"White genocide" isn't a thing. Trump disagrees.

It's Been a Minute

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🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

You may have heard that the U.S. gained 59 new residents last month from South Africa - and that more came this past weekend. They're all white Afrikaners: a white minority group descended from European colonists. Trump has given some of these white Afrikaners refugee status because he claims a "white genocide" is happening against them in South Africa. This claim is untrue. So where is it coming from?

And why might this claim be politically expedient for the Trump administration? And what parallels can we see between some of the white Afrikaners and the American right? Brittany sits down with South African journalist Kate Bartlett and Sean Jacobs, professor of international affairs at the New School to get into it.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	As NPR's Daily Economics Podcast, the Indicator has been asking businesses how tariffs are affecting their bottom line.
0:07.6	I paid $800,000 today.
0:09.7	You paid $800,000 in tariffs today.
0:12.1	Yes.
0:13.1	Wow.
0:13.8	And what that means for your bottom line.
0:16.4	Listen to the indicator from Planet Money.
0:18.1	Find us wherever you get your podcasts.
0:24.5	Hello. the indicator from Planet Money, find us wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR,
0:29.7	a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:48.8	You may have already heard, but the U.S. gained 59 new residents last month,
0:52.0	who all arrived on a plane from South Africa.
0:59.1	We've essentially extended citizenship to those people to escape from violence and come here.
1:03.8	And even more came this past weekend. They're all white Afrikaners.
1:08.5	Afrikaners are a white minority group here in South Africa. For those who don't know what that means, here's South African journalist Kate Bartlett.
1:13.3	Basically, the descendants of European colonists, mainly Dutch colonists, Afrikaners,
1:19.7	were the architects of the system of apartheid segregation, racial segregation in South
1:25.4	Africa, okay, by which black and white people lived under different
1:30.0	rules.
1:31.2	Apartheid.
1:32.0	It ended 30 years ago in the early 90s, and South Africa is trying to rectify what's
1:36.9	still a seriously unequal society.
	...

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