Does anyone know what the graffiti actually said? I can't find a source anywhere reporting what it said in full [I stress "in full"]. So far there's no evidence that it was racist, as far as I can see.
I had a look for this myself. As far as I could tell it was something along the lines of “**** Saka” and “Bar Steward”.
My initial reaction to that (if that was indeed what was said) was one of mild frustration, as it was ‘championed’ as being a bombastic example of racism when, perhaps, it wasn’t. On the other hand, the targeting of the mural could have been racist even if racist language wasn’t used.
Reflecting on this some more, to dwell on my annoyance would be to miss the bigger picture. There
has been unpleasant racist remarks made on social media, which are not socially acceptable and the people who have made those comments should be ashamed of themselves. Clearly, there is still an issue with racism in their country if comments like that are still being made.
So I think the reaction to the racism in the media is correct, even if defacing the mural has been brought into it incidentally. Defacing the mural was a pretty ****y thing to do regardless.
Relatively, it is a privilege to feel ‘bored’ at the purported overexposure of social justice issues in the media, compared to the agonising tedium of actually being treated poorly as a result of racism.