Home » US Political Journalist Gets Backlash For Not Recognising South Africa’s Ramaphosa

US Political Journalist Gets Backlash For Not Recognising South Africa’s Ramaphosa

BIARRITZ – A White House correspondent for the Associated Press news agency failed to recognize President Cyril Ramaphosa while he was having a chat with several leaders at the G7 summit – calling him “one unidentified leader” – and social media immediately came down on her. Ramaphosa, who had been invited to the G7 summit […]

By Ted Botha
27-08-19 14:06
in Eish!

BIARRITZ – A White House correspondent for the Associated Press news agency failed to recognize President Cyril Ramaphosa while he was having a chat with several leaders at the G7 summit – calling him “one unidentified leader” – and social media immediately came down on her.

Ramaphosa with (from left) Macron, Trudeau and Modi at the G7 summit. Photo” Twitter/dsupervilleap

Ramaphosa, who had been invited to the G7 summit by French president Emmanuel Macron, was in the photograph with Canada’s Justin Trudeau, Macron and India’s Narendra Modi. In another photograph, which also included Germany’s Angela Merkel, Ramaphosa was obscured. She identified him there as “one leader hidden by Modi.”

Darlene Superville immediately felt the wrath of Twitter, where she was berated for not knowing a country’s leader or being at least able to ask a fellow journalist before tweeting. Many mentioned the fact that she was an African-American journalist who failed to know who a black leader was.

Superville quickly corrected the mistake, posting the photograph again (even though Ramaphosa is not that visible), but this time adding his Twitter handle.