Love Your Neighbour and Say No To Xenophobia
Love Your Neighbour and Say No To Xenophobia
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| the hashtag say no to xenophobia |
The
hashtag #SayNoToXenophobia came into existence in the year 2015 , when a group
of South Africans felt deprived of having to find employment opportunities in
South Africa, as opposed to foreign nationals finding jobs in the country.
South African citizens started attacking people from other counties, accusing
them of stealing their jobs, and chasing them out of the country forcefully. The term
Xenophobia became a well-known word in South Africa in the year 2008. The words
simply means “Intense dislike or fear of people from different countries”.
Someone
decided to voice out their thoughts on the topic and started a hashtag titled
#SayNoToXenophobia. This made it is easy for everyone who had something to say
about Xenophobia to engage in conversations all over social media platforms by
using the hashtag . The hashtag had an influence on social media in both
negative and positive ways.
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| Apologies to those affected by the xenophobic attacks |
Positively,
-It
made foreign people aware of the support they were receiving from those who
were against Xenophobia.
-It
also gave businesses an opportunity to communicate with their publics on the
issue of xenophobia, Public Relations Practitioners (PRPs) were able to reach a wide range of
audiences on various social media platforms, making them aware that their
organizations are standing with foreign nationals against xenophobia.
Negatively,
-Social
media is time-consuming, people have jobs and they have to work, by them being
part of a huge conversation like #SayNoToXenophia, they are required to check
their messages constantly.
-The
hashtag attracted people who were currently on social media sites, therefore,
if anyone was not on the site while the hashtag was trending, they could have
missed the news. PRPs who were not online when the hashtags were used have
performed a poor stance as they are required to be up to date
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| We are all foreigners somewhere |
Not only did the hashtag have an impact on social media and
Public Relations Practitioners, It opened a lot of people’s eyes. People from
other countries are also human beings, they deserve to be cherished and loved
regardless of where they come from. Living in fear is not a pleasant thing, do
not treat people in a manner in which you would not like to be treated in.
Imagine if you, as a South African decided to relocate to another country and
they tortured you, would you still apprehend Xenophobia.
A video by foreign nationals stating that they are also Africans
People from our
neighbouring countries bring no harm to South Africa, all they want is to move
from a place which brought them no hope, to a place which brings them hope. Let
us treat our brothers and sisters from other countries with uniformity.
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Dikeledi Seripe in support of the #saynotoxenophobia campaign
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Beautiful piece. States all truths, too nice. A few grammatical errors but nothing big. Was worth the time.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading the blog. I try to be punctual in my writing. I guess if I practice more, I will get it right some day.
ReplyDeleteA lovely piece that was. I guess people arent the same hey and they all have different views of these kind of issues..what you think is not right and inhuman, another may think its fair and right...
ReplyDeletepeople have to set their differences aside,compromise and reach a mutual understanding. I could think of several reasons why South Africans treat people from other countries like they do, but like you said, what I think is not right and inhuman, another may think it is fair and right.
ReplyDeleteI feel like all South Africans should read this post and other people from all over the world to so that they know how extremely bad xenophobia is. I love the power of social media, this hashtag was started by only one person but it made the whole country to talk and do damage control.
ReplyDeleteSocial media has the power to make, or break people and organizations. The hasttag went viral organically and influenced many people. If only South Africans knew how it feels to be treated like an outsider, they would not treat others like they do.
DeleteI feel like all South Africans should read this post and other people from all over the world to so that they know how extremely bad xenophobia is. I love the power of social media, this hashtag was started by only one person but it made the whole country to talk and do damage control.
ReplyDeleteGood article. A few grammatical errors but not the end of the world. I do however think that you scratched the surface on this and that it needs a little bit more substance to support your stance. Overall great effort :)
ReplyDeleteGood article. A few grammatical errors but not the end of the world. I do however think that you scratched the surface on this and that it needs a little bit more substance to support your stance. Overall great effort :)
ReplyDeletePractice makes perfect, I'm only beginning to write, it will get better in time. in line with scratching the surface, I was limited to 400 words, so I couldn't write more to substantiate my stance. Thank you for reading my blog.
DeleteAgreed, we are all foreigners somewhere. We need to treat all people with love and respect, no one should be treated differently just because of where they come from. I say not to xenophobia.
ReplyDeleteWe are all Africans arat the end of the day, when someone asks about Africa, they refer to us all regardless of which country we are from.
ReplyDelete