Speaker 1: As media. Hello and welcome to It could happen here today.
Speaker 1: We are talking about white genocide. And when I think
Speaker 1: of genocide, there is only one name that comes to mind,
Speaker 1: and it's Molly Congo.
Speaker 2: Molly, welcome.
Speaker 1: I just I wanted you to be here as we
Speaker 1: talked about the genocide of the white race.
Speaker 3: I mean, who better to talk about it than two
Speaker 3: pasty fellows like us.
Speaker 1: M hmm, yeah, yeah, I'm sure we're like soon for
Speaker 1: the shopping block here.
Speaker 2: Molly, what what's happening? Why? Why are we? Why are we?
Speaker 1: Well, I will explain a little bit of what's happening,
Speaker 1: and then you can tell me how on earth we
Speaker 1: got here. The United States terminated its refugee admissions program
Speaker 1: in January of this year, right when Donald Trump became
Speaker 1: the president and signed a ton of executive orders. So
Speaker 1: since then, the United States has not admitted any refugees.
Speaker 1: In February, it also stopped, you know, States terminated its
Speaker 1: cooperative agreement with refugee resettlement agencies, which meant that even
Speaker 1: refugees who had arrived weren't getting the assistance that they
Speaker 1: previously got. However, on the twelfth of May, the United
Speaker 1: States have admitted fifty nine Africana refugees from South Africa,
Speaker 1: and concurrently, Donald Trump told the press that what's happening
Speaker 1: was a genocide of the white people. He said it
Speaker 1: wasn't because they were white. He said there was black people,
Speaker 1: he would do the same thing. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: several genocides impacting black people right now, and they are
Speaker 1: not getting refuge emissions to the United States. Apparently these
Speaker 1: people are being genocided. So, Molly, can you explain what's
Speaker 1: going on here? How the white genocide happened?
Speaker 3: Sure, I mean, the short answer to that question is
Speaker 3: it is not happening. It is not real. It is
Speaker 3: not a thing that is happening, or in my opinion,
Speaker 3: really could meaningfully happen under the conditions that they're talking about.
Speaker 3: So again, like you said, they have terminated all refugee
Speaker 3: resettlement programs. So people coming from active war zones, active
Speaker 3: ongoing genocides, people fleeing political persecution all over the world.
Speaker 3: They don't deserve our help. They don't need our help anymore. Right,
Speaker 3: But these people, these people from South Africa, are uniquely
Speaker 3: experiencing the worst thing that can happen to a person.
Speaker 3: I guess which is white genocide. So white genocide I
Speaker 3: think is often sort of used interchangeably with great replacement theory.
Speaker 3: So the white genocide conspiracy theory and the great replacement theory,
Speaker 3: I think they're hand in hand. They're very similar, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of overlap, and they're used interchangeably, but white
Speaker 3: genocide is much more specific and it's more recent iteration
Speaker 3: on the theme. It comes from a mid nineties book
Speaker 3: written in prison by a new Nazi terrorist named David Lane.
Speaker 3: David Lane notably coined the fourteen words we you know,
Speaker 3: the fourteen we don't need to say. He had a
Speaker 3: lot of anxiety that if we don't do something, white
Speaker 3: people will become extinct, will be pushed out of existence
Speaker 3: by immigrants who are out breeding us. You know, there's
Speaker 3: this sort of concurrent belief that pornography, which is, you know,
Speaker 3: in their minds, something that is a Jewish tool of
Speaker 3: oppression of the white race. That is, you know, it's
Speaker 3: causing us to do interbreeding, it's deluding our bloodlines. So
Speaker 3: you know, all of these things together are going to
Speaker 3: push white people out of existence, which again not happening,
Speaker 3: not true, not a real thing that can happen, but
Speaker 3: it's something they're very anxious about. But when you spend
Speaker 3: a lot of time talking about how white people are
Speaker 3: being pushed out of existence, you've got to be able
Speaker 3: to point to something. You have to point to a
Speaker 3: place where a white person has been meaningfully harmed, and
Speaker 3: they can't really do that. So the talking point that
Speaker 3: they fall back on most often when you're talking about
Speaker 3: white genocide, you know, you're really wringing your hands about this,
Speaker 3: and you have to be able to point to something.
Speaker 3: They point to the South African farm murders is this
Speaker 3: idea that white farmers in South Africa are being targeted
Speaker 3: for murder and mass that is this massive ongoing campaign
Speaker 3: of violence, which again is not happening and is not true.
Speaker 3: There is a more violent crime in the country of
Speaker 3: South Africa than in other similarly positioned nations. They do
Speaker 3: have a little bit more violent crime than we do here,
Speaker 3: for instance, But if you break down the numbers, and
Speaker 3: they have they have conducted a multi year study of this,
Speaker 3: you know, hypothetical phenomenon. White farmers are not being targeted
Speaker 3: for murder. They're not being murdered in larger numbers than
Speaker 3: any other demographic. It's just not a thing that's happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, it's almost like a laughable claim or
Speaker 1: like except that it's also terribly sad when like Israel,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of Babe ruthing a genocide in Gaza.
