White Plight

Trump's refugee policy is a racist bullhorn.

Photo via Wiki Commons

This week, Afrikaner “refugees” began arriving in the US — some of the only refugees welcomed by the Trump administration. These white South Africans claim they are being persecuted at home: That white farmers are being attacked; that South Africa is not a safe place for them to live. Much of the criticism of Trump’s decision to end refugee resettlement from just about everywhere else on the planet while welcoming a group that really isn’t facing particularly severe persecution has been derided as “political.” And it certainly is a stunt intended to provoke liberal outrage. But we should just call it what it is. It’s not “political.” It’s not a dogwhistle. It’s racist. It’s racism shouted through a bullhorn. It’s signaling a politics of white rule and white protection.

I have no doubt that these white South Africans have complaints. Violence in South Africa really is a problem, although the Black South African population suffers much more from it. I am sure that white land-owners fear their land will be expropriated, but in truth no land has actually been seized. The economic gap between white and Black South Africans has barely budged since apartheid. Whites make up roughly 8% of the population but hold more than 65% of the top management jobs. And there’s little evidence that white farmers face any particular peril — it’s Black farm workers who bear the brunt of deadly violence on South African farms. But even if we take Trump’s word for it on their plight, their situations stand in pretty sharp contrast to, say, Sudanese refugees who are starving in sweltering camps or Afghan women who can’t leave the house or get an education or Palestinians who are watching decimation of their homes and community. There are a great many people in need of safe harbor. The US would be lucky to have many of them. Instead, Trump has turned nearly all of them away, except for this one privileged minority. And what makes this one minority group distinct from nearly all other groups seeking safety from persecution is that this group is white.