trip to Africa lets say, would you all be "wacists" for not pulling in a token black man to join the photo? Even though he is completely unrelated to your trip??

Except we know that's not the case, there are other photos with black people in them. He apologised because this photo was the launch photo, the single photo they picked out of all the photos

Grow up with that wacist crap and try reading the article maybe

riffmongous · 12-11-2019 3:03pm

punisher5112 wrote: »

Absolutely sick of all this pure load of b0llox.....

Who gives a fluck we are all human, we all breath, bleed and die so what's with everything been racist ....

Some of the most racist people I've come across are blacks....

I suppose soon black will oy be a word they can use and why do they constantly use the n word all the time especially likes of rappers and gangsters etc and then they are offended?

I would never say it or have I ever but I've still had to listen to your a racist etc load of crap and far from it.

I have foreign friends and some are black and I work with a good few too.

Like anything there are good and bad in all walks of life and just because of skin colour that's no different.

Come on punisher, we're talking about south Africa here, you can't just blithely decide it's no longer an issue

golondrinas · 12-11-2019 3:04pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I think he means that SA has become rather racist against white people in the last few years. Everything has to be very "black" if it wishes to be accepted.

A friend of mine went on holiday to S.A. he went on tour and got talking to the owner of the tour business. He said that he was now being obliged to employ at every level of the business a person of colour whether qualified or not. The business was going under at that stage.

The Phantom Jipper · 12-11-2019 3:09pm

How do you guys keep finding these stories? I feel like I read a lot of news sites but never seem to come across these "PC gone mad" stories unless I'm on Boards and some outraged user is moaning about it.

James Brown · 12-11-2019 3:13pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I think he means that SA has become rather racist against white people in the last few years. Everything has to be very "black" if it wishes to be accepted.

Yes, so why the affirmative action to have whites only? They are a minority so obviously over represented...right?

IAMAMORON · 12-11-2019 3:14pm

Deleted User wrote: »

He'll probably need to change the name due to slut shaming

I would not be so sure. Polygamy is rife in the townships, virgins are very much a commodity. Ask Sir Richard, he knows all about commodities …..and Kate Winslet.

James Brown · 12-11-2019 3:20pm

Actually, I saw an old Baywatch with Branson on it the other day. He should apologise for the acting.

Richard Branson apologises for photo

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