Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli army spokesman: Chief of Staff orders increased readiness to implement first phase of Trump plan to release hostages.
Israeli KAN channel: Political leaders instruct the military to reduce offensive activity in Gaza; negotiations expected to begin soon.
Netanyahu's office: We will continue to work in full cooperation with the president and his team to end the war in accordance with the principles laid out by Israel, which correspond with Trump’s vision for ending the war.
Netanyahu's office: Israel is getting ready to carry out the first phase of Trump's plan to immediately release all hostages.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson: We in Gaza City are currently being relentlessly and mercilessly bombed.
Erdogan: Conclude the talks in the best interests of the Palestinian people and implement the two-state solution, which is also supported by the international community.
Erdogan: This genocide and this shameful scene that deeply wounds the global conscience must end now.
Erdogan: All steps must be taken without delay to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and achieve lasting peace.
Erdogan: What must be done now is for Israel to immediately cease all attacks and commit to the ceasefire plan.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Hamas' response to the ceasefire plan in Gaza is a constructive and important step towards achieving lasting peace.

Trump Granting Afrikaners Refugee Status is Both Racist and Demeaning

  • Hamzah Rifaat Hamzah Rifaat
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 28 May 2025 00:01
6 Min Read

Trump’s offer of refugee status to white South Africans, based on false claims of persecution, reflects institutional racism and ignores the enduring impact of apartheid on Black South Africans.

Listen
  • x
  • Trump Granting Afrikaners Refugee Status is Both Racist and Demeaning
    Apartheid was globally condemned and contributed to South Africa’s isolation on the global stage (Illustrated by Mahdi Rteil to Al Mayadeen English)

US President Donald Trump has already gained notoriety for banning Muslim immigrants from entering the United States. While he received considerable backlash for his move, such castigation has not informed his perspective on immigration and refugees. Instead, it has further emboldened him to undertake measures such as granting ‘refugee’ status to white South Africans, including Afrikaners of Dutch ancestry. Many Afrikaners played a key role in implementing the racist, discriminatory, and fascist pre-1994 apartheid system in South Africa, which resulted in state-sponsored segregation, disenfranchisement, destruction, and violence against the indigenous Black population.

Apartheid was globally condemned and contributed to South Africa’s isolation on the global stage. However, the Trump administration continues to admit Afrikaners into the United States over fallacies that a ‘genocide’ is taking place against them by the Black majority African National Congress government.

Given that there is no evidence to back his claims, Trump’s policy constitutes crass racism, which is demeaning and deplorable. It is a brazen disregard of post-apartheid South Africa, which continues to confront the residual effects of apartheid, which disproportionately affect the Black population.

Does Trump Have a Case?

South Africa in the 21st century is a multiethnic, multicultural, multiracial, and cosmopolitan democracy in Africa and its large economy and influence make it a regional power in Africa. However, underneath the veneer of diversity and progress, there's a legacy of apartheid that has throttled its socioeconomic fabric. The majority Black population of the country for example, continues to live in relative and abject poverty as compared to their White counterparts and the system of institutionalized racism that they had to endure from 1948 to 1994 has ensured that the ‘Rainbow Nation’ (a term coined by Bishop Desmond Tutu to refer to South Africa after apartheid), continues to be divided on racial lines.

Related News

Why new 'Israel'-Zambia relation is 'betrayal'

Africa’s top university’s ‘Gaza Resolutions’ outrages pro-'Israel' lobby

Additionally, extreme inequality exists between White and Black residents in South Africa, with racial groups such as the Afrikaners benefiting from excellent housing, educational, and commercial opportunities during the Apartheid regime, enabling them to dominate the country’s economic landscape. As per the 2022/2023 Household Income and Expenditure Survey of South Africa, Afrikaners earn nearly five times more than their Black counterparts and constitute the richest 10% of the South African population, which consists of Whites who control 71% of the country’s wealth. Also, in terms of land distribution, Afrikaners, along with other White South Africans, control 71% of the country’s entire farmland despite being less than 10% of the total population. In contrast, Black South Africans own much less.

The dominance of Afrikaners in the South African economy and their residence in affluent urban cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg, Gqeberha, East London, Durban and Pretoria in 2025 clearly suggests that there is no state-sponsored ‘genocide’ taking place against them.  Factual evidence to the contrary also punctures the narrative promoted by the Trump administration that Afrikaners are being ethnically cleansed by the ANC government.

