You are not helping South Africa — a conservative white Afrikaner’s note to our US friends

My dear conservative American friends

I think we all agree that to be right (about the facts) is more important than to be on the right (politically) and just because one’s informant is on the right, doesn’t mean he is right.

I must start my note with a confession: For many years now, I’ve been watching and enjoying the content of folks like Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray.

I pastor a small church in Pretoria, and most of my flock regard you guys as their long-distance shepherds. The world is truly a small place when Bible study groups in the east of Pretoria spend hours discussing the latest commentary of a Canadian psychologist or a witty comeback from a Californian Jew.

My YouTube feed will also testify to the fact that I’m almost daily on the Daily Wire. Which is why I know that you guys have recently been featuring and interacting with one of my fellow Pretorians, Ernst Roets of AfriForum.

You have also been pushing his narrative, and because of that, you just might soon have many more Afrikaners as your neighbours, given that we’ve been given official refugee status by your president.

So, as an Afrikaner, a conservative and a fan (and apparently a potential refugee), I thought I would write you a quick note.

Let me start by thanking you for giving much-needed balance during the height of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. I thought you guys were brave in challenging that particular narrative when it was very unpopular to do so.

Sometimes I suspected you of being somewhat compromised by the binary culture wars in the US, but in scrutinising the supposedly unfalsifiable stream of wokeness that characterised the last decade or so, your responses and inputs on the matter remain of great value to me. For that, I will always be grateful.

Lack of scrutiny

Having said that, I feel compelled to challenge you on something for which you have more recently become standard-bearers (in my view, somewhat naïvely). I am surprised at the seeming lack of scrutiny with which you accept what I call South Africa’s BLM (Boer Lives Matter) campaign.

You have approached the Boer Lives Matter campaign in a very similar way to how the leftist voices in the US approached the Black Lives Matter movement. Let me explain.

I find it strange that you can swallow one minority’s version of events in South Africa so wholeheartedly and yet so vociferously question the minority report when it comes from African Americans.

When whites in South Africa say they are being killed en masse and that the state is underreporting it, you immediately believe them. But when blacks in the US say they are being persecuted and killed by the state, you suggest their claims are wildly exaggerated.

When whites in SA say “Boer Lives Matter”, you recognise it as a specific injustice. However, when blacks in the US say that very specifically Black Lives Matter (BLM), you point out that actually “All Lives Matter”.

When white activists say Boer Lives Matter, you seemingly remain blind to the fact that many more black South Africans are victims of crime than white Afrikaners.

Roets persuasively metaphorically illustrated that just because someone highlights the injustice of rhino poaching (farm murders) doesn’t mean they are not also against the poaching of elephants (black victims of crime).

That seems fair enough, but why is the illustration valid when it is white rhinos being poached, but not when it is black rhinos being poached? I do not want to lock horns with you unnecessarily, but what am I missing?

When blacks in the US are profiled because of their race, it is blamed on the bad culture pervasive in black communities. When whites in SA are profiled as racist in South Africa, it is “the early stages of genocide”.

When black Americans complain about their income levels relative to white Americans, you point to their lifestyle being luxurious by global standards. When white South Africans complain about their supposed systemic economic exclusion, you don’t bother to do a lifestyle audit on them.

When unarmed blacks are killed by the police in the US, you do a great job of telling us about unarmed white victims to divert the conversation from race. When white farmers are killed in South Africa, there are no balancing statistics.

Here is another thought experiment.

The Black House

Let’s assume for a moment the likes of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Angela Davis and Ibram X Kendi take office in the US. Let’s also assume they turn the White House into the Black House and brutally oppress whites for decades. Whites can’t vote, they can’t marry blacks, they can’t own land, they can’t sit on benches reserved for blacks. All the brave white activists opposing this regime are imprisoned on Robin DiAngelo Island.

Let’s also assume that the tyranny of the Coates, Kendi and Davis regime comes to an end and the white leaders of the US forgive them and inaugurate the New America.

But instead of accepting this incredible grace, these unrepentant blacks demand their own country. They want to separate from white America and turn Orange County into Orange Country, where blacks can govern themselves.

Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? Then why is it reasonable when it is spelt Orania and is supposed to be a future white state that will one day secede from South Africa? Didn’t you guys fight a bloody war when it was tried in the American South? How then can you support the same move in the African South?

Let me reiterate, I’m not a fan of many aspects of what you call wokeness. I have serious reservations about the BLM movement. I even laughed at many scenes in Matt Walsh’s documentaries. I don’t think the ANC is doing a great job and I’m not a fan of the “Kill the Boer” song.

But in the same way that Black Lives Matter exploited the tragic reality of police heavy-handedness in the US, is it not possible that you and your platforms are being used to politicise and exploit the tragic farm murders in South Africa for political gain?

More nuance

Didn’t you long for more nuance and sober-minded reporting in the wake of everything surrounding George Floyd? Didn’t you accuse the leftist media of one-sidedness and ideological race-baiting?

At least consider that you do not have the full picture regarding Boer Lives Matter.

What you are doing is not helping the situation in South Africa or helping the Afrikaner. We have been planted here at the southern tip of Africa and we have done many things magnificently well, but we have also made spectacular blunders.

And yet, by far the majority of us see our futures inextricably intertwined with those of our fellow South Africans. Most of us do not see ourselves as victims and many of us take exception to being classified as refugees.

You are in real danger of mimicking the left and their handling of the BLM matter in the US by not gathering the appropriate information and by not seeing the full picture.

As I said at the start of the conversation, to be right (about the facts) is more important than to be on the right (politically).

I implore you to at least consider the possibility that just because your informant in this instance is on the right, it doesn’t necessarily mean he is right. DM