When Ideology Kills: South Africa and the Price of Denial

In a refreshing move, the Trump Administration has begun welcoming refugees from South Africa. It’s a massive change in foreign policy, as the approach under the past series of administrations has been to deny that there is anything in South Africa to flee from.

This is an area in which mainstream news has so differed from accounts that have proliferated on the Internet. As the mainstream media has dismissed criticisms of South Africa as a “white supremacist theory,” social media outlets have been used to share some of the most brutal attacks imaginable. The victims are white farmers and their families. The “goal” of the attacks is not theft, but vengeance and the installation of fear among other families.

The attackers, immersed in race-baiting propaganda, seem to believe themselves to be antiheroes of a sort, killing people who were perpetuating an injustice by holding an unfair share of farmland. A narrative claiming that farmers should reflect the demographic of the nation, regardless of who knows anything about farming, and with disregard for private property rights, has created a cultural environment where rural whites literally fear for their lives.

The fact that the current farming population is majority white does not indicate that large swaths of non-whites both want to farm and know how to do so—would-be farmers who would farm, if only those white farmers were not in the way. In fact, similar racial dynamics exist in American farming. In 2022, 91% of American farmers were non-Hispanic White, whereas such whites comprised approximately 59% of the U.S. population. Yet, racial disparities versus the general population are not proof of continuing oppression, just proclivity. A fair environment does not result in equality of outcome. Over thirty-three percent of American software developers are Asian, making up more than their “share” of the population, for example.

There is no shortage of mainstream media articles denying that these murders are happening while simultaneously claiming the attacks are positive, because of Apartheid. Their denials of the existence of anti-white racism continue even as videos show tens of thousands chanting, “Kill the Boer” (kill white farmers), led by Julius Malema (a well-known politician and Member of the National Assembly of South Africa).

Instead, there is a media re-focus on the percentage of farms that are white-owned, as if a high-enough percentage would excuse a genocide. Such media only encourages the attacks by legitimizing the justification for them. The victims of South Africa are usually killed with machetes, as groups of black men enter the farm, break into the home, and brutalize the occupants. The women are often raped before being killed, which often happens in front of other household members. These are not cases of “burglary gone wrong” but acts of terrorism.

Racial hiring that explicitly excludes white people has become widespread, such that there is a pervasive cultural animus towards one racial group. This fosters a sense of a racial class system in which white people do not have the same right to support their families as anyone else, whether as farmers or in any career. Even South African government job listings exclude white applicants. A new law that just passed will allow the government to confiscate land and property from white owners for redistribution.

Some claim that all of this is necessary to “compensate for past oppression,” as if there were a moral impetus to engage in racist policies against innocent people because they are the same color as others from history. President Trump’s position on treating South African refugees appropriately required moral courage, and was aided by his ally Elon Musk, who originated in the country.

The crisis in South Africa runs so counter to leftist narratives that the pseudo-academic worldview risks collapse upon any serious examination of what is happening. After all, their narrative rewrites white people as inherent aggressors and oppressors, and blacks as perennial hapless victims. The idea that anti-white violence could exist stands in testament to the fundamental error of their claims.

It’s anathematic to everything they dogmatically believe. Remember that for them, “whiteness” is not about color, but is inexorably tied to a set of behavioral traits. Examine this infamous graphic from The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, wherein traits like individualism, competitiveness, and the nuclear family are slighted and tied with a racial group.

As such, white behavior and black behavior are pre-defined, which is why they believe they can make encompassing claims about “white people.” People no longer exist autonomously outside of their group. Therefore, what is happening in South Africa cannot be happening. The biggest proponents of white supremacy theory/DEI will therefore claim that these attacks are not happening, even if they were to look in the graves. If it is happening, then their entire ideology is fraudulent.

They have already rewritten history to be in accord with their ideology, so it’s perfectly congruent for them to deny and rewrite the present. Doing so is not without its consequences, however. Allowing the murder and alienation of those responsible for the food supply will result in disaster. Such occurred in Zimbabwe (once named Rhodesia), after similar racial strife. After stealing from and killing the (white) farmers, Zimbabwe went from being the “breadbasket of Africa” to a net importer of food.

Thus, the liberals in the United States and throughout the West who encourage these attacks through silence and denials will ultimately harm those whom they pretend to help. South African industry and tourism will continue to collapse, and eventually, the country will struggle for food. In the meantime, innocent people are being slaughtered for the arduous (and apparently thankless) task of farming. Non-farmers who are white are sometimes attacked for their association, as racial tension is encouraged to foment. There is a moral imperative to bring light to what is happening, and to help those that we can.