White Genocide

1926 during the initial “America First” Era

If you use the right title, select the right words, you often predetermine the resultant valuation. Words like Donald Trump’s “large-scale killings” of white farmers in South Africa, or as former head Klansman David Duke paraphrases that description to his own highly-racist constituency, “white genocide” lead most to shock and condemnation. The meaning behind those words resonate with that segment of Trump’s base that supports an American vision of traditional white Christian supremacy and values – symbolized by the words “American First” which has been a white supremacist rallying cry to politicians beginning back during and after World War I (reflected in the rather open march down Pennsylvania Avenue of 50,000 Ku Klan Klansmen on September 13, 1926 pictured above, not the first such march by the way) – notwithstanding that this demographic cohort is hardly a majority of U.S. citizens.

It doesn’t take an expert to read the tea leaves of the Trump administration to smell the rancid odor of racism that permeates Washington these days. Donald Trump’s rather obvious reaction to the white nationalists marching in Charlottesville was enough by itself, but the President just cannot help himself from identifying with white supremacists the world over. Yes, there have been killings of white farmers in South Africa, but the murders have been relegated to one-off murders in the countryside, not sanctioned or led by any governmental policy. 47 such killings over 2017/18. But the issue is far more complex, stemming from a continuing level of inequality that is a holdover from South Africa’s apartheid days. But for Donald Trump, the temptation to please his base on white supremacy issues is simply irresistible.

“President Trump embraced a longtime white-nationalist talking point when he tweeted about alleged ‘large scale killing’ of white farmers in South Africa, drawing praise Thursday [8/23] from white nationalists and protests from anti-racism groups in the United States.

“‘I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers,’ Trump tweeted Wednesday night. Appearing to quote a Tucker Carlson segment on Fox News, Trump wrote the ‘South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.’

“South Africa’s government immediately protested Trump’s remark, writing on Twitter that ‘South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past.’… [But what is really happening in South Africa?]

“For decades, South Africa has struggled to correct the legacy of apartheid, in which a white ruling minority — the descendants of European colonialists — had denied black South Africans various rights and access to farmland.

“Today, black South Africans make up 80% of the population but own just 4% of the country’s land. The government, dominated by the African National Congress since 1994, has pursued policies seeking to transfer white-owned farmland to black owners, often meeting failure.

“South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has suggested amending the constitution to allow uncompensated seizures by the government… South Africa has a high overall homicide rate compared with other countries, and farmers have sometimes been victims of violence. But a recent report by a consortium of agricultural associations said that the number of farmers killed from 2017 to 2018 — 47 — was actually at a 20-year low.

“The issue has been closely followed in the U.S. by white nationalists and far-right figures, who have hyped stories of black-on-white violence in South Africa, as they often do in the U.S., to help push their political messages about the need for white power.

“‘Opening up space to talk about White South Africans — giving his base the permission to seriously discuss White dispossession — is a monumental achievement,’ tweeted Richard Spencer, a prominent white nationalist… Spencer added a caveat: ‘I’ll remain critical of all this because Trump is effectively live-tweeting Fox News, and he has simply not been effective at implementing policies that reflect his defining ideas.’

“South African experts and political figures largely denounced Trump’s ‘large scale killing’ tweet... ‘People are not being targeted because of their race, but because they are vulnerable and isolated on the farms,’ Gareth Newham, head of the crime and justice program at the Institute for Security Studies in the capital, Johannesburg, told the Associated Press.

“‘He is part of the right-wing lynch mob using the fear factor in order for us to maintain the status quo,’ Zizi Kodwa, a member of the ruling party’s national executive committee, told the Associated Press. ‘Donald Trump is a weapon of mass destruction.’

“Former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard accused Trump of using a ‘disproven racial myth’ to distract the public from the recent guilty plea and criminal conviction of close political associates Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort.” Los Angeles Times, August 24^th. 

The United States is already deeply and profoundly fractured. Yet we continue to find more and more reasons to break into antagonistic subgroups, each embracing profoundly irreconcilable political demands, many of which fly dramatically in the face of the U.S. Constitution. And Donald Trump has become the “Wedge-Master,” finding more ways to make sure this nation stays divided. Trump’s primary business strategy has always been to create chaos, divide and conquer. He believes this is a winning policy. That strategy has generated approximately 3,500 Trump-involved lawsuits, many bankrupt Trump-related businesses and seems to likely to create greater damage when applied to governing what was once the greatest democracy in the world.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I find this deepening fracture of America among the most disturbing aspects of the Trump White House.