Police Minister, Bheki Cele, recently stated that tattooed job seekers would not be hired by the South African Police Services as they have a tendency to be gangsters. We will not address the insensitivity of making this outrageous statement instead of addressing the actual problem he was meant to address which is the murder of 11 innocent citizens. 

Instead, he decided to fuel a dated stereotype that people with tattoos are dangerous and tend to be gangsters. Not only what his statement discriminatory but knowing how some people think about tattoos, this statement could potentially incite violence. And this potential incitement of violence by this statement seems a lot like hate speech to me.

So let's come together and stand up for our bodily autonomy because out tattoos are not who we are but expressions of a part of who we are. These kinds of statements set us back in our evolution as society. Any logical human being would know that it's not your tattoos that do work, it's your mind. 

Please sign this petition to get Bheki Cele to step down as police chief. There are a lot of tattooed people and discriminating against more than 30% of the population is gross.