The tip that keeps on giving.

By now you have likely heard some version of the story: A waitress at Obz Cafe in Cape Town, Ashleigh Schultz, receives a note on a bill (written by Ntokozo Qwabe, a Rhodes Must Fall leader at Oxford University) that read: WE WILL GIVE TIP WHEN YOU RETURN THE LAND. She bursts into tears as she does the transaction and Ntokozo later gloats about the incident on Facebook. Twitter campaign and #GoFundMe campaigns are launched to organise a tip for Ashley and suddenly over R100 000 has come in from around the world.

Social media platforms naturally exploded with people taking different sides and perspectives and angrily voicing why this is or isn’t a good thing. As with most incidents in life, there are so many different ways you can look at this and hopefully there are a few things we can all learn or at least consider.

TWO WRONGS CAN BOTH BE WRONG

Some of the people who came out defending Ntokozo’s actions held up the land issue (which is a relevant and significant issue amongst many people of colour in South Africa and needs to be addressed) compared to the “white tears” of a waitress missing out on a tip.

Of course the one is a much bigger issue than the other. But perhaps we can stop for a moment and realise that we don’t need to compare two things to come to the conclusion that both are wrong.

Yes, there is land reparation that needs to be done. Yes, treating someone in that aggressive and belittling manner is not good.

AN EXPLOSIVE TIP

But then we need to ask if a R100 000 crowd-funded tip is the way to go? Perhaps another recent story in the press can hep us with that one.

A week ago a Mitchell’s Plain child and his grandmother are harassed in a Pick ‘n Pay because he broke a chocolate in the store. The grandmother allegedly fainted and there are pictures of her and the grandson huddled together on the floor.

The video goes viral, people are up in arms and not a single cent (as far as I am aware) was raised for them.

We have had many incidents in Cape Town in recent years from people being urinated on from a night club to a domestic worker being attacked in the streets and more, and yet it just so happens that it is the white waitress that results in a monstrously excessive amount of money being raised.

Martin Luther King Jr once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” As people who are trying to build South Africa into a healthy nation, we need to start responding to different types of injustice committed against different people with the same vigour and passion, whether they look like us or not.

We need to develop a #NotOnOurWatch mentality that refuses to let moments of racism or prejudice pass unchallenged in front of us, in a way that lets everyone in this country know that we are for them.

But we are also going to need to start asking the tougher questions about present situations where so many peoples’ current living conditions are an act of injustice whereas so many other people live in affluence and excess. We have a long way to go and I’m not convinced a R100 000 tip to one person is the answer.

How about you? What were your thoughts and reflections on this incident and others that seem to happen on a far too regular occurrence?