White South African Claims Racial Persecution
by Latoya Peterson
The Associated Press originally broke the news that a white South African, Brandon Carl Huntley, claimed he was being persecuted for the color of his skin. He appealed to Canada and was granted refugee status. The report notes:
Huntley argued that whites are targeted by black criminals in South Africa and that the government does nothing to protect them. He claimed he was attacked seven times during attempted robberies and muggings.
However, South African officials doubt Huntley’s story. The Australian reports:
He claimed to have been called a “white dog”, and maintained he could not get a job because of Pretoria’s affirmative action policies. But Mr Huntley admitted yesterday he had not reported the attacks to the police. “I refuse to talk to the government,” he told The Star newspaper in Johannesburg.
(Thanks to Marjannaa A and DDSuber for the tip!)
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Medusa wrote:
So, “no longer benefiting from my skin color” = persecution?
As far as I know, black South Africans (and Desi South Africans) are also attacked by criminals.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 8:53 am ¶
Charles Ash wrote:
If he was persecuted, it’s because he’s an A-hole of epic proportions. Turns out he’s not even “White” as he claims, but Coloured. The Coloured folk don’t want him though, so he can keep his self-loathing, slippery, opportunistic, vile, scaly, pathetic @$$ right where he is. What a loser!
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 10:02 am ¶
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:
I saw an article on Global Post that a lot of South Africans (white and black) found his story ludricious and laughable.
and yeah, Medusa is right– South Africa happens to have one of the world’s highest and worst crime rates.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 10:12 am ¶
Sobia wrote:
But what does this say about Canada? They deny entry to Canadian *citizens* of colour (Omar Khadr, Abusufian Abdulrazek, Souad Hagi Muhammad, Abdihakim Mohammed – all Muslim “coincidentally”), yet allow this guy in. Canada seems to be becoming more and more racist by the day.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 10:38 am ¶
Ishtar wrote:
This story has been buzzing around in our local media and as yet, shows no signs of subsiding. Yes, Huntley is now the subject of many jokes and much derision but there are whites who agree with him, even when it is pointed out to them that the majority of crime victims are black.
(For the record, I have to note that there are instances where the white victims of crime were assaulted or tortured specifically because of their race. Special Assignment – a respected local investigative journalism programme – aired an episode about a year or two ago that profiled some of these victims. What they endured was horrific.)
However, Huntley is simply taking a big fat chance with his claim of persecution. We have about 5million whites in South Africa. Cape Town (where he is from) is fairly evenly balanced in terms of race (black, white and coloured). He wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb anywhere except in the black and coloured townships and EVEN THEN he is more likely to be safer than not.
A friend once remarked to me a few years ago that the safest person in a black township is a white person. His reasoning was that because so few whites visit the townships, their residents would look after those who do visit.
Our crime rate is too high. Our rate of violent crime is particularly frightening. But crime affects ALL South Africans.
Canada is more than welcome to Huntley. Let them keep him. Please.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 10:55 am ¶
Slush wrote:
Okay I agree with Ishtar a lot, and other comments, but there are a lot of ways this could add up to a pretty simple asylum case that just happens to have backwards international racial politics.
For one, Canada has some of the most generous asylum laws around (I don’t know the specifics, but that’s the reputation).
Second, under the refugee convention, asylum is about admitting into your country someone who is fleeing terror, violence, and persecution. Importantly, that doesn’t have to be the world’s most grotesque and intolerable persecution, it just has to be persecution, and has to be based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.
We don’t actually want to raise the standard because then lots of people wouldn’t get in, and so therefore Huntley probably meets the definition. He’s fleeing violence and managed to provide enough evidence that he was targeted on the basis of race or perhaps membership in a social group. (I doubt that his claims about crime were the only meat to his argument, because that generally doesn’t cut it for asylum, unless Canada is really really generous.)
It does sound like Huntley is pretty racist himself, but frankly that is not a disqualifying trait for an asylum seeker, nor should it be.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 11:15 am ¶
khinky wrote:
I guess Canada is welcome to him (and the rush of people who’ll try this in the future). It’s true that some criminals have treated their victims in a cruel, racially-charged way. But this man is so full of hate himself, it’s hard to take him seriously.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 12:02 pm ¶
saartjie wrote:
The guy is a moron, who is basically committing immigration fraud, and lucked out by finding a particularly ignorant Canadian official to hoodwink.
