- cross-posted to:
- politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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South Africa, so well known for being racist against white South African emerald mine heirs.
I don’t even know why I bother with this train of though at this point, but I just can’t figure out if he seriously believes the shit he’s spouting, or if he’s just playing up the shock value like an edgelord. I mean, it’s clear he’s way dumber than he thinks himself to be, but I can’t get the nuance in it…
or if he’s just playing up the shock value like an edgelord
Nothing shocking about it, South Africa discriminates based on race.
Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Musk’s SpaceX, has been unable to enter the South African market due to the country’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) regulations. These laws require that companies providing communication services be at least 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups to receive an operating license.
If you’re going to do business with someone it’s completely reasonable that they set their own terms. Elon Musk does not have the right to force his business on a country that does not want to do business with him, no matter the reason. South Africa’s BEE regulations are intended to re-balance the scales after decades of brutal apartheid and oppression. People like Elon Musk notice the loss of privileges they once enjoyed and interpret it as an infringement on their rights equivalent to or worse than historically oppressed (because disadvantaged does not do justice to what they suffered) groups.
That’s awful that they’d use race to deny him when there are so many other good reasons.
The article literally says South Africa bans Starlink due to the race of the owner. As his race does not meet South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) regulations:
Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Musk’s SpaceX, has been unable to enter the South African market due to the country’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) regulations. These laws require that companies providing communication services be at least 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups to receive an operating license.
The regulation states:
Equality 8. (1) Every person shall have the right to equality before the law and to equal protection of the law. (2) No person shall be unfairly discriminated against, directly or indirectly, and, without derogating from the generality of this provision, on one or more of the following grounds in particular: race, gender, sex, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture or language. (3) (a) This section shall not preclude measures designed to achieve the adequate protection and advancement of persons or groups or categories of persons disadvantaged by unfair discrimination, in order to enable their full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. (b) Every person or community dispossessed of rights in land before the commencement of this Constitution under any law which would have been inconsistent with subsection (2) had that subsection been in operation at the time of the dispossession, shall be entitled to claim restitution of such rights subject to and in accordance with sections 121, 122 and 123. (4) Prima facie proof of discrimination on any of the grounds specified in subsection (2) shall be presumed to be sufficient proof of unfair discrimination as contemplated in that subsection, until the contrary is established.
Source: https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/1993-200.pdf
“Black Economic Empowerment” does not mean “no whites”. It means “blacks need to be part of the economy”. BLM does not mean “white lives do not matter”. It means “blacks shouldn’t be dying”. Feminism does not mean “women should be held above men”. It means “women should be treated equally”.
The only thing excluding Musk: he isn’t part of a marginalized group. He’s a billionaire. He isn’t marginalized.
So he can still own it as a white man so long as he allows 30% to be owned by someone black, Cape Malay, Indian, San, KhoiKhoi or ‘coloured’, or indeed many people fitting any of those.
Not because he “isn’t black”.
Lots of countries have rules about local ownership; eg in Thailand businesses and properties have to be 51% owned by a Thai person. Of course the difference here is that for centuries the rules were increasingly enforced to treat certain races as foreigners, to the point of quite literally trying to declare parts of itself independent ie foreign. This creates a weird scenario after the fall of apartheid that is definitely uncomfortable to read but how do you undo centuries of this with carrot instead of stick when it’s people like Musk and Peter Thiel?
Under current conditions Starlink cannot exist in South Africa. If we change a single variable, Musk’s race to black, then Starlink can exist in South Africa (it would be >30% owned by a black person).
South Africa is discriminating based on race.
Sure. We can also change a single variable and have him sell 30% of it. And now he can be an apartheid nepo-baby and still run a telecommunications company in the nation his father helped to devastate.
What’s your point?
We can also change a single variable and have him sell 30% of it.
And if he sells 30% of it to people of ‘the wrong race’, South Africa still won’t allow in the company. The critical variable is the race of the owner(s); South Africa is demonstrably discriminating based on race.
Yes? I acknowledged that in my original comment.
As it turns out, just declaring everything fine now doesn’t actually address the disparities of wealth and power when you have had much worse laws in place for much longer.
Happy St Patrick’s Day! In Ireland we burned the mansion houses of English landlords after independence. I’m not going to judge non-white South Africans for enforcing a fucking minority shareholder policy.
I hope when he croaks it’s incredibly drawn out, painful and very very embarrassing
hopefully he shits has pants in public.
I hope he eats the wrong mushroom and shits his insides out on live TV.
ahhhh, we can all have dreams.
Perhaps he could learn the difference between not being black and being a total piece of shit.
Geniuses like musk don’t have time to wallow in such absurdity /s
Billionaires should not exist, by any means necessary.
Well, not by any means. The correct path is to work towards erasing the foundations for their existence. Killing all billionaires won’t solve the problem, but working towards Socialism will.
But socialism creates a Person that is much bigger than a Billionare. Dictatorship and other forms
Socialism is about who owns and operates the company, the workers themselves. That way their surplus labor value isn’t being stolen by some lazy douche who doesn’t do the work.
No? What are you talking about?
@fyzzlefry @Confidant6198 I think that if their wealth and power can be controlled and limited somehow its mostly fine but the danger comes when their power gets out of hand and they go insane. I’m more chill with Bill Gates than musk is what I’m saying
It’s still the result of robbing the working class, and concentrated wealth like that is bad for everyone (even the billionaires).
Look who’s a victim ☹️
He really does desperately want to identify as victim. Bullies and Abusers often do IME
Anyone still on X at this point is a Nazi collaborator.
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