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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGood Gawd: Trump repeats disputed claim that white farmers are suffering 'genocide' in South Africa...
Trump repeats disputed claim that white farmers suffering genocide in South Africa as first refugees are flown in to US"No evidence of widespread violence or persecution of white South Africans exists to support US presidents claim
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/south-africa-refugees-white-farmers-trump-b2749416.html
He made the comments in the Oval Office during a brief media availability centered around the signing of an executive order aimed at establishing price controls for prescription drugs. The US presidents remarks came as the first flight of white South African refugees were set to imminently disembark at Dulles airport.
It's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about, said Trump. It's a terrible thing that's taking place. And farmers are being killed. They happen to be white, but whether they're white or Black makes no difference to me, but white farmers are being brutally killed, and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.
Violence against white farmers is not particularly widespread even by the admission of organizations led by Afrikaaners dedicated to tracking farm attacks in South Africa, which suffers from a high rate of violent crime in general. White farmers own about 70 percent of commercial farmland in the country, despite making up a minority of the population. Fewer than 150 attacks involving farmers occurred during the entirety of 2023, according to the Afrikaaner political group AfriForum. --snip--
(And yes, Stephen Miller is behind his policy)
Trump would insist on Monday that US media would cover the situation in South Africa more were the racial demographics reversed and a white majority was allegedly persecuting a Black minority.
no_hypocrisy
(54,311 posts)And they aren't.
Cirsium
(3,379 posts)Manufactured, racist, dishonest claim would be more like it.
"Based on multiple sources, claims of white oppression in South Africa are not supported by evidence. White South Africans continue to maintain significant economic advantages, controlling approximately 70% of private farmland despite representing only 7% of the population. A 2021 Human Rights Commission study revealed that only 1% of whites live in poverty compared to 64% of Blacks. Prominent Afrikaner groups have explicitly rejected claims of oppression and refused offers of refugee status."
"Several important contextual elements are crucial to understand: the land reform issue is often misrepresented - the law requires compensation and mandates attempts to reach agreements with landowners first; farm attacks, while concerning, hit a 30-year low in 2017-18, and there's no evidence suggesting these crimes are racially motivated rather than related to farms being isolated and perceived as wealthy targets; the South African government explicitly states that land reform is about addressing historical inequalities from colonialism and apartheid, not targeting white people specifically."
"The 'white genocide' narrative has been identified as a white nationalist conspiracy theory based on pseudoscience and ethnic hatred. This narrative benefits specific groups: far-right political figures like Trump, who made unsubstantiated claims about "terrible things happening" to white South Africans; white nationalist groups who use these claims to promote racial division; those opposing land reform who benefit from maintaining the status quo of land ownership."
https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/white-oppression-south-africa-bc75d7
sop
(17,471 posts)"According to some supremacist groups, white farmers are being murdered at higher rates than the rest of the population. This claim, however, is contradicted by the facts and by a new ruling handed down in February."
"The phrase might have gone unnoticed if it hadn't shattered a concept closely tied to the White House's recent attacks on South Africa. In a ruling handed down in mid-February, a South African magistrate described the notion of 'white genocide' in the country as 'clearly imagined.' Used by certain supremacist groups, the expression refers to the idea that white farmers are disproportionately victims of violent murders compared to the rest of the South African population. It's a claim that has been debunked countless times but is once again making headlines."
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2025/03/13/in-south-africa-the-courts-dismiss-the-myth-of-white-genocide_6739091_124.html
Trump repeated this nonsense all during the 2024 campaign to make Elon happy. It plays well to his MAGA white supremacist Nazis.
Klarkashton
(4,740 posts)Just horrible.
struggle4progress
(125,385 posts)Ocelot II
(129,135 posts)Instead, a white minority persecuted a Black majority.
electric_blue68
(25,960 posts)Poor widdle white SA farmers...Pffftttttt...
Torchlight
(6,320 posts)but have a tough time asserting in such a way that doesn't get them laughed out of a rational conversation.
"Ah yes, the truth at lastuncovered not by experts, evidence, or decades of research, but by a pixelated meme your cousin shared on Facebook at 3 a.m. Truly, the scholars we need. Why let reality get in the way when this comforting delusion aligns perfectly with everything you already believed?"
Submariner
(13,251 posts)American women living in a 'Stand Your Ground" 2nd amendment state Florida or Texas,where they would be less restrictive about shooting your date if 'she deserved it' or 'was looking for it'.
Trump's kind of apartheid people.
Initech
(107,461 posts)Fuck conspiracy theorists.
allegorical oracle
(6,194 posts)Jit423
(1,568 posts)Swede
(38,384 posts)