Speaker 1: Now they're not even trying to pretend anymore. They're like, no,
Speaker 1: we're going to kill everyone by starving them. That's what
Speaker 1: we would like to do. And obviously there's people cannot
Speaker 1: enter the United States, it's refugees, but these folks from
Speaker 1: South Africa can How did it go from any Nazi
Speaker 1: in prison to the brain of the President of the
Speaker 1: United States.
Speaker 3: I mean that idea sort of filtered into American right
Speaker 3: wing think space over the last I guess thirty years
Speaker 3: since Laine wrote that manifesto from prison, slowly and through
Speaker 3: multiple origin points. But I have argued repeatedly over the
Speaker 3: last several months that we can point to exactly the
Speaker 3: moment that Donald Trump heard about this. There is a
Speaker 3: specific moment in time in August of twenty eighteen when
Speaker 3: Donald Trump first found out about the plight of the
Speaker 3: white South African and I have the date somewhere in
Speaker 3: my notes, but it was it was one evening in
Speaker 3: August of twenty eighteen when he was watching Tucker Carlson Shocking.
Speaker 3: He was watching an episode of Tucker's show back when
Speaker 3: it was still on TV, and he had some policy
Speaker 3: analysts from the Heritage Foundation on to talk about this
Speaker 3: terrible thing that's happening. And about forty five minutes after
Speaker 3: that segment aired, Donald Trump tweeted the word Africa for
Speaker 3: the first time. He has tweeted thousands and thousands and
Speaker 3: thousands of times about a lot about Robert Pattinson's relationship
Speaker 3: with Kristen Stewart. You know, things about diet coke, things
Speaker 3: about vaccines. He tweeted a lot of things, but he
Speaker 3: tweeted about Africa for the first time forty five minutes
Speaker 3: after the segment on Tucker Carlson. And he had bought
Speaker 3: into this idea that these people are being uniquely persecuted.
Speaker 1: God. Yeah, Carlson has mainstreamed a lot of these like
Speaker 1: white nationalists talking points, but yeah, this one. And you
Speaker 1: have a really good series on this on your show, right, Like,
Speaker 1: if people want to people want to learn more about
Speaker 1: the plight of the Africana, you can explain that over
Speaker 1: several hours.
Speaker 3: Yes, I spent three months sort of tracing this story
Speaker 3: in hainstaking detail. If you're interested in checking that out
Speaker 3: over on Weird Little Guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you should. It's great.
Speaker 1: It's great, good podcast. I highly recommend. So, like, we've
Speaker 1: seen this thing gradually gained momentum, I guess. And then
Speaker 1: at some point, obviously someone got into Trump's here in
Speaker 1: the last month and he made an executive order.
Speaker 2: Right, he shared the secretly order.
Speaker 1: I'm going to read from it now, quote refugee resettlement
Speaker 1: and other humanitarian considerations. The Secretary of State and the
Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security shall take appropriate steps consistent with
Speaker 1: law to prioritize Yeah. Law, we're going to get to that,
Speaker 1: to prioritize humanitarian relief, including a mission and resettlement through
Speaker 1: the United States Refugee Admissions Program for Africanas in South
Speaker 1: Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination. Such a
Speaker 1: plan shall be submitted to the President through the Assistant
Speaker 1: to the President and Homeland Security Advisor.
Speaker 2: So, like he's asking them to develop a plan.
Speaker 1: Basically for resettling these white South Africans in the United States, right.
Speaker 3: Right, So when he says that it's not about race.
Speaker 3: Now when he's pushed on that now and he says, oh,
Speaker 3: it's not about race. It's not because they're white. They
Speaker 3: weren't Africanners years in the executive order. And that doesn't
Speaker 3: just mean South. That's not a gemographic term for people
Speaker 3: from South Africa.
Speaker 1: It is a.
Speaker 3: Racial term for the descendants of Dutch settlers. Those people
Speaker 3: are white.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, like by definition, right, they are white South Africans.
Speaker 1: They are like therefore definitionly the group that benefited from
Speaker 1: the aparthe idea very much so. As if this wasn't
Speaker 1: clear enough, Christopher Landau appeared at a press conference meeting
Speaker 1: these refugees wearing an orange white and blue tie. It's
Speaker 1: quite a unique tie. I actually googled orange white and
Speaker 1: blue tie. Can find one for people who are not familiar.
Speaker 1: That is the part idea of flag of the Republic
Speaker 1: of South Africa.
Speaker 3: That is a deep cut. The decision to use that
Speaker 3: particular color scheme when you're greeting these bore refugees is
Speaker 3: very intentional and very odd.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's got to be a choice, right, Like, no
Speaker 1: one has a striped orange white and navy blue tie
Speaker 1: like lying around.