There are increasingly interesting dimensions to being white in SA these days though. Starting to notice that absolutely everything that goes wrong eventually gets blamed on racism (ie white people), which is becoming tiresome . . . anyhoo, doesn’t seem like enough of a reason to run screaming to Canada, or anywhere else for that matter.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 4:14 pm ¶
dayobenzi wrote:
Maybe he just wanted a faster internet connection.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 4:41 pm ¶
Scott wrote:
It’s not just a matter of “finding a particularly ignorant Canadian official.” We currently have a right-wing federal government in Canada, but they only have a minority in Parliament so they are being very careful about making sure that their far-right, mostly white, Christian fundamentalist base is kept on a tight leash and doesn’t scare away the more moderate conservatives and business liberals they would need to get to vote for them to win the majority of seats in Parliament. Part of that has been giving small-scale cushy appointments to far-right fundamentalists — not major ones, because they would attract media attention, but enough to keep the base happy. The committee that reviews refugee claims is one place they’ve decided to stick these people. Of course a key part of the right’s agenda is undoing whatever minimal efforts to recognize and counter racial and gender oppression that years of struggle have forced into regulations and state practices more generally. The refugee review board made this embarassing decision because it is stacked with people committed to erasing any vestige of recognition that patriarchy and racism exist.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 5:53 pm ¶
urbia wrote:
@Sobia
“Canada seems to be becoming more and more racist by the day.”
Anyone else notice this story on Yahoo a few days ago, and the accompanying image? It was of the ‘tarnished’ Canadian flag, as though – oh noes! – this story was ruining the country’s image as being non-racist.
Well, too bad. Want the reputation, Canada? You’ve got to earn it! Not by, like, hiding all the parts you don’t want others to see or hear about.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 5:54 pm ¶
Sobia wrote:
Scott’s points are right on. Canada no doubt has had a racist history, but it seems this particular government is making great strides in making us more racist. And not to mention homophobic and misogynistic.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 7:33 pm ¶
Restructure! wrote:
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada fail.
Not anymore, since the immigration reform of 2008 introduced by the Conservatives, which gives Immigration Minister Diane Finley the power to arbitrarily decide which people are allowed to immigrate.
Yet when a lesbian U.S. deserter applied for refugee status because she was picked up and thrown on a daily basis by another soldier, received anonymous death threats, and generally verbally and physically harassed because of her sexual orientation, the Immigration and Refugee Board rejected her claim.
It’s no surprise that conservative values are what dictates which people count as refugees. According to them, white people good, black people bad, heterosexual people (and U.S.A. and army) good, lesbians and gays bad.
Posted 10 Sep 2009 at 9:03 pm ¶
SA Whitey wrote:
It is easy to talk but talk is cheap. Did anyone think on what will happen to him when he returns to South Africa after all this? He do not think that he will be safe.
Ever tried to get a cop to a crime? Tell them you shot a black guy and you don’t know what to do with him. They are there in seconds. With all the corruption and bribary who would be able to report a crime. I reported a crime at the police a month ago and they have not contacted me. Is it worth reporting an attack? I don’t think so.
If I can get out of SA, I will do it in an instant. rather go to Israel it is safer.
Posted 11 Sep 2009 at 2:34 am ¶
pixilated wrote:
excuse me while i get out my violin *eye roll*
i’m quite sure the many thousands of south africans of ,all races who are the victims of crime every year will feel especially sorry for him since the colour of their skin means they’re so much less likely to have a newspaper article written about what happened to them.
Posted 11 Sep 2009 at 5:02 am ¶
PatrickInBeijing wrote:
Certainly there is crime in South Africa, and in America, and everywhere.
But this guy is the victim of many crimes witnessed only by him? Ummm, really, now. So, anyone who is white in South Africa and wants to live in Canada just has to say they were the victim of many crimes witnessed only by themselves, and they are in??? Yes!!! Another example of white skin privilege!!
The guy is only taking care of his own self interest, and is no more to be blamed than anyone who tells us a tall tale to get our money.
But what does it say that anyone would believe him? It mostly says that people in Canada and elsewhere believe that when Black people rule a country like South Africa, life there must be terrible for white folks. Umm, based on what?
(Confession, I knew people involved in South African politics on the revolutionary side. But I also knew a fairly racist South African white guy, who left America to go home because he missed the various skin privileges that came with being white even after the revolution. He was fairly blunt about it. Said it wasn’t fair, but was a good deal for him, and he was going back.)
As usual, the lack of thoughtful understanding of anything in the MSM contributes to this reporting….
Posted 11 Sep 2009 at 8:34 am ¶
Ishtar wrote:
@ SA Whitey
You’re obviously very passionate about this topic but, like many South Africans, you assume that your personal experience is representative of everyone’s experiences.
