Earlier this week, the Trump administration told Congress it planned to resettle up to 17,500 white Afrikaners in the United States over the next year. The project will cost an estimated $500 million, CBS reported. The White House “anticipates” their assimilation “in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens and does not anticipate other countries resettling Afrikaners,” but the statement does not actually explain why it is so concerned with this group but not other refugees or migrants, who face gang violence, repression, and economic collapse in their home countries. What distinguishes white Afrikaners from Haitians, Venezuelans, and Mexicans, whom the administration deports en masse? The most obvious difference — skin color — gets us most of the way to an answer.

The administration believes, falsely, that white farmers face disproportionate rates of racially motivated violence in South Africa, citing high-profile incidents, such as murders and robberies. The lie began with the far right, where South Africa and Zimbabwe “have exerted a fascination” because they allegedly “show what happens to a white minority after they lose control of countries they once ruled,” The Guardian explained. Far-right Afrikaners speak to National Conservatism conferences and groups like the New York Young Republican Club to stir up support for their cause. Tucker Carlson, Ann Coulter, and Michael Savage have all joined in, eager to promote the idea of white genocide. They’ve found a willing mark in Trump, who said last year there’s “a genocide that’s taking place” that the media doesn’t “want to write about.”

This is, of course, not true. In 2025, Gareth Newham of the South........

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