Speaker 3: And the sort of dedication to reviving that as a
Speaker 3: symbol is not without precedent. So with Dylan Roof, the
Speaker 3: Charleston church murderer had on patches, he had the flag
Speaker 3: of Rhodesia. Obviously they love Rhodesia. Yeah, but he had
Speaker 3: the apartheid era orange, white and blue South African flag
Speaker 3: m M. And that was strange and unique enough as
Speaker 3: a symbol that an American would dig up and identify with. Yes,
Speaker 3: So the South African press noted it at the time
Speaker 3: of the Charleston church shooting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was not in the mainstream.
Speaker 3: That is a troubling sartorial choice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's it is worrying, Like, like you say,
Speaker 1: there's a line from the from the Africanas through Dylan
Speaker 1: Roof too.
Speaker 2: It's horrific ideology.
Speaker 1: Right. Do you know what what probably doesn't have a
Speaker 1: direct line to a part We can't be sure of that,
Speaker 1: I guess, but hopefully hopefully that these products and services
Speaker 1: do not have a direct through line from apartheid.
Speaker 3: Well, probably it's not the Washington State Patrol again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, we're back. Hopefully that was something nice.
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about the US
Speaker 1: Refugee of Missions program. So I think people sometimes misunderstand
Speaker 1: the program, what it means, where it comes from, who
Speaker 1: it's for. So to begin with, like, I want to
Speaker 1: distinguish between asylum seekers and refugees because I think in
Speaker 1: like the popular lexicon, these two words are used interchangeably.
Speaker 1: A refugee is outside of the United States and makes
Speaker 1: an application through the US Refugee of Missions program, and
Speaker 1: that application is processed and approved or rejected or delayed
Speaker 1: or you know, left for years and years and years
Speaker 1: while they are outside the United States. An asylum seeker
Speaker 1: is someone who is either inside the United States or
Speaker 1: presenting at the border of the United States and requesting
Speaker 1: the asylum.
Speaker 2: So they're different categories.
Speaker 1: Right. Generally, to be a refugee, one has to register
Speaker 1: with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, and thus
Speaker 1: one has to have fled one's home country. It's somewhat
Speaker 1: notable that this flight came from Johannesburg, right, Like these
Speaker 1: people were in South Africa.
Speaker 3: Well, the apparently DHS set up office space in Pretoria,
Speaker 3: and they were conducted these interviews in Pretoria.
Speaker 1: Right, which again is unusual. Right, So you have to
Speaker 1: normally go to a resettlement support center, right, And I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the process of background checks in
Speaker 1: a minute, because surprise surprises didn't happen here, at least
Speaker 1: not as far as I'm aware. If it did, it
Speaker 1: to the most expedited version of this process that we've
Speaker 1: ever seen. So these refugees have been admitted as P
Speaker 1: one refugees, and people talk about P one like it's
Speaker 1: a visa category.
Speaker 3: It's not.
Speaker 1: Actually, it's a priority category. There are four priority categories
Speaker 1: for people getting refugee visas. P one cases, the highest
Speaker 1: priority are normally referred by embassies, the United Nations High
Speaker 1: Commision on Refugees, or non governmental organizations. If people have
Speaker 1: heard of this at all, it's probably with reference to
Speaker 1: Afghan folks who worked with the United States who are
Speaker 1: not being omitted in the United States refugee emission program
Speaker 1: right now. Some of them are stuck in third countries,
Speaker 1: even at airports if they don't have a visa for
Speaker 1: that third country, right, waiting to work out like what
Speaker 1: the US is going to do this time after lying
Speaker 1: to them for decades and letting them down again.
Speaker 3: And unlike these real estate agents from Johannesburg, they can't
Speaker 3: just go back home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, like that they actually have fear of persecution
Speaker 1: if they do, which is not the case for you
Speaker 1: South African folks. P two are people like there are
Speaker 1: special groups designated for humanitarian concern like some congut these
Speaker 1: people living in Rwanda in the past, and Permese groups
Speaker 1: living in Thailand have been P two three are family
Speaker 1: reunification cases, so you can you know, if one person
Speaker 1: has refugee stats to come to the United States so
Speaker 1: they can bring the rest of their family. And then
Speaker 1: P four are people who have sponsors to something called
Speaker 1: the Welcome Core. Familiar with a Welcome Core, Molly, I
Speaker 1: am not, no. It sounds like the coolest brand to
Speaker 1: the military, you know, like like you got the Marines
Speaker 1: and then the Welcome Core next door. The Welcome Call
Speaker 1: was set up in twenty twenty three by the Biden
Speaker 1: administration to allow five US citizens I think a minimum
Speaker 1: of five to get together to sponsor someone for refugee
Speaker 1: admission for the United States and basically take responsibility for
Speaker 1: their housing and for like reorienting them in the US community, right,
Speaker 1: getting their kids enrolled in school, helping them find a job,
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. It was a cool program.
