News — Journalist

The Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley, South Africa, named for pioneer black journalist, author, and founding member of the African National Congress, Sol Plaatje, is a 21st century public university. Created under Section 20 of the Higher Education Act of 1997, it opened its doors to 124 students in 2014. As of 2019, the student body, initially drawn largely from the Northern Cape province but now from every province in South Africa, has grown to over 2,000 and the university has graduated 400 students to date.

As one of only two universities established in post-Apartheid South Africa, the other being University of Mpumalanga, it contributes to the expansion of access to Higher Education to formerly dispossessed and disenfranchised communities. Students come primarily from communities based in rural or urban townships; approximately 70% are African and 25% Colored. Sixty (60%) percent of students have an African home language and 25% speak Afrikaans. Figures fluctuate but those for 2017 indicate that 57% of the students are female and 58% of the staff are black.

Sol Plaatje University is centrally located in Kimberley. It has three campuses in close proximity: north campus houses primarily the administrative functions, south campus has student residences and sports facilities while central campus houses the academic functions in 21st Century state of the art buildings, including the award-wining university library.

Sol Plaatje University has four Schools: National and Applied Sciences; Economic and Management Sciences; Education; and Humanities. In addition to the Bachelors’ degrees, a sizable number of diplomas and certificates are offered. Additionally, by 2027, the university plans to grow postgraduate enrollment to 10% of the envisaged total of 7,500 students.

Approximately half of the student body majors in Education which in turn provides the Northern Cape province with badly needed teachers. The Economics and Management Sciences School contributes to local and provincial government capacity-building in Public Administration. Among its Information and Communication Technologies programs within the School of Natural and Applied Sciences, is an undergraduate degree in Data Science, the only one of its kind in South Africa. This degree responds to unique resources in the Northern Cape province, home to the South African Large Telescope (SALT), and joint host to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope.

Kimberley, known as Teemane in the local language, Setswana, means diamond and Kimberley, was once a major mining center, world-famous for its diamonds, discovered in 1870 and aggressively mined on an industrial scale until around World War I when the town began to decline economically, as Egoli, land of gold, known in English as Johannesburg, became the locus of South Africa’s economic growth. Today Kimberley boasts a mine museum with the largest man-made hole in the world. It also has a number of museums, important heritage and archaeological sites, as well as the rich cultural and human resource in indigenous local languages (Setswana, isiXhosa, Khoi and San languages). The Humanities School at Sol Plaatje University takes advantage of these local cultural resources through its flagship programs in Heritage Studies and Creative Writing in African Languages.

Controversial sports journalist Jason Whitlock raised some eyebrows during his January 20 appearance on the Tucker Carlson Tonight show on Fox News when he likened the Black Lives Matter movement and Antifa to KKK, claiming they’re no different from the White Supremacist hate group.

During the interview, the 53-year-old claimed the BLM were more of like the Democratic Party’s “enforcement arm.”

“Well, I compare Black Lives Matter to the KKK. I really do,” he said. “And some people don’t understand it, but if you go back to the 1860s, after the Emancipation Proclamation, the KKK was started, and it was the enforcement arm of the Democratic Party. And what’s the enforcement arm of the Democratic Party right now? Black Lives Matter and Antifa. They will come to your home and violate your home, try to intimidate the people in your home if they disagree with you politically.”

The Black Lives Matter movement was birthed on social media in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman – the White man who fatally shot Black and unarmed 17-year-old high school student, Trayvon Martin, the year prior. Since its formation, the organization has held largely peaceful anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests against Blacks and other people of color. Whitlock, however, said they propagate negative values.

“Black Lives Matter [is] a Marxist organization. Marxism is hostile toward religion; that’s why I’m glad you went there today. These are atheist values being expressed from our leaders, demonizing individual citizens here in America, branding them as white supremacists because they decided, because we disagree with their opinion about something. This is lunacy, and it’s dangerous.”

Whitlock doubled down on his stance in another email he sent to the IndyStar, calling the movement a “cleverly marketed slogan that provides cover for extremists to undermine racial progress and bully American citizens to support Democrat politicians.”

“Despite the sweet-sounding name, Black Lives Matter acts as a racial divider, no different from the KKK,” he said.

He also compared how similar the KKK’s nightly shenanigans was similar to the Black Lives Matter movement’s activities, claiming the latter also uses violence and stokes intimidation.

“Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests have primarily terrorized and destroyed property in (B)lack communities at night,” he said. “BLM and Antifa have attempted to intimidate white Republicans. BLM protests have been violent and caused the assassination of law enforcement officers and other citizens.”

A professor and historian at the University of Notre Dame, Richard Pierce, however, labeled his comments as “provocative, inflammatory screed”, telling the IndyStar he did not want to delve too deep into proving why Whitlock is wrong.

“Nonetheless, I will say this. The KKK rioters commonly wore hoods to camouflage their identity and mimicked confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest’s marauding practices honed during the Civil War. Their very anonymity added to their intimidation,” Pierce said. “Protesters, prior to COVID-19 safeguard measures, were mostly unmasked. I’ve never seen a hooded Black Lives Matter protester.”

Despite the objections, however, an adamant Whitlock shared a follow-up op-ed further justifying his sentiments.