Who Deserves Refugee Status Under Trump? Only White South Africans.

Trump shut down refugee resettlement for people fleeing war-torn nations like Afghanistan, Syria, and Palestine, but made an exception for white South Africans. We unpack the blatant racism and hypocrisy here, why this move is more of a statement than a policy, and how to start formulating a Christian response. (From Holy Post Podcast 669)

Phil: We are now open to accepting refugees again. If they come from South Africa and they’re white—then the plaque on the Statue of Liberty rings true again. If you're white, from South Africa, and maybe you're feeling a little uncomfortable because of some recent laws that have been passed... laws that could potentially allow for the redistribution of land. 

These laws are meant to balance out the fact that the very small white minority owns almost all the farmland in South Africa, and the very large Black majority owns almost none. They haven’t actually seized any land, but there is a law where redistribution could happen if it’s deemed necessary.

And the Trump administration—which includes a number of high-profile people with connections to South Africa (Elon Musk being only one of them)—is suddenly very concerned about racial discrimination being practiced in South Africa. So we gotta get 'em outta there.

Skye: Okay. You gotta put this all in context of the fact that this is the same administration that’s basically shut down all refugee resettlement in this country.

Phil: That’s why I said, “We’re open to accepting refugees again.” We stopped it. We don’t want any Somalian refugees who are fleeing the crisis in Somalia. Or Palestinian refugees—people who are dying. Or even Ukrainian refugees—we’re ready to send them back, because for some reason, we decided that maybe Russia was...

Skye: Or how about this—how about the Afghan refugees? Military personnel who helped us—who got abandoned by us when we left that country so quickly, and who’ve been trying to make their way to the United States because they’re under threat of persecution and death in Afghanistan. And we won’t accept them.

Not only are we welcoming white, quote-unquote “refugees” from South Africa—most of whom are very wealthy landowners—we have paid for charter flights to bring them to the United States. And when they land in Dulles—which is supposed to happen today, at Washington, D.C.’s airport—they’re going to be greeted by U.S. dignitaries.

This is rolling out the red carpet for white people in Africa who might be experiencing some racial discrimination.

The one thing I appreciate about this entire story—and this administration—is that it’s no longer a dog whistle. It’s a bullhorn. Remember what Trump said during his first administration? He got upset and said, “Why are we accepting so many immigrants from [expletive] countries? Why can’t we get more people from, like, Norway?”

It’s his way of saying, “I want white people. Not brown people.” And now they’re accepting white people—wealthy white people—and calling them “refugees,” while people of color—who are legitimate refugees seeking asylum from real persecution—are not getting chartered planes. They’re not being welcomed. They’re not getting red carpets.

Phil: And 80% of the people who seek asylum at the southern border are Christians. Christians seeking asylum because they feel their lives are in danger. But we’ve got a group that’s trying to root out anti-Christian bias... though not if it happens in another country and results in someone wanting our help—if that person is brown.

Phil: Okay, Kaitlyn, what should a Christian think about this? You’re a Christian.

Kaitlin: I mean, it seems both patently racist and also like it just panders to certain people who see this as a signal—kind of a symbolic move—by the Trump administration to support their broader social and political interests.

This is affecting a very small number of people. So while it’s significant—because it’s a form of hypocrisy that’s blatantly racially discriminatory—it doesn’t seem like a policy that’s actually intended to do much for a large group of people. It seems like a policy designed to send a very specific message to a particular audience in the U.S. That’s what makes it so explicit, to Skye’s  point—it reveals the priorities of the administration.

This goes back to the first Trump administration. At that time, we were constantly dealing with things where you’d say, “Okay, it seems like the motivation is racist,” or, “It seems like the eventual effect will be harmful,” or, “If you read between the lines, we know what he’s doing.”

But now it’s almost harder to know how to respond, because things are just blatant.

And that’s where I think we really have to work in our communities to have good conversations about this stuff. When it’s something so obviously wrong and bad, it’s hard to even explain it to someone who disagrees. It feels wrong and bad to have to explain why it’s wrong and bad.

But we’ve got to unpack both the political and the biblical reasons for how we think about these things. And we also have to find ways to communicate well with people who are coming in with different presuppositions and different biases that shape how they interpret all of this.

That’s the hardest part. Because you’re going to be talking with a family member, or someone at church, and it’ll feel like this is so obviously bad, and you don’t even know how to explain why it’s bad. And learning how to have those conversations is a real challenge—and a really important one right now.

Skye: Do you think the administration is doing this just to troll their political opponents? Like, “This’ll really get ’em angry”?

Phil: A lot of things are like that—just trolling.

Skye:The South African government actually responded. Did you see that in the article? This is my favorite part. They responded to the Trump administration and called out the hypocrisy.

Here’s the quote:

“It is ironic that the executive order by Donald Trump makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains among the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.”

Even the South African government gets how ridiculous this is.