Race row erupts over attractiveness

The poll has caused an uproar on campus and on social networking sites.

The pie chart, titled UCT votes on most attractive race was published as part of an opinion piece by a student on inter-racial dating at the university. The student, Qamran Tabo, interviewed 60 people, 10 from each race group in the chart - Caucasian, Indian, Coloured, African, Asian and mixed.

According to the chart, most of the students polled (38%) thought that Caucasians were the most attractive, while the least number of students (8%) believed Africans were the most attractive. Other races received between 8% and 19% of the vote.

Earlier this year, UCT revealed that it would revise its race-based admissions policy after a year of debate, but the South African Students Congress has criticised the move, saying it will further disadvantage black students.

The current policy asks would-be students to state their race, but the university council and vice-chancellor Max Price has said the inclusion of race is undesirable and other criteria for determining the previously disadvantaged have to be found.

The university's branch of the Young Communist League said it was "shocked and disgusted" by the Varsity News survey. It said that, as "an expression of our condemnation of racism and the hurt caused", it planned to lodge a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission.

"In our complaint, we will demand a full apology and retraction from the newspaper for the racist survey," chairman Mangaliso Khomo said.

"It is disturbing enough that a survey of this nature was conducted, for it to have passed all editorial controls and have been published, proves there is a serious problem at the university.

"This is the same university that will do away with admissions policies that uplift black students, despite remaining untransformed, with blacks being in the minority in many faculties. UCT is a microcosm of the broader Cape Town which remains a racist city," Khomo claimed.

Varsity News editor-in-chief Alexandra Nagel issued an apology and said the intention in publishing the piece was "to create a platform for UCT students to engage with a topic that is still prevalent in SA".

"I formally retract the title of the pie chart, as this was not a formal survey conducted by the University of Cape Town," Nagel said.

"It is important to note that the pie chart should be read in conjunction with the article and not as a separate assessment," she added.

Nagel said that the paper did not sanction hate speech, but endorsed the right to have an opinion and to create a forum for debate.

"I emphasise that the 'survey' conducted by the writer was for her personal insight and not that of a definitive, scholarly analysis. It was intended as a social commentary on the society in which she resides," she said.

Source: Business Day via I-Net Bridge