CAPE TOWN, South Africa – False claims made by U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday that South Africa’s Black majority is trying to wipe out white Afrikaners have roiled this country – forcing race to the forefront of a national conversation in a way rarely seen since the end of apartheid.
The “born frees,” young people who came of age after the country’s first free elections in 1994 and were promised a bright future in a new South Africa, described uncomfortable conversations with friends and colleagues – navigating racial tensions largely unfamiliar to their generation. White South Africans – Afrikaners or not – gave voice to long-suppressed anger about the perceived failure of the African National Congress to deliver on its promises of an equal, nonracial society.
South Africa, heralded three decades ago by Nobel Peace Prize winners Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Demond Tutu as the rainbow nation, is the most unequal society in the world, according to the World Bank. It is marred by massive economic disparities and unequal access to jobs and education. Many neighborhoods are still segregated by race. Violent crime remains a scourge.
A day after the meeting at the White House between Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump’s explosive and unfounded claims of “genocide” against white farmers dominated headlines, social media and chatter across the country.
Some outlets applauded Ramaphosa for remaining calm as Trump went on the...
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