Yes, racism is alive and well in the United States and especially in the occupant’s administration. Of course, you would have to be living under a rock to not know this. The specific manifestation of racism to which I am referring to is the occupant’s welcoming white South Africans to the US as refugees. Fifty-nine people had “expedited” refugee status because they are “victims of racism” in South Africa. When you stop laughing, read on.
According to the BBC, when asked why the Afrikaners were being fast tracked, the occupant said “a genocide” was taking place and that “white famers” specifically were being targeted. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the situation was “not true.” He went on to say “a refugee is someone who has to leave their country out of fear of political persecution, religious persecution, or economic persecution. And they don’t fit that bill.”
In January President Ramaphosa signed a controversial law allowing the government to seize privately owned land without compensation in certain circumstances when it is deemed “equitable and in the public interest.” No land has yet been seized under this law.
Apartheid ended over thirty years ago. Still, blacks make up 90% of the population but own only 4% of land. Whites control over 72% of the land. Land reform has been glacial, at best. It would appear the occupant acted on a report from South African Elon Musk who planted the genocide idea in his feeble brain. Indeed, claims of genocide of white farmers have been widely discredited.
The redistribution of land is a justice issue for South African Blacks. While apartheid may be long over, equality is still a distant hope for many South Afrikaners.
All the while those legitimately waiting to be processed as refugees in the United states have been stopped dead in their tracks. This is flat out racism on display. The occupant has stopped all immigration processing. As a result, a forty-year partnership with the Episcopal church, which has partnered with the government to aid in refugee resettlement, is coming to an end. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe stated, “I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country.”
Melissa Keaney, a lawyer with the International Refugee Assistance project said the decision to fast track the white South Africans is “a lot of hypocrisy and unequal treatment.” Her organization is suing the occupant’s administration after it indefinitely suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program in January. This left over 120,000 conditionally approved refugees in limbo. While it is true that immigration reform is necessary in the US, this is not the kind of reform that makes any sense. The occupant’s willingness to buy a false narrative about white victimhood fits his overall racist position.
Whether in South Africa or the United States, racism is alive and well. The lack of public outcry in the US is indicative of our systemic racism. How is it that we are willing to accept a group of white “refugees” from South Africa and deny those who are legitimately at risk in their own country? The only answer is racism. Given that 62% of Americans nominally identify as Christian, we have failed dismally in getting Jesus’ message across that all people are equally loved by God, equal in God’s sight and equal in the life of the faith community. In Galatians 3:28 we read, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The equality of all believers in Christ Jesus regardless of social or biological characteristics transcends the human distinctions we fabricate. It is a social issue that has a spiritual root. We have failed in the faith and not followed the way of Jesus in our relationships. We can’t solve systemic racism in the US, but we can rout our own.
The Irreverent Reverend 