Speaker 1: It lasted less than two years. That Donald Trump rolled
Speaker 1: that up in January of twenty twenty five, so we
Speaker 1: don't really have P four cases anymore. So all admissions
Speaker 1: were holding in January and February, the government, as I said,
Speaker 1: cut all cooperative agreements with resettlement agencies. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about what the normal process looks like for refugees. Generally,
Speaker 1: they require several years of background checks and interviews. For many,
Speaker 1: it's not possible in their countries for most right, for instance,
Speaker 1: there is not a resettlement support center in Afghanistan, so
Speaker 1: people have to leave. That's how you see them in
Speaker 1: Pakistan right. What you're seeing now actually is Afghan people
Speaker 1: who are in Pakistan have timed out on their visas
Speaker 1: in Pakistan, so they're now facing immigration enforcement there because
Speaker 1: they haven't been able to get resettled in the US
Speaker 1: before their Pakistan visa expires. They go through medical and
Speaker 1: biometric checks. There are at least two interviews. There are
Speaker 1: security checks. When they do their first interview, they have
Speaker 1: to give in things like their identifying documents, work history,
Speaker 1: declare on their family relationships, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Then they have an interview with US Citizenship and Immigration
Speaker 1: services after that. Then if they are admitted, they take
Speaker 1: cultural orientation classes before traveling. If that's when you learn
Speaker 1: how to be an American. Right, I don't know what involves,
Speaker 1: but they have to take those before they come. And
Speaker 1: then the US government works with the iom for travel right,
Speaker 1: and that travel is funded through a zero interest loan
Speaker 1: to the refugee. So like in every other case, you
Speaker 1: pay for your flight, you have to pay it back
Speaker 1: starting six months when you get to the United States.
Speaker 2: That has not been.
Speaker 1: The case for our Africana refugee friends, right that it
Speaker 1: appears that the United States government chartered a flight on
Speaker 1: their behalf. Once the refugees arrive, they are referred to
Speaker 1: a resettlement agency. Some of the names people might be
Speaker 1: familiar with are like Highest their Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society,
Speaker 1: who have literally been resettling refugees since the refugee in
Speaker 1: asylum seeker category was created, right as a response to
Speaker 1: the Holocaust. Maybe IRC is another one people are familiar with.
Speaker 3: Which, interestingly, HIAS was the target of ire of a
Speaker 3: great replacement theory motivated mass shooter here in America. Yes,
Speaker 3: Babert Robert Bauers posted a lot about HYAS in the
Speaker 3: days and weeks before he carried out that mass shooting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Tree of Life Synagogue, right, people aren't familiar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that was at the time of the quote unquote
Speaker 1: migrant caravan fall of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3: Would it, Yes, that would be that time period.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a pretty big time. I was in
Speaker 1: Tijuana a lot at that time with seeing the migrant
Speaker 1: caravan folks for interviewing folks trying to help. Yeah, coming
Speaker 1: back to that was I remember thinking, like, what a
Speaker 1: fucked up world. So those people didn't get refuge emissions, right,
Speaker 1: those people were here seeking asylum. The system right now
Speaker 1: is suspended, right, and as many as twelve thousand people
Speaker 1: who have been approved are waiting for travel authorization come
Speaker 1: to the United States.
Speaker 2: So they're completely in limbo.
Speaker 3: Right, You're in limbo and at great personal risk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they're in I mean, people spend twenty years
Speaker 1: in refugee camps waiting to be admitted to the United States.
Speaker 1: And like, it's hard for me to describe I tried
Speaker 1: to in my Darian Gap series, Right, how desperately sad
Speaker 1: refugee camps are as places, right, And I think people
Speaker 1: think of refugee camps as like, oh, you go there
Speaker 1: for a few weeks and you sleep under a big
Speaker 1: white ten.
Speaker 3: No children are born and raised there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: People live their whole lives in refugee camps, you know,
Speaker 1: they're the ones that they tied Bermesport. Have been there
Speaker 1: since the nineteen forties. But they live their whole lives
Speaker 1: often without even basic essential services. Right. I did see,
Speaker 1: for instance, highest had a little school in LaaS Blancas,
Speaker 1: which is one of these un refugee camps in Panama.
Speaker 1: The reason they have a little school is because children
Speaker 1: spend so long there that they miss out on their
Speaker 1: education if they don't have a little school for them.
Speaker 3: And so that's just like insult to injury in this
Speaker 3: whole process, right. It's not only is he shutting off
Speaker 3: this avenue for refugee status for everyone else and giving
Speaker 3: it to these people who, you know, I think it's
Speaker 3: fair to say don't deserve it. Yeah, but he's made
Speaker 3: this process so simple and so easy and so painless,
Speaker 3: and that not only are they not fleeing persecution, but
Speaker 3: they're getting this fast tracked, this easy pass.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like we're paying for it. I mean I
Speaker 1: remember recently some friends and I were helping someone who'd
Speaker 1: be admitted to the US not as a refuge actually
Speaker 1: on a different visa category. But like they were really
Speaker 1: having a hard time navigating the basics and funding that,
Speaker 1: so like we were able to help them out.
