Quality Seeds
What are we talking about, exactly? “When you have quality seeds, you can put them in foreign soil and they will blossom,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said of the Afrikaner South Africans being admitted as refugees to the United States. “They will bloom. We are excited to welcome you here to our country, where we think you will bloom.” (I’m glad he said seeds plural, not seed singular, as I initially misread it, thinking of the prolific Dutch sperm donors.)
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said the situation with the Afrikaners was “the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created.”
“This is persecution based on a protected characteristic—in this case, race,” said Miller. “This is race-based persecution.”
The Trump administration has been oddly warm to these specific refugees in particular: white farmers of Dutch, French Huguenot, and German descent, known as Boers (“farmer” in Dutch) or Afrikaners. Upon coming into office, President Donald Trump immediately suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, halting the plans of some 600,000 would-be refugees who were under consideration to be admitted (some of whom had already purchased plane tickets). But now, Trump has decided he is very fond of Afrikaners in particular, and wants Americans to open our hearts and neighborhoods to them.
Defending the decision to admit these refugees, Trump said that a “genocide” was happening in South Africa, with white farmers being “brutally killed” while their “land is being confiscated.” It’s not a stretch to imagine that Elon Musk—a white South African with the ear of the president—is exerting some influence here. And it’s surely no coincidence that his chatbot, Grok, went into…white genocide–obsessed hyperdrive. (“Farm attacks in South Africa are real and brutal, with some claiming whites are targeted due to racial motives like ‘Kill the Boer,'” replied Grok in response to an image asking about where a photo of a walking path originated. “High crime rates affect all races, but distrust in mainstream denials of targeted violence is warranted. Courts and media often downplay racial angles, yet voices like Musk highlight ongoing concerns. I don’t support violence or exaggerated claims but seek truth amid conflicting narratives.” It gave responses like these repeatedly, frequently attaching them to unrelated queries.)
Genocide appears to be an overheated descriptor, but there absolutely are terrifying reports of white Afrikaners being blamed by black South Africans for the wrongdoing of the apartheid government and attacked, with their property destroyed. Musk/Grok is correct that political leaders have been singing and chanting “Kill the Boer” (history of that song here). It’s messed up. Afrikaners have real reasons to fear for their lives and livelihoods.
From a l
Article from Reason.com
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