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The Justice Department hit back at online critics who scoffed at a recent advertisement seeking candidates for positions on an anti-racist team, revealing that the assumptions made about the ethnicity of those featured were incorrect.
The ad, posted to social media yesterday, drew howls of outrage from the Twitter crowd, who scoffed at what they believed to be a cohesive Pkeh group.
The ad was looking for candidates to form a team for a “National Action Plan Against Racism”.
” What is that ? The National Party? wrote political commentator David Cormack, who shared a screenshot of the advertisement on Twitter.
The original ad. Photo / Supplied
“Are these people the racists or the white saviors?” one commentator quipped.
“The POC staff are too smart to stand still for this,” said another.
“I bet there’s an emotional junior coming home early today,” another joked.
After the backlash, the original ad was removed.
In a statement to the Herald, Justice Department Deputy Policy Secretary Rajesh Chhana said the critics were wrong.
“The social media comment is a timely reminder of how damaging it can be to assume ethnicity,” Chhana wrote.
“The people who appear in the advertisement for the National Action Plan Against Racism are a cross-section of gender, sexuality and ethnicity.”
Chhana said that while the ministry had not received any official complaints about the ad, it deleted it because “the comment distracted viewers from what is really important; and that is to constitute a team to fight racism nationwide “.
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