Countless Africans are suffering from famine, disease, and conflicts. But only one group is deemed worthy by Donald Trump to become Americans. Not surprisingly, it's the richest (and whitest).
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Anybody who has been following Donald Trump’s career and knows about his well-established history of racism and the pronounced xenophobia that shapes his policies probably did a double take when they saw that the president announced Friday that the United States would be opening its otherwise no-longer-welcoming arms to a group of people from Africa of all places.
Who are these special Africans who were not only offered refuge but also a “rapid pathway to citizenship?”
Were they victims of one of the continent’s many armed conflicts? No, that’s not it.
Maybe Trump is referring to people from Liberia. After all, the country was founded as a place to resettle former American slaves, so perhaps the president wants to bring their descendants back to right a historic wrong? LOL, obviously not.
Or perhaps he wants to help children suffering from Elon Musk’s cruel efforts to choke off foreign aid to those in need?
After all, one whistleblower from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) estimated that these cuts would result in millions of people from across the globe no longer getting potentially life-saving aid. That whistleblower estimates that tens of thousands of people in Africa would die annually from malaria because of Musk’s decision.
Are those the refugees who Trump wants to welcome to the US? Nope, but we are getting closer (because Musk is involved).
Or, while they are technically not Africans, perhaps the president wants to bring some of the Palestinians to the US who were displaced to Egypt and other African countries as a result of Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip? That would have the added advantage of cleansing that piece of pristine real estate from pesky Palestinians so that Trump can turn it into a developer’s utopia.
Wrong again.
So, who are these poor Africans who have suffered more than all of the above and therefore merit Trump’s loving embrace (as well as special refugee status and a fast-track to US citizenship)?
Well, white South Africans, of course — i.e., people like Elon!
After running a racist regime in South Africa through the 1990s, they have really been hard done by as the country’s Black majority has tried to redistribute the wealth that the white population gained as a result of that oppression. That has obviously not always been a smooth process.
However, white South Africans continue to do well in the continent’s richest country. On average, a Black household owns just 5 percent of the wealth that a white household owns.
That’s not good enough for Trump, who won’t let white people suffer like that.
“South Africa is being terrible, plus, to long time Farmers in the country. They are confiscating their LAND and FARMS, and MUCH WORSE THAN THAT. A bad place to be right now, and we are stopping all Federal Funding,” stated the US president in a typically Trumpian word salad. “To go a step further, any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship. This process will begin immediately!”
Well, there you have it. It’s the answer to this mystery… and to whether Trump’s racism is more pronounced than his xenophobia.
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