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously, international immigration is a difficult process. It
Speaker 3: wouldn't be easy. I mean you and you've immigrated internationally, right,
Speaker 3: It's not a simple process. No, But looking at the
Speaker 3: people who have taken Trump up on this offer of
Speaker 3: refugee resettlement, these appeared to be people who could have
Speaker 3: simply immigrated had they chosen to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems that way. They could have just moved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they could have I mean come here on like
Speaker 1: a B one visa or like, I mean, pathways to
Speaker 1: citizenship relatively rare if you just, like, say you want
Speaker 1: to move to the US, right, like you just want
Speaker 1: to become an American unless you have a bunch of money. So,
Speaker 1: like these guys will have a pathway citizenship. It's not
Speaker 1: quite clear how Trump said that they will have one.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? I know, normally, if you're admitted
Speaker 1: as a refugee, you can file for permanent residency in
Speaker 1: a year, and then after a number of years you
Speaker 1: can file to be a citizen.
Speaker 3: I just noticed as we're talking, so, you know, I'm
Speaker 3: not familiar with how the process normally works. Like that's
Speaker 3: that's your wheelhouse. That's something you're very familiar with, so
Speaker 3: maybe this is normal. It just looks strange to me.
Speaker 3: So I've been on vacation the last week, so I'm
Speaker 3: just back today. So I just opened up the Embassy's
Speaker 3: website because you know, as I was writing this story
Speaker 3: and sort of tracking this as it developed, there wasn't
Speaker 3: good guidance from the Consulate on what this process would
Speaker 3: look like. So I'm just looking at it again today
Speaker 3: and they have updated it as of yesterday. This is
Speaker 3: the US Embassy and Consulate in South Africa. New update yesterday.
Speaker 3: There is a form you can fill out, James. It's
Speaker 3: a Google doc. It is a Google form. The US
Speaker 3: Embassy website has a linked to Google form that you
Speaker 3: can fill out if you want to become great.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's highly secure. Yeah, ah wow, Well it's funny.
Speaker 1: I was on that web site earlier today as well.
Speaker 1: That is oh dear, that is sad. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think a Google dot can possibly be as
Speaker 1: secure as it would need to be to have the
Speaker 1: amount of information the government gets on you when you
Speaker 1: become a refugee. Is all the information right? Just to
Speaker 1: outline the criteria. To be eligible for US resettlement consideration,
Speaker 1: individuals must meet the following criteria. They must be of
Speaker 1: South African nationality and must be of African ethnicity or
Speaker 1: be a member of a racial minority in South Africa.
Speaker 3: I thought it wasn't about race, Yeah, I thought. I
Speaker 3: thought it wasn't about race.
Speaker 2: Games Yeah, right, it seems.
Speaker 1: And then they must be able to articulate a past
Speaker 1: experience of persecution or fear of future persecution. What they
Speaker 1: don't mention here is that, like normally, there are protected
Speaker 1: categories into which refugees and asylum seekers have to fit. Right,
Speaker 1: there's a race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social
Speaker 1: group or political opinion. I mean, I guess, I guess
Speaker 1: you could argue that like the Africanas are not per
Speaker 1: se a race, right, like like there are there could
Speaker 1: be It's conceivable that one could be white kind of
Speaker 1: South African nationality but not be African.
Speaker 3: Oh very much, so, very much so. I mean, there's
Speaker 3: a African is a very specific sort of genealogical lineage.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like, which is which.
Speaker 3: Is why I think they have been careful here to
Speaker 3: say or a member of a racial minority, because they're saying, like, look,
Speaker 3: we're not going to do the genealogy. We don't we
Speaker 3: don't care if your great grandfather was Dutch. We just
Speaker 3: need you to be white. We just need you to
Speaker 3: be white.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you arrive, you can do a twenty three
Speaker 1: and meter test and then they do your percentage and
Speaker 1: you know, then they put you back on the plane.
Speaker 3: No, they just got the pantone color scale. They're just
Speaker 3: going to hold up huge colored paint hip.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they get you at what's it called fucking the
Speaker 1: paint shop there where you go in and they mix
Speaker 1: it for you. So yeah, they don't mention these protected
Speaker 1: categories here. The US State Department a set has received
Speaker 1: eight thousand inquiries from people seeking information about the refue program.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of people. That is a large number
Speaker 1: of people. The Episcopal Church here in the United States, right,
Speaker 1: not like a notably woke organization, I would say Episcopal.
Speaker 1: I mean they do Episcopal migration ministries do good work.
Speaker 1: You won't find me shaped talking that they do good
Speaker 1: things for people who need help. It has ended its
Speaker 1: partnership with the United States government. So I'm going to
Speaker 1: read a little bit here from Presiding Bishop Sean wrote
Speaker 1: first time for me, quoting a bishop on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Since January, the previously bipart in the US refuge ad
Speaker 1: missions program in which we participate has a central shut down.
