On Wednesday, May 21, President Donald Trump once again sullied the presidency and our nation’s reputation by ambushing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a made-for-social-media propaganda stunt that was peppered with lies and misleading video about an alleged white genocide in the country.
This scene was part of a larger drama Trump is orchestrating to cast white Afrikaners — the descendants of mostly Dutch colonizers who violently ruled South Africa for four centuries and set up the racist apartheid system of white rule over a Black majority population in 1948 — as victims.
Robert P. Jones
But in an important show of wisdom and courage, the U.S. Episcopal Church recently refused to play their assigned part in Trump’s sinister attempt to rewrite global history in which the white oppressors are the victims.
Here’s how The New York Times described Trump’s shameful behavior at the Oval Office meeting, which was reminiscent of his previous treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy:
A visit by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa to the White House took a contentious turn on Wednesday as President Trump showed him videos intended to back up Mr. Trump’s false claim that there have been mass killings of Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority that once led the nation’s apartheid government.
A televised meeting between the leaders seemed to begin cordially. But then Mr. Trump dimmed the lights in the Oval Office and began showing a prepared video that amplified false claims of mass killings of white South Africans. …
The meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa was a stark example of a foreign leader trying to give a reality check to Mr. Trump, who instead amplified fringe theories. “You’re taking people’s land away, and in many cases those people are being executed,” Trump claimed without evidence. …
The South African delegation, which included two professional golfers who are acquainted with Mr. Trump, tried to explain the situation on the ground in South Africa. He remained unmoved, responding, “Dead white people, dead white farmers.” Mr. Ramaphosa also pushed back on Mr. Trump’s claims of genocide.
The White House delegation included the billionaire Elon Musk, who remained silent during the confrontation. Mr. Trump waved at Mr. Musk, saying, “Elon happens to be from South Africa. This is what Elon wanted.” Mr. Trump also held up printed out articles he said were on the killings of white people in South Africa. He flipped through them, repeating, “Death, death, death.”
“Of course, Trump made no mention of South Africa’s violent history of white supremacy and apartheid.”
Trump’s propaganda video showed crosses and earthen mounds that Trump falsely claimed were more than 1,000 grave sites of murdered white farmers. But according to the Washington Post, “the mounds were in fact part of a protest against the violence, not actual graves.” Of course, Trump made no mention of South Africa’s violent history of white supremacy and apartheid.
The latest drama occurs against the backdrop of Trump halting essentially all refugee resettlement on day one of his presidency, only to sign another executive order in February making an exception for white South African Afrikaners, who now have coveted “Priority 1” refugee status and even a path to U.S. citizenship. The first 59 white Afrikaners arrived in the U.S. on May 12.
Just ahead of the Afrikaners’ arrival, the Episcopal Church announced it would end its decades-long work, which has helped resettle more than 110,000 refugees over four decades, rather than participate in Trump’s propaganda. Importantly, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe decided to “leave loudly,” issuing a statement, explaining their reasons for refusing to participate in the resettlement and calling out the Trump administration for its distortions of refugee policy:
In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step. Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government.
It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years. 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.
Rowe’s action marks another act of Episcopalian resistance to the Trump administration’s approach to immigration, including most prominently Bishop Mariann Budde’s appeal to Trump to show mercy at an inaugural prayer service.
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba
Rowe’s actions also prompted a letter of thanks from Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town to Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, which also set the record straight (see the full original letter here):
What the administration refers to as anti-white racial discrimination is nothing of the kind. Our government implements affirmative action on the lines of that in the United States, designed not to discriminate against whites but to overcome the historic disadvantages Black South Africans have suffered.
By every measure of economic and social privilege, white South Africans as a whole remain the beneficiaries of apartheid. Measured by the Gini coefficient, which measures income disparity, we are the most unequal society in the world, with the majority of the poor Black, and the majority of the wealthy white.
Unfortunately, other Christian groups, such as Church World Service and a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-related program in North Carolina, are complying. And when pressed by reporters to justify their actions, they hide behind the thinnest of theological platitudes:
- Rick Santos, Church World Service president and CEO: “Our faith compels us to serve each person in our care with dignity and compassion.”
- Marc Wyatt, director of Welcome House Raleigh, a project of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship: “Our position is that however morally and ethically charged it is, our mandate is to help welcome and love people. Our holy book says God loves people. We don’t get to discriminate.”
What these Christian leaders are failing to realize — or more likely hoping to obfuscate — is that they have agreed to assume a supporting role in Trump’s white supremacist morality play.
As we try to save our democracy and the integrity of faith-based social services, we must have more Christian leaders who will be as “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” What Trump is doing goes far beyond a publicity stunt designed to humiliate the president of South Africa.
We cannot be naive about and should not participate in the sinister, counter-historical master narrative the Trump administration is weaving — that “dead white people,” killed by Black and brown people, are the world’s most pressing problem.
Robert P. Jones serves as president and founder of PRRI and is the author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future and White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, which won a 2021 American Book Award.
This column originally appeared on Robert P. Jones’s substack #WhiteTooLong.
Related articles:
CBF North Carolina ministry explains its decision to aid Afrikaners
There’s no ‘white genocide’ in South Africa | Analysis by Rodney Kennedy
White Christian leaders in South Africa refute Trump’s claims