Carolyn Holmes, a political science professor at the University of Tennessee, dives into the controversial arrival of Afrikaner refugees in the U.S. She discusses the unintended consequences of a PR campaign promoting their narrative and the objections from white rights groups. The dialogue also reveals the long-standing ties between U.S. and South African white nationalists. Additionally, the second segment explores how right-wing extremists have historically utilized shortwave radio as a platform to spread their ideologies, shaping modern political dynamics.
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insights INSIGHT
White Genocide Narrative Debunked
The "white genocide" narrative in South Africa is not supported by crime statistics.
Afrikaner groups manipulate data and focus on select cases to promote a victimhood story internationally.
insights INSIGHT
Controversial Anti-Apartheid Song
The song "Shoot the Boer" is a controversial anti-apartheid struggle song.
It was ruled hate speech in 2010, but that ruling was overturned in 2022 amid debate over its historical context.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Afrikaners Gain Trump's Attention
Afrikaner right groups gained Trump's attention in 2018 with meetings and media exposure.
They secured study into farm killings, leading to Trump's executive interest.
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The Turner Diaries is a novel that depicts a fictional white supremacist revolution in the United States. Written by William Luther Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald, the book is presented as a diary kept by the protagonist, Earl Turner. The narrative details Turner's involvement in a violent uprising against the U.S. government and other perceived enemies of white supremacy. The book has been widely criticized for its extremist and racist content.
On Monday, dozens of Afrikaners arrived in the US as refugees. On this week’s On the Media, how a fringe group of white South Africans have been lobbying for Donald Trump’s attention for almost a decade — but refugee status was never on their wish list. Plus, the second episode of The Divided Dial, all about how rightwing extremists took over shortwave radio.
[01:00] Host Micah Loewinger talks with Carolyn Holmes, a professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, about the arrival of white South African refugees in the US, why Afrikaner white rights groups are objecting to the policy, and the long-standing exchange of ideas between white nationalist elites in the US and South Africa.
[16:42] Episode 2 of The Divided Dial, Season 2: You Must Form Your Militia Movements. Many governments eased off the shortwaves after the Cold War, and homegrown US-based rightwing extremists edged out shortwave peaceniks to fill the void. Reporter Katie Thornton explores how in the 1990s, US shortwave radio stations became a key organizing and recruiting ground for white supremacists and the burgeoning anti-government militia movement. On this instantaneous, international medium, they honed a strategy and a rhetoric that they would take to the early internet and beyond.
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