Speaker 1: Virtually no new refugees have arrived, Hundreds of staff and
Speaker 1: resettlement agencies around the country have been laid off, and
Speaker 1: funding for resettling refugees who have already arrived has been uncertain. Then,
Speaker 1: just over two weeks ago, the federal government informed episcical
Speaker 1: migration ministries that under the terms of our federal grant,
Speaker 1: we are expected to resettle white Africanas from South Africa,
Speaker 1: whom the US government has classified as refugees. In light
Speaker 1: of our church's steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation
Speaker 1: and our historic ties was the Anglican Church of South Africa,
Speaker 1: we're not able to take this step. Accordingly, we have
Speaker 1: determined that by the end of the federal fiscal year,
Speaker 1: we will conclude our refugee resettlement grand agreements with the
Speaker 1: US Federal government skipping a bit. Then, it has been
Speaker 1: painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a
Speaker 1: highly unusual manner, received preferential treatment over many others who
Speaker 1: have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years.
Speaker 1: I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees
Speaker 1: who are being denied entrance to the United States are
Speaker 1: brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and
Speaker 1: Afghanistan and now face danger at home because it has
Speaker 1: service to our country. They also grieve that victims of
Speaker 1: religious persecution, including Christians, have not been granted refuge in
Speaker 1: recent months.
Speaker 3: Good for them, honestly, Yeah, like because I think, I
Speaker 3: mean think maybe people don't think about this or don't
Speaker 3: realize that a lot of these programs like this is
Speaker 3: a federally grant funded federal program through a partnership with
Speaker 3: the Episcopal Church. Like you know, in the early days
Speaker 3: of DOSEE, you know, they were saying, like, oh, we
Speaker 3: found all this wasteful spending, all this you know, suspicious
Speaker 3: payments to these religious organizations. Those are social programs we
Speaker 3: have outsourced. We have outsourced all of these government functions
Speaker 3: to these church based social programs. You know, for better
Speaker 3: or worse. Say about that what you will, but that
Speaker 3: is in fact, how many of these things function.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like when I think about like you know, I've
Speaker 1: spent a decent amount of time in refugee camps. The
Speaker 1: majority of the services there are provided by faith paid programs.
Speaker 1: Highest there's Bethtal World Ministries. I think it's called Catholic Charity,
Speaker 1: Piscopalian migration ministries. There's caulca Aid, the SEK Group, right,
Speaker 1: I don't think they receive any federal Maybe I don't
Speaker 1: think they receive federal funding.
Speaker 3: But I think for the Episcopal Church as a massive
Speaker 3: organization to come out and say, yeah, we won't dirty
Speaker 3: our hands with this, that's incredible.
Speaker 1: No, it's great, and like more organizations should. I think
Speaker 1: they're being resettled in Virginia for the most part.
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 3: That's where I live.
Speaker 2: James, Oh good, yeah, great. Well you know you could
Speaker 2: take one in money.
Speaker 1: You could have a little African to come live with
Speaker 1: you like a god.
Speaker 3: So Charlottesville where I live.
Speaker 2: Oh, you'll get some.
Speaker 3: It's home to a large number of Afghan refugee families.
Speaker 3: It's like I know people who work with our new
Speaker 3: Afghan neighbors, and like helping them get settled in our community,
Speaker 3: and helping women get driver's license and get them sewing
Speaker 3: machines so they can sew their traditional garments at home,
Speaker 3: and like it's a beautiful community effort to welcome these
Speaker 3: people into our town. But I just can't I just
Speaker 3: can't imagine the worst people on Earth coming here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you can help with sewing machine, right, you
Speaker 1: can help us sow up a little little pre pre
Speaker 1: Rainbow Nation South Africa flag for them. But yeah, it
Speaker 1: is like I've helped people arriving here on refugee visas,
Speaker 1: and like it's actually a really really affirming and wonderful
Speaker 1: thing to do in your community. And like now it's
Speaker 1: a time when you can still do that. All the
Speaker 1: people who were resettled here before January. The funding that
Speaker 1: was supposed to help their kids enroll in school, that
Speaker 1: were supposed.
Speaker 2: To help especially women learn to drive, right, that were.
Speaker 1: Supposed to help people orient themselves in the US, find education,
Speaker 1: find work right. As a person who moved to America,
Speaker 1: it is a very confusing place. You have like seventy
Speaker 1: five different layers of government, none of them really want
Speaker 1: to help you that says a lot of forms to
Speaker 1: fill in. The rent is insane, right, and then you
Speaker 1: add people drive like fucking maniacs, so like.
Speaker 3: And we don't have healthcarerier James, I'm sure that was
Speaker 3: a culture shock for you. But like so when I
Speaker 3: was poking around in some of these Facebook groups for
Speaker 3: these for the South Africans who are sort of interested
Speaker 3: in maybe seeking this opportunity, and they were talking about
Speaker 3: sort of the pros and cons and whether they would go,
Speaker 3: and how the pole process was going to work. And
Speaker 3: the one fear that I saw come up over and
Speaker 3: over again is like, well I heard the healthcare is
Speaker 3: pretty bad.
