America is Apparently too Racist Even for South African White Elites
They're much better off in the country in which they are supposedly persecuted
In an interesting ploy to create sympathy for rich white elites, Donald Trump recently signed an executive order to “stop all aid and financial assistance” to South Africa.
Per an AP news report:
“As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country,” the White House said in a summary of the order. The White House said Trump is also going to announce a program to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees.
The Expropriation Act was signed into law by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month and allows the government to take land in specific instances where it is not being used, or where it would be in the public interest if it is redistributed.
It aims to address some of the wrongs of South Africa’s racist apartheid era, when Black people had land taken away from them and were forced to live in areas designated for non-whites.
Elon Musk, a close Trump ally and head of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, has highlighted that law in recent social media posts and cast it as a threat to South Africa’s white minority.
Hmm, I wonder if the presence of Elon Musk, who originated from South Africa, had anything to do with the attention given to this new law?
There are a few notable things in the White House statement, among them the reference to “violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers” as if there is a coordinated effort by some authoritarian entity to terrorize poor white farmers.
But this does not appear to be a real concern. South Africa does have a growing violence problem, but it’s a problem for the whole country, not just white people. Per CNN:
…the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), an African research group, previously told CNN that South Africa doesn’t have a farm murder problem, it has a wider murder problem. The murder rate has been steadily increasing since 2011, and violent crime affects all parts of society.
Another notable aspect of this policy is the desire to label and treat these white “minority farmers” as “refugees”.
The thing is, these white minority farmers actually have it pretty good in South Africa, as they are one of the most comfortable and elite minorities on the planet. And they want nothing to do with resettling in America. Why come to America and be just another member of society when you reap the benefits of owning almost all the land and making almost all the money in your home country?
Afrikaners—the proper name for the white privileged class embedded in South Africa—soundly rejected Trump’s offer and professed love for their country. Interesting, given they are supposedly discriminated against and violently attacked in coordinated manners on a regular basis.
From the AP:
Groups representing some of South Africa’s white minority responded Saturday to a plan by President Donald Trump to offer them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by saying: thanks, but no thanks.
‘“We are not going anywhere”: On Saturday, two of the most prominent groups representing Afrikaners said they would not be taking up Trump’s offer of resettlement in the U.S.
“Our members work here, and want to stay here, and they are going to stay here,” said Dirk Hermann, chief executive of the Afrikaner trade union Solidarity, which says it represents around 2 million people. “We are committed to build a future here. We are not going anywhere.”
At the same press conference, Kallie Kriel, the CEO of the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, said: “We have to state categorically: We don’t want to move elsewhere.”
From Reuters:
"If you haven't got any problems here, why would you want to go," said Neville van der Merwe, a 78-year-old pensioner in Bothasig near Cape Town.
"There hasn't been any really bad taking over our land, the people are carrying on like normal and you know, what are you going to do over there?"
The article notes that while white people in South Africa make up only 7.2% of the population, they own 75% of the land.
The new law mentioned in the White House statement, the Expropriation Act, mildly expanded the government’s rights to take land from mostly white landowners to parcels that are not being used and or serving any public interest.
But there have been land confiscation and redistribution laws in place ever since apartheid ended in the country in 1994. The purpose was to provide some rebalancing of land ownership back to the black population that had their land confiscated by the powerful white colonialists in the decades prior to this.
Plus, it’s worth mentioning that America has its own confiscation-by-government laws, if the confiscation is considered in the strong public interest. They are generally known as “eminent domain”. And they have been used for racist purposes in the past.
Perhaps American needs to grapple with its own not-so-shiny-and-clean history with its own land confiscation policies before criticizing those of other countries.
If South Africa’s white elites have no desire to come here under Trump’s new refugee proclamations that are aimed to favor them, that could be a signal that America is currently too racist even for them.
“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”