I’ve had bad, mediocre and excellent service from the police. Violent crime happened to me in the old South Africa (stabbed when I was 10). Thankfully, I haven’t been the victim of a violent crime since 1994. I know people who have and I’m not in any way trying to minimise the horror.
But.
Painting an entire nation with the same brush? Whites complain that they are all lumped together as “racist whites”, yet you do the same to us. Every day. On just about everything. Whites expect to be judged as individuals so why don’t we get the same consideration?
The police service (for example), has its problems. That cannot be disputed. But there are police officers who do their best, risking their lives in an effort to protect the rest of us. Why must they be tarred with the same brush as the corrupt cops? People are quick to point out when the public service fails but they are tjoep-stil (dead quiet) when it comes the successes.
I don’t have a problem with anyone who wants to emigrate. That’s freedom of choice. If you think you will be happier somewhere else then you should be able to do so without anyone judging your choices. However, what annoys me is when expats then enthusiastically trash-talk SA. Nothing works here, everything’s going to hell, blah blah blah blah blah blah.
In the old SA, everything in my life was governed by my race. Everything. Where I could attend school, where I could live, where I could work and what kind of job I was legally ALLOWED to have. I didn’t have the vote. Oh God, I could write all day and still not exhaust this list.
In the new SA, I have the right to apply for any job, live in any area (as long as I can afford it), study anything I want anywhere I want, I can hop on a train without checking for the “Non-Whites Only” sign. I can vote! I work alongside whites, coloureds, blacks and indians and I don’t have to kow-tow to the white baas (boss). I can walk into any hotel, restaurant, shop, secure in the knowledge that I cannot be turned away simply because of the colour of my skin.
Maybe these things mean little to you but to me…these things mean more than I am able to express in words.
I’m under no illusions that we have a long hard road to travel. We’ll make mistakes, we’ll stumble and fall, we’ll do bad things, wrong things. But we did great things. We’re still doing them now and we will do more in the future.
Because you know who we are at the heart of everything? We’re human beings. In all our glorious, frustrating, contradictory complexity. We’re human beings. Just like you.
Posted 11 Sep 2009 at 8:35 am ¶
EMP wrote:
The decision by the Canadian Immigration board is even more egregious when you consider the following:
Mr. Huntley was allowed in Canada under a work permit. His permit expired, and he stayed here illegally for one year. During this time he first attempted to join the Army in order not to return to South Africa. When that didn’t work, since, um you need to be a citizen, he tried plan B: he married a citizen. However that failed to, as the woman he married wasn’t nice to him. So they separated. So plan C was the bogus refugee claim…jackpot!
Posted 11 Sep 2009 at 9:55 am ¶
Khinky wrote:
@ Ishtar:
Thanks for your reply to “SA Whitey.” He has obviously not thought out his opinions properly (or is just – dare I say it – a little bit racist). He obviosly thinks everyone is out to get him.
Thanks also for sharing some of your story.
But even if he’s just a troll using the anonymity of the internet to be rude, it bothers me that many people share his opinions. At least once a month in a casual work setting, the conversation will be along those lines.
Posted 11 Sep 2009 at 3:13 pm ¶
youngin` wrote:
utter garbage, I am actully ashamed of Canada . I didn`t know losing your white privledge makes you a refugge =/ .
Posted 11 Sep 2009 at 4:55 pm ¶
jvansteppes wrote:
The fact that we let him in is not a surprise.
Just weeks ago I had the profound displeasure of coming across this story: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ottawas-khadr-appeal-stains-canadas-rights-reputation-critics-charge/article1264542/
Posted 11 Sep 2009 at 7:41 pm ¶
silverkris wrote:
If this guy Hurley already came to Canada, overstayed his visa, and then tried different ways to extend his stay, including a claim of refugee status/political asylum, that really sounds fishy, and unfortunately, taints the process for people who really have that need.
In any case, violent crime affects all South Africans, and the brunt of it is borne by the black South Africans. Not unusual.
Somewhat a bit off topic, but to paraphrase George Carlin, would it be rather strange to have a racist white South African emigrate to the USA, who could then legitimately call him or herself an African American?
Posted 12 Sep 2009 at 8:23 am ¶
Slush wrote:
The government of Canada agreed to appeal the decision: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09/03/world/AP-CN-Canada-South-Africa-Refugee.html
Posted 15 Sep 2009 at 2:17 pm ¶
Fantomex wrote