白人賛美の「人種差別」広告で炎上、ドラッグストア４００店舗営業できず　南ア

【ヨハネスブルクＡＦＰ＝時事】南アフリカ最大のドラッグストアチェーンが白人の髪を賛美する「人種差別」広告をウェブサイトに掲載したとして抗議が巻き起こり、系列400店舗超が7日現在、閉鎖に追い込まれている。（写真は南アフリカ最大のドラッグストアチェーン「クリックス・ファーマシー」の店舗前に詰めかけ、抗議する左翼政党「経済的解放の闘士」の支持者ら。ヨハネスブルク郊外サントンで）
　ドラッグストアチェーン「クリックス・ファーマシー」は自社ウェブサイトに掲載した広告で、白人の髪は「普通」で、黒人の髪は「さえない」と表現。だが、これに対する抗議を受けて謝罪し、広告を取り下げた。
　南ア全土の系列店の前では、左翼政党「経済的解放の闘士（ＥＦＦ）」の支持者らが数十人単位でピケを張り、営業を阻止している。
　インターネット上の世論も騒然としており、ツイッターでは黒人女性らが自分たちのアフロヘアの写真に「＃ＲａｃｉｓｍＭｕｓｔＦａｌｌ（消えろ、人種差別）」「＃ＢｌａｃｋＨａｉｒＩｓＮｏｒｍａｌ（黒人の髪は普通）」といったハッシュタグを付けて非難の声を上げている。
　同社によると、南ア全土に展開する５００店舗超のうち、これまでに４２５店舗が破壊されるなど何らかの被害を受けた。「抗議活動は現在も続いているため、被害総額を推定するのは難しい」という。
　南ア政府は声明を発表し、「下品な人種差別的広告」は憂慮すべきだが、「法をわがものとする誘惑に抵抗」するよう国民に呼び掛けた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/09/08-13:23）

Protests forced more than 400 stores of South Africa's biggest pharmacy chain to close on Monday after a controversial racist hair advertisement provoked widespread outrage.
Dozens of activists from South Africa's radical leftwing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party picketed outside Clicks Pharmacy stores across the country, forcing them to shut over the adverts posted on the company's website which described black hair as dull and white hair as normal.
South Africa's leading pharmacy, health and beauty retailer, which boasts more than 500 branches across the country, has apologised and pulled down the advertisements.
Clicks said that protests were reported at 425 of its stores, some of which were vandalised, and it was unable to estimate the total damage to stores given the ongoing protest action.
The federal government said in a statement that while it was disturbed by the crude racist display by the advertisement, it called on all South Africans to resist the temptation to take the law into their own hands.
The advertisements sparked an uproar online, with black women posting images of their afros on Twitter using the hashtags #RacismMustFall and #BlackHairIsNormal.
The South African Human Rights Commission launched an investigation on Monday into the Clicks advert, which it said had elicited strong emotions and protests from the general public.
- 'Justice, not apology'-
The EFF said it wants the retail chain shut for five days.
They must lose revenue, they must lose profits because of their racism, said EFF vice president Floyd Shivambu, speaking in front of one of the largest stores in Johannesburg's upmarket Sandton business and shopping district -- considered Africa's richest square mile.
He was accompanied by around two dozen chanting supporters.
Further north in Polokwane, the capital of Limpopo province, EFF leader Julius Malema led a group of more than 100 supporters who chanted in front of a shuttered store.
We are here to say peacefully that racism is violence, said Malema, addressing his supporters at the Mall of the North, the largest in the city.
We need justice, not apology, said Malema. Who calls black people ugly? he asked, calling on the advertising agent to be fired.
White people insult us and they apologise, they think that is the end, he said.
We have been projected as ugly people for a very long time by white people. It has got to come to an end at some point and it starts total with Clicks, we are tired.
The EFF condemned all violence, vandalism at its stores and the intimidation of staff and its customers.
The group staged protests in 2018 trashing outlets of Swedish clothing giant Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) in Johannesburg over a controversial advertisement of a black child.
A photo on H&M's website of a black boy wearing a green hoodie with the inscription coolest monkey in the jungle triggered outrage on social media.