Speaker 1: There is, yeah, dude, it is, damn yeah, damn yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: In some states, right, there are state funded like safety
Speaker 1: net programs. I don't know about Virginia.
Speaker 3: Well I'm sure. I'm sure as America's special and only refugees,
Speaker 3: they will be afforded access to all available programs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll put them on trycare after we've kicked the
Speaker 1: transfolks off. That's how they're making up for the gap.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty bleak.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I would really encourage folks, like, if you are
Speaker 1: listening to this and thinking, Oh, it fucking sucks that
Speaker 1: those people have not been granted refugee status. I'm thinking
Speaker 1: of like, I met a woman from Zimbabwe when I
Speaker 1: was in Dari and Gap who had come with her daughter. Right,
Speaker 1: she had face persecution at home in Zimbabwe, a country
Speaker 1: that is not Rhodesia anymore. We're keeping score in.
Speaker 3: The country that was never Rhodesia. Rhodesia never existed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Yeah, she went to South Africa right to
Speaker 1: attempt to be safe, and persecution followed her that. So
Speaker 1: then she took this journey all across the America's carrying
Speaker 1: her kid through the through the jungles and over the
Speaker 1: mountains and through the rivers. And that's where I met them,
Speaker 1: and we've stayed in touch.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: She's in the United States now, she's working on her
Speaker 1: asylum process and it is expensive and it is by
Speaker 1: no means secure. And this is like a woman who
Speaker 1: has faced who fits multiple categories, right, and they've protected
Speaker 1: they've protected categories here. Right, It's going to be very
Speaker 1: hard and very expensive for her. And it really genuinely
Speaker 1: fucking breaks my heart to see someone who like would
Speaker 1: be such an asset to any community who was such
Speaker 1: a ray of light, even in some of the hardest
Speaker 1: places I've ever been. She might not get to stay
Speaker 1: here and these folks will and that really makes me sad.
Speaker 1: But yeah, if you have a chance in your community.
Speaker 1: Like almost the way I sometimes find out about refugees
Speaker 1: arriving or being settled is like on next door and
Speaker 1: realist next door is mostly a site for aging racist
Speaker 1: but like sometimes people will be like, hey, there's an
Speaker 1: Afghan family here and they don't Like one of the
Speaker 1: things in California is that you can rent a house
Speaker 1: and they don't have to give you a fridge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a fridge is like a luxury, it's not it's not
Speaker 1: for the pause. So like trying to help people find
Speaker 1: a fridge before Ramadan, right, Like I have a truck,
Speaker 1: a bigger guy. I can lift a fridge into the
Speaker 1: back of my truck. If someone has a fridge they
Speaker 1: don't want, so, like that's the thing I can do
Speaker 1: to help, and it makes me happy to do that. Then,
Speaker 1: like I can carry a fridge upstairs, Like that's not
Speaker 1: something you can do. There are a million other things
Speaker 1: you can do, right, including just like having people over
Speaker 1: for dinner, cooking food for them, offering to take them
Speaker 1: out on a walk and show them your neighborhood. Like
Speaker 1: there are so many ways that you can welcome people,
Speaker 1: and like people aren't newly arriving, there are people who
Speaker 1: are still recently arrived who really could do with some help.
Speaker 1: The government isn't paying for any more. We can't stop
Speaker 1: the government paying for flights for Africanas. But like, you
Speaker 1: can do something, You can do something positive and will
Speaker 1: maybe make you feel better about the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: your taxpayer dollars are bringing the the poor, downtrodden Africanas
Speaker 1: from from South Africa to neighborhoods named Molly.
Speaker 3: And it's just such an ugly intersection, right, this is
Speaker 3: not just like our adult brained president falling victim to
Speaker 3: a racist conspiracy three that he saw on Tucker Carlson, right,
Speaker 3: like that that's how the idea got into his mind.
Speaker 3: But I think this resurgence of his alleged interest in
Speaker 3: the plight of the white South African is this terrible
Speaker 3: intersection of personal grievance and financial interest, right that. You know,
Speaker 3: it's no coincidence that the text of the executive order,
Speaker 3: it's not just about like you know, whites are being persecuted.
Speaker 3: But there is a hot shot on the side in
Speaker 3: the first section of the executive Order that, like well
Speaker 3: and South Africa has been very unfair to Israel, right
Speaker 3: that South Africa being a leading voice in the international
Speaker 3: community on the genocide in Gaza is part of this.
Speaker 3: That the inded they need to be punished for their
Speaker 3: advocacy against the genocide when their ambassador was expelled. It
Speaker 3: was not a coincidence that he is a Muslim South
Speaker 3: African who has been very vocal about the genocide in Gaza,
Speaker 3: and that he appears in public in a kufia that
Speaker 3: he's when he was when he returned to South Africa
Speaker 3: after being expelled from the United States. He was talking
Speaker 3: about Palestine when he got home, and that's not a coincidence.