In fact, those suffering the most are Black South Africans who have been at the receiving end of South Africa’s prevailing inequalities during apartheid. This includes citizens who endured legislations such as the Group Areas Act of 1950, whereby the Afrikaner government designated specific areas for exclusive ownership and occupation to certain racial groups and the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 when the apartheid police opened fire on Black South Africans protesting against the pass laws, or an internal passport system imposed on different racial groups to restrict their movements and allocate low wage migrant labor.

Trump’s Proclivity Towards Afrikaners is Nothing but Institutionalized Racism

However, condemning Trump’s drive to allow Afrikaners to settle in the United States as refugees should not detract from the fact that many Afrikaners abhor apartheid and are not racist towards their Black counterparts. While racial tensions in South Africa do exist, different racial groups interact and assimilate with one another, with the Afrikaner population being no exception. This explains why many Afrikaners enjoying an affluent lifestyle in the country or otherwise have rebuffed Donald Trump’s proposal of settlement in the United States.  

Bizarre, White Supremacist Conspiracy Theories

The US President’s justification for this proposal is also bizarre. It is a theory that has been cited by many far-right white supremacist groups and politicians, including Peter Dutton of the center-right Liberal Party of Australia and former Senator Fraser Anning, who gained notoriety for pinning the blame on Muslim immigration as the reason for the 2019 Christchurch Mosque terrorist attack in New Zealand.

The allegation is that the predominantly Black ANC government in South Africa, which passed an expropriation law, is confiscating agricultural land from Afrikaners and redistributing it to the Black population. While the law has undoubtedly been operationalized across South Africa, there is no factual evidence to suggest that Afrikaner land is being confiscated or that there is a ‘genocide’ taking place. The implementation of the Expropriation Act has also had a limited impact on White Afrikaner groups, as they continue to hold more than 50% of South African land.

This policy is hence racist and only seeks to sow divisions in post-apartheid South Africa. Expectedly, the reaction from Pretoria has been harsh as throngs of Afrikaners enter the United States after Trump’s call. Instead of calling for reconciliation and sorting out differences internally, Trump has opted to promote white supremacy by inviting members of a certain race at the expense of others who are vilified as criminals, invaders, and terrorists.

In South Africa, however, there is little doubt that Trump’s move brazenly disregards the toxic legacy of apartheid, and with many Afrikaners espousing pro-Israel and pro-genocide views, the US President has once again established his reputation as a white supremacist.  

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • South Africa
  • US
  • Trump
  • Ramaphosa
Hamzah Rifaat

Hamzah Rifaat

A host/anchor, analyst, and visiting fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington D.C.,2016.

Most Read

All
Charlie Kirk Murder Mysteries Multiply

Charlie Kirk Murder Mysteries Multiply

  • Analysis
  • 26 Sep 2025
From the beginning, GB News has been a Zionist asset. Is there any part of UK society that is not infiltrated and colonised by the Zionist movement? (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Reform UK, GB News and the Zionist infiltration of the British far right

  • Opinion
  • 28 Sep 2025
Barrack explicitly asserted that the US is supplying the Lebanese army to fight its own people, even laughing at the idea that this support is intended to confront "Israel". (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Why the US is so open about its intentions for Lebanese civil war

  • Opinion
  • 30 Sep 2025
The most sobering thought is that everyone involved can see the historical parallels, but no one is stopping the menace known as “Israel,” which is dragging the world towards disaster. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

The evolving Middle Eastern Chess Board: Defense pacts and looming danger of another great war

  • Opinion
  • 24 Sep 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

More from this writer

All
Remembering Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah- The ‘Sayyed’ of Resistance and Liberation

Remembering Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah- The ‘Sayyed’ of Resistance and Liberation

There is little doubt that many developing countries continue to be dismayed by reckless US adventurism as well as Europe’s indifference to the plight of their economies. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Mahdi Rtail)

Understanding the Global South: Missed opportunities or a rising force?

Beyond the United States are critical leftist perspectives which underline the reawakening of the Arab left. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

The Reawakening of the Arab Left: Amman to Tunis, new voices challenging empire and capital

Russia in Africa: Strategic Realignment and Open Embracement

Russia in Africa: Strategic Realignment and Open Embracement

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS