"Refugee" for (white) me, but not for (brown and black) thee

Trump's swinging the doors of America wide open, but only to a *very select* few.

In another chapter of overt Trump 2.0 racism, the Trump Administration now bastardizes the famous quote on the Statue of Liberty to basically say: “Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, but only if they’re white Afrikaners from South Africa.” If you’re not in that group, don’t even bother to try to come here.

On February 7, 2025, Trump signed yet another inane Executive Order, this one halting all foreign assistance to South Africa, but PRIORITIZING the “admission and resettlement” of white “Afrikaner refugees” into the United States because of the country’s “countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.” Trump claimed that the South African government was committing “massive human rights violations” by “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people [white Afrikaners] VERY BADLY.” He also falsely accused the government of “racial discrimination” against white African farmers.

Trump’s EO was deemed to be retribution for a recent law that was signed by South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, in January of 2025. Called the Expropriation Act of 2024, it repealed an apartheid-era law and provides for a judicial process by which the government can seize privately-held land without paying compensation, but only in circumstances where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest” to do so.

Important Background: During Apartheid, the Natives Land Act of 1913 restricted Black South African land ownership to only 7% of the country. This number may have been (nominally) increased to 13% in 1936, while the country was simultaneously implementing the brutal and forced removal and dispossession of land by Black owners.

A 2017 audit of land ownership documented the outrageous lack of equity: white South Africans owned 72% of the country’s farming and agricultural land, while Black South Africans owned a total of only 4%. To truly understand how out of balance these numbers are: “a 2022 census revealed that white South Africans accounted for 7.3% of the country’s population, while Black South Africans accounted for 81.4%.” Talk about an upside-down world.

And voices like Elon Musk, who was born in Pretoria, South Africa, pour kerosene on the conflagration by peddling lies like this post on Twitter/X in July of 2023:

Now, while the doors to America have been decidedly slammed shut to true refugees who are attempting to escape persecution in their home countries, this Trump Administration is tripping over itself in its haste to roll out the red carpet for white Afrikaners. According to The NY Times, the Trump Administration currently plans to “transport 54 Afrikaners to the United States on a charter flight scheduled to leave Johannesburg on Sunday.” That’s tomorrow, folks. Courtesy of Trump, white Afrikaners have had an expedited refugee process, sometimes as short as only 3 months, while others toil for YEARS to be able to be processed and approved for admission and resettlement in the United States. It’s bad enough that Trump is selectively admitting white Afrikaners, but he’s also making it easier and faster for them to do so.

The Washington Post reports that “federal and Virginia officials [are] preparing to receive them in a ceremonial news conference” at Dulles International Airport. When do you see federal and state officials greeting refugees upon their arrival to the United States?! Like I said, rolling out the red carpet.

And “I’m Going to Suspend Habeas Corpus” Stephen Miller outrageously and absurdly claimed on Friday that “what’s happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created. This is persecution based on a protected characteristic, in this case, race.” But, of course the TRUTH would suggest otherwise: according to the United Nations, “no South Africans of any race, ethnicity or linguistic group were vetted by the United Nations as meeting its criteria to be resettled as refugees” in 2024. Stated plainly: NO SOUTH AFRICANS qualified in 2024 for refugee resettlement in the US. But, now that Trump is back in the Oval Office, it’s a free-for-all for white Afrikaner refugees.

Trump’s racist double-standards cannot be ignored.

Be mad. Be outraged. Demand accountability.