By Saul Wenger
As part of an ongoing barrage of racist, chauvinist, and xenophobic rhetoric and policies, United States president Donald Trump has, during a diplomatic meeting with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa on May 21, 2025, unambiguously endorsed the notion that there is an ongoing “genocide” against the Afrikaner population (white descendants of Dutch settlers).
This incident comes after the United States government granted refugee status to over 50 white South Africans in the prior months. The justification for these actions and statements by Donald Trump partially include allegations that white South Africans are experiencing oppression by the native population as expressed in measures such as seizure of white-owned land.
The notion of an Afrikaner “genocide” is nothing more than a component of the wider myth of a “white genocide”, “reverse racism”, “great replacement”, etc. which is espoused by reactionaries, neo-Nazis, and other white supremacists everywhere and in that respect represents nothing unique.
Beyond the thin veil of the “anti-white racism” myth in South Africa is a reality which is entirely different to the conditions which white supremacists view as present.
Prior to 1994, South Africa was under the herrenvolk rule of the National Party which maintained an apartheid state which took direct inspiration from Hitlerite Germany. South Africa under the Afrikaner-dominated National Party granted large amount of privilege to white South Africans while fiercely discriminating against the black majority. This state of affairs would begin to change when Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress would be sworn in as president in 1994.
Mandela, while progressive, was not a communist and South Africa remained a capitalist state encumbered by racial inequities to the modern day, with his policies generally doing little to reduce disparities in ownership in most economic sectors.
In the present, massive inequities exist in all sections of South African society. Over 80% of farmland in particular is owned by whites despite composing less than 10% of the overall population. Similarly, white South Africans make five times more in terms of wages than their black counterparts.
The facts demonstrate clearly that there is no such thing as “white genocide” in South Africa or anywhere else. On the contrary, white supremacy has established itself firmly in South Africa even after decades of attempted reforms.
Fascists and neo-fascists have always sought to invert and twist reality to their liking. They make departures from even the most basic facts to suite their fantastical notions.
Trump is no enemy of genocide and racism; he is among its greater perpetrators in the modern day.
Down with all forms of racism and hatred!
Workers of the world, unite!
