The establishment media has gotten itself into another fine mess, as the late, great Oliver Hardy would have put it. And, once again, it is destined for humiliation at the hands of President Donald Trump. On May 21, he hosted Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, at the White House. This meeting came on the heels of 59 Afrikaners arriving in the United States – white South Africans of primarily Dutch descent who chose to flee a regime that is openly hostile toward them.
At one point during the encounter between the two leaders, Trump made his South African counterpart watch a video of a black South African politician, at a packed outdoor rally, inciting the murder of white farmers.
The US leftist media was not happy, but they have already picked out the paint and chosen the corner into which they will paint themselves – again. As if any more proof were needed that there is no independent journalism on the left and that these media outfits all draw from the same progressive talking points, the rebukes were swift and all but identical.
Trump’s claim that the white farmers of South Africa are the victims of genocide was attacked by much of the left-wing legacy media as “unfounded,” “false,” “unsubstantiated,” etc.
The New York Times and ABC News, in particular, took a drubbing on the X social media platform. Their attempts to deny the existence of a deadly situation for which the evidence is copious and beyond rational dispute drew much scorn and ridicule.
Reality in South Africa
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines genocide as “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race.” Whether what has been happening in South Africa can be called genocide, then, is a matter of perspective. Race is not the only factor driving the undeniable victimization of Afrikaner farmers – but it is a factor. That’s hard to deny, given the videos of hundreds of black rallygoers chanting “kill the white farmer.”
The former African National Congress (ANC) leader and president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, once sang, “Shoot the Farmer, Kill the Boer” at a party rally, even though the song was officially banned. Boer means farmer, but only white South Africans call themselves – or are known as – Boers.
It should be noted that South Africa’s ruling Marxist ANC doesn’t allow unsanctioned rallies. If a huge crowd of people is whipped into a frenzy and chanting for the death of certain people, then the ANC has given that event at least tacit approval.
In 2017, the Australian website news.com.au published the story of Sue Howarth and her husband, Robert Lynn. They had a farm in Dullstroom, South Africa. One night, their home was invaded by three black men who tortured them for hours – partly with a blowtorch – before driving them out to the side of the road and shooting them. Somehow, Howarth survived and was found the next day by passers-by. However, she died in the hospital from her injuries.
This is just one of a great many similar attacks. The news report noted, “Nearly every day, horrific acts of rape, torture and murder are carried out on a community under siege.” The story also cited figures from the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) and AfriForum, a civil rights group. “In total, between 1998 and the end of 2016, 1,848 people have been murdered in farm attacks — 1,187 farmers, 490 family members, 147 farm employees, and 24 people who happened to be visiting the farm at the time.”
Not All Black and White
At the same time, South Africa has opposition parties, some led by and mostly consisting of whites – so there is no all-out race war being waged there. Whites make up around 7% of the population. Most are descended from the Dutch, who began settling in what is now South Africa in the mid-1600s. Their language, Afrikaans, is predominantly a Germanic language, a form of Dutch but with its own characteristics.
It is also worth considering the overall crime rate. After the ruling white National Party ended the system of apartheid and ceded power to the ANC, South Africa – by far the most stable and prosperous country in sub-Saharan Africa – rapidly descended into chaos and poverty. For nearly three decades now, South Africa has been one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
Trump’s claims, then, may need some context, but they are neither false nor unfounded. White farmers are indeed the targets of systematic violence, whether one calls it genocide or not. The media has chosen to downplay the many lethal assaults on white farmers as merely a part of South Africa’s out-of-control crime wave.
Yet, the statistics – never mind the homicidal threats by South Africa’s black government-approved activist community – point to the deliberate targeting of white-owned farms. TAU spokesman Henk van de Graaf in 2016 told Swedish newspaper Nya Tider, “The average murder ratio per 100,000 of the population in the world is nine, I believe. In South Africa, it is 54. But for the farming community it is 138, which is the highest for any occupation in the world.”
Media Opens Pandora’s Box
America’s legacy media is battered and bruised and, figuratively, near death after a brutal few years. Promoting stories that turned out to be hoaxes while refuting an almost countless number of claims that were eventually verified has taken its toll.
This was not the hill anti-Trump editorial boards should have chosen to die on. The president has now shone a spotlight on South Africa. While the so-called mainstream media will not investigate the plight of the Afrikaners, others no doubt will. The more they dig, the more apparent it will become that the South African regime is allowing, or at least ignoring, an ongoing murderous campaign in which whites are the victims and blacks the aggressors. That’s not something the American left wants people to hear.
The cacophony of indignation over Trump’s remarks about South Africa was too swift, too loud, and too orchestrated. Now, a lot more people are going to be taking an interest in something about which the leftist media would rather Americans knew nothing.
That corner seems to be getting smaller and more uncomfortable – and that paint isn’t drying anytime soon.
