Trump also shut down all South African aid, much of which is used to battle AIDS and HIV

Summary

Donald Trump signed an executive order prioritizing U.S. resettlement of white South African Afrikaners, claiming they face “government-sponsored race-based discrimination.”

The order also halts U.S. aid to South Africa, much of which supports AIDS programs.

Trump accused the South African government of land seizures and discriminatory policies, though officials deny these claims.

The move marks a reversal of Trump’s prior refugee restrictions and is seen as aligning with right-wing narratives on South Africa.

  • appelkooskonfyt@lemm.ee
    43·
    2 days ago

    I don’t know what specifically Trump wants, I’m just going off of the linked article which mentions Afrikaners as well as the comment I replied to which made a strange correlation between Elon Musk and a demographic group that he is not even part of.

    The reason Afrikaners are specifically targeted in these discussions is because apartheid was led by an Afrikaner government. So a lot of the conflict between the black people and white people in South Africa specifically revolves around the Afrikaners. The English South Africas, which form a smaller group than the Afrikaner population, is kind of just stuck in the crossfire. After the fall of apartheid, the new black government adopted laws, referred to as the Black Economic Empowerment laws, which I guess acts a bit like the USA’s DEI laws that aim to provide what they refer to as “previously disadvantaged” groups with more opportunities. It is specifically these laws that Elon is referring to, but in the context of the recently passed Land ExpropriationAct, which in my opinion is not yet fully understood by everyone and what exactly it allows the government to do.

    Also just a side note, while language is a key identifier, the Afrikaner demographic is more than just the language. It’s a whole group of people who originally started in the Cape from mostly Dutch settlers, who then later moved throughout the rest of South Africa. There were also wars between the Afrikaners and English, such as the Second Boer War, so there’s been a long history of conflict. That’s why I wanted to emphasize that you cannot necessarily put Elon Musk on the side of the Afrikaners, despite him being white and born in South Africa.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 days ago

      Thanks for the response, I remember reading about the second Boer War but it has been a long time. I appreciate you being willing to discuss the topic levely even though people were casting downvotes without fully hearing what you were trying to point out. It may be because the first message was brief and didn’t contain the further extrapolation you have now provided. I look forward to learning more as this plays out.