this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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The logical error here is assuming it's about skin colour when it's in fact about centuries of exploitation in Africa that Musk benefited hugely from. I suppose it's not a logical error if one doesn't know about the history of colonialism in Africa.
It's reasonable to assume that any white person who lived in southern Africa (Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa in particular) moved there not for the safari or the lifestyle but for the eye-watering profits that came from exploiting the land as their resource and its peoples as their labour. A lot of contrarian arguments that get voted down on the internet focus on the minority view, and I think this is where you're coming from - unfortunately in the case of colonial Africa, there aren't very many clean hands at all, even if they weren't the ones being cut off.
I don't think it's a logical error to assume it's about race when the original comment did not specify otherwise.
Edit: It was also further confirmed by the commenter LowestStone that they themselves at least were looking at the race angle.
I understand your point about colonialism well and the fact that many white people who went to South Africa went there for the profits of human exploitation, but is this historical background enough to conclude that it is expected of a white South African to be racist? That's the problem i have with the initial comment i responded to. It doesn't differ much from reverse racism to me.
There seems to be a culture of hating one's own race in order to make up for colonialism and racism among white people. This is simply not necessary.