Jack Parow recently posted a homophobic meme to Twitter. The meme includes a picture of musicians the Jonas brothers and bottles of Parow brandy. The photo of the Jonas brothers is labelled with “moffies”, a derogatory phrase to describe gay men while the words ‘die manne’ (the men) are written next to the picture of the brandy bottles.
Jack Parow (Zander Tyler), is a South African rapper who has collaborated with other South African artists such as Die Heuwels Fantasties, Die Antwoord and Francois Van Coke.
Responses on social media
Twitter user Pieter Rossouw tweeted a reply: “you owe a lot of your success to us…. Remember, it’s LGBTQ+ that put the outrageous on the map and make it acceptable to the mainstream media. Sies.”
Brent Lindeque says on Twitter: “Hey @JackParow, you may have deleted the tweet but that doesn’t change the fact that you posted this in the first place. No matter how educated, talented, rich or cool you believe you are, how you treat people ultimately tells all. Integrity is everything & this is not cool.”
An apology was given
Parow has subsequently apologised, saying: “I would like to sincerely apologise for yesterday’s post on social media. My social media manager created and posted a meme that is very offensive and it being the silly season and my manager being on leave I personally did not have the time to look at it properly before it was posted. My management is busy dealing with the social team accordingly. This does not mean to say that I am trying to shift blame. I take full responsibility for it and I am truly truly sorry. I do not condone hate speech or homophobic slurs in any way and it truly makes me sad that it now looks like that. I have many friends and family in the gay community and I completely understand the struggles they have gone through. I truly am deeply deeply sorry en jammer as ek n poes was.”
How do we stop this from happening?
It is so important for the gay community to have public figures openly support LGBTQ+ people, and this meme does just the oposite. Other homophobic people need to be marginalised, and cannot gather support from the media. It seems like we still need to raise more awareness about gay people in our communities. Have a look at Hendrik Baird’s open letter to Jack Parow, where he calls Parow to action. Hendrik is Station Manager at GaySA Radio.
If you are struggling with homophobia, have a look at my thoughts on how to deal with homophobia.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think his apology is legitimate?