Speaker 3: And it's also not a coincidence that Elon Musk is
Speaker 3: currently fighting to launch Starlink in South Africa.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is sort.
Speaker 3: Of a longer explanation which just sort of in brief.
Speaker 3: Since apartheid ended in nineteen ninety four, they have racial
Speaker 3: equality laws that if you have a national level company
Speaker 3: something like starlink, some that you're going to provide a
Speaker 3: national a telecommunications contract that serves the whole country. There
Speaker 3: has to be some black ownership of the country. They're
Speaker 3: not saying that there can be no white executives. They're
Speaker 3: not saying, you know, white people aren't allowed to do business,
Speaker 3: but there has to be some black ownership stake in
Speaker 3: the company. And large corporations around the world manage this
Speaker 3: by establishing a local subsidiary that is owned locally by
Speaker 3: a majority of black shareholders. Microsoft does it, like every
Speaker 3: big company does it. Companies operate in South Africa. Yeah,
Speaker 3: international corporations operate in South Africa, and they do it
Speaker 3: every day and they do it easily. But Elon Musk
Speaker 3: refuses to do that. He refuses to have any black
Speaker 3: ownership steak in his company or a local subsidiary. So
Speaker 3: he's not allowed to have Starlink there. And so over
Speaker 3: the last couple of months he's been, you know, walking
Speaker 3: out of meetings, he's been you know, yelling at the
Speaker 3: President of South Africa about how he's racist against white
Speaker 3: people and so like, this is personal, it's financial, and
Speaker 3: it is a racist conspiracy theory and now we're all
Speaker 3: having to live it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also not a comingcidence. So like Musk has
Speaker 1: started interacting with some of these like white farmer accounts
Speaker 1: on his racism map, right like that. I think that one.
Speaker 1: I think it's maybe its screen name is just boar
Speaker 1: or Oh yes.
Speaker 3: A South African news site recently unmasked that particular individual.
Speaker 2: Oh cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I haven't read the article yet. Like I said,
Speaker 3: I've been on vacation, but they're they're on the case.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great, good.
Speaker 3: And I think about these, you know, wide identity South
Speaker 3: African nationalist kinds of guys. Is Apartheid wasn't that long ago?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Thirty years ago? Right, So anybody fifty year older who's
Speaker 3: talking a lot about wide identity in South Africa, I
Speaker 3: would just like to ask you, what were you doing
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety? Yeah, just tell me who you were
Speaker 3: hanging out with in nineteen ninety because I have questions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I remember the end of apartheid very like
Speaker 1: that's one of my earlier like political memories. I remember,
Speaker 1: like Nelson Mandela coming out at the Rugby World Cup
Speaker 1: in ninety ninety five, like that being a big people
Speaker 1: like I guess maybe our listeners, a lot of our
Speaker 1: listeners are younger than me. But like, South Africa was
Speaker 1: something of a pariah state under apartheid, right, Like they
Speaker 1: couldn't wouldn't even play sports with them. They didn't even
Speaker 1: go to the IOC Olympic Games. And the IOC not
Speaker 1: not an anti racist organization organization which famously sent the
Speaker 1: Olympic Games to Adolf Hitler's Germany. But yeah, they were
Speaker 1: a complete global pariah. And to have gone from that
Speaker 1: to like the US has to intervene in the plight
Speaker 1: of the persecuted African within my lifetime, it's pretty fucking bleak.
Speaker 3: It is a quick turnaround and an ugly one. But
Speaker 3: like I said, the average white South African who is
Speaker 3: very vocal about white rights may have a very close
Speaker 3: connection to a very recent act of terrorism, if you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. Yeah, they're not just talk. It
Speaker 3: was very violent in the early nineties.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, Molly's done some good stuff on the yeah,
Speaker 1: and on the violence of white South Africans. And I guess, yeah,
Speaker 1: what folks in the US who are inspired by them?
Speaker 1: Molly did, do you have anything you want to you
Speaker 1: want to plug? Otherwords, way, I guess you want to plug.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm keeping an eye on their treeson
Speaker 3: Case against Affro Forum. I think, I mean, it's just
Speaker 3: political talk, but it's fun.
Speaker 2: We'll see.
Speaker 3: Apparently the investigation is ongoing, but no. If you are
Speaker 3: interested in more about how this happened, I did an
Speaker 3: eight part series about political violence at the end of
Speaker 3: apartheid and its connections to American neo Nazis. You can
Speaker 3: check that out on Weird Little Guys. It's a good time.
Speaker 3: I think there's a really fun episode about a Dulf
Speaker 3: Lundgren movie from the late eighties that was secretly funded
Speaker 3: by South African military intelligence. Yeah, it's a good time
Speaker 3: and uh, we live in hell.
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