Texas Chicken Run highlights white privilege
The US fast-tracking of Afrikaner refugees highlights white privilege, while thousands of other refugees are left stranded in limbo.
It has probably cost the US state department almost $1 million (about R18 million) to charter a wide-body Boeing 767 to fly the first batch of 49 white Afrikaner 'refugees' to their new home in America, to say nothing of the fast-tracking of the asylum process, which normally takes up to three years.
Then, there will need to be some financial support for these people fleeing 'persecution' at home. Presumably some may claim their land has been expropriated or that they're unemployed because B-BBEE discriminates against white people.
All the while, another 12 000 people who have been through the full, formal process to get US residence as refugees, are left hanging because President Donald Trump officially suspended the refugee programme the day he took office on 20 January.
Now, as the Yanks might say about their new compatriots, that's some white privilege right there…
According to the US embassy, the asylum offer is now open to any South African who is a member of a minority and who has either experienced 'persecution' or believes they may be subject to persecution.
ALSO READ: Ramaphosa to meet Trump, says 49 Afrikaners headed to US are not 'refugees'
No doubt there will be many who will see this as an opportunity to get out of a country inexorably being run into the ground by the ANC – but is this fleeing from persecution or is it merely economic migration?
The right-wing lobby in this country has succeeded in convincing Trump that white people are not safe in South Africa.
And, in so doing, they have thoroughly poisoned the well of race relations here.
Interesting to see that one of those lobbyists, Kallie Kriel, has no intention of joining the Texas Chicken Run, because he wants to stay and improve things here.
So, Kriel, why didn't you try to do that right from the beginning, instead of lighting the fuse and then melting into the background?
NOW READ: Afrikaners who accepted Trump's refugee offer 'know there's no persecution in SA' – expert
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