From South Africa to the US, white victimhood knows no borders

Ernst Roets, a South African right-wing activist and deputy CEO of Afriforum, was the subject of an odd and disturbing interview with Tucker Carlson, an American political commentator well-known among MAGA conservatives and the global far right. A right-wing South African NGO called Africaforum aims to advance the rights of Afrikaners, who are primarily descendants of Dutch colonial settlers, who established the segregationist system of apartheid in 1948.

More than an hour long, the discussion featured a dangerous mix of conspiratorial viewpoints, errors, half-truths, and blatant lies. It was titled “Man charged with treason for speaking to Tucker about the killing of white people in South Africa.”

Carlson, a defamatory provocateur, blatantly claimed that South Africa “appears to be collapsing and that the government is essentially genocidally racist,” opening the lengthy discussion.

The notion that the government of South Africa is racist and that it is killing the country’s white minority is not new, of course. White activists have been making allegations that South Africa’s government is attempting to eradicate its white minority population and that the murders of white farmers there constitute “genocide” for many years, including Elon Musk, a billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump.

Trump also supports this theory, and on February 7 he made the announcement to stop providing aid to South Africa and grant Afrikans refugee status because of these concerns. He improved this offer a month later, allowing this allegedly persecuted and threatened minority to obtain citizenship more quickly.

Of course, many white South Africans themselves, respected international and local NGOs, and genocide experts laugh in the face of this “white genocide” myth, as do many other statistics. A South African court ruled on February 25 that the country’s claims of a white genocide are “clearly imagined” and “not real.”

In Tucker and Roets’ conversation, nothing about this was explained. Instead, the failed South African nation and the exploding wave of genocidal violence were casually refuted as evidence of African primitivity. Roets made it clear throughout the conversation that in order to run a functioning nation, they must always have white control, pressure, and guidance. This is because he believes Africans are inherently incapable of creating a robust, inclusive, and progressive democracy. He didn’t react in any way.

Of course, Roets’ portrayal of his country and the majority of South Africans as primitive, violent, and genocidal is based on no actual experience. South Africa is not at war with a racial minority or engaging in genocide there. Yes, every nation struggles and has its own problems. However, it also has a powerful and independent judiciary and one of the world’s most progressive constitutions. The South African state also upholds human rights on a global scale, as it recently demonstrated when it charged Israel with violating the ICJ’s guidelines in Gaza.

South Africa continues to struggle with its legacy despite only 30 years since the end of Apartheid. Although there have been significant sociopolitical advancements since, racism and segregation still ring a chord throughout the nation. Uneven pay, segregated neighborhoods, inequality in education, and grave economic disparities still exist. But almost daily, South Africa makes significant progress toward racial integration and true equality. For instance, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party recently passed a number of important affirmative action laws. The Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (Bela) and the Expropriation Act are two of these laws. The former aims to reform education and end a system that favors Afrikaans, the language that Afrikans use as a weapon. The Expropriation Act provides more information on the procedures that government entities can use to seize land without compensation in order to pursue various public interest goals.

South Africa serves as a shining example of how white supremacy could and should be ended everywhere as it fights for human rights in the international arena and works to end corruption and discrimination at home. It may not be perfect, but it is certainly doing much better than the United States, which hasn’t achieved racial integration in 60 years and 165 years since the supposedly segregation-erasure Civil Rights Act was passed.

South Africa today demonstrates not only what can be accomplished in the short term following apartheid, but also how subpar the US is in terms of racial equality and integration.

Since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, it is obvious that the US hasn’t made much progress in terms of racial equality, inclusion, and integration like South Africa has since the elections of 1994.

For instance, a study that was published in March 2024 found surprising similarities between the US and South Africa’s racial wealth gap. According to the study, the average Black household owns 5% of the wealth held by the average white household in South Africa. The average Black household in the US, for example, owns 6% of the wealth held by the average white household. The study found that the US’s racial wealth gap, which is almost equal to that of a nation that has only recently abandoned apartheid rule, is a “sobering indictment” of the richest nation in the world.

AfriForum and other similar organizations are attempting to halt the ongoing progress in South Africa by lobbying the like-minded Trump administration and opposing affirmative action measures. While diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are being cut, the alleged “white genocide” in South Africa is being presented to the white-majority Republican base in the US as a horror story.

Undoubtedly, there is a growing white supremacist backlash against the progress made by Black people toward real equality, both in South Africa and the US. In addition to stifling South Africa, Tucker and Roets’ conversation were a part of a larger campaign to undermine its progress and, in turn, strengthen US efforts to fight racial equality.

Based on a common false narrative of white victimhood and Black overreach, it appears as though a dangerous brotherhood has been formed between the US and South African far right. Both those who are campaigning for equality and an inclusive democracy should be aware of this trend and continue to stand in solidarity with it.

Source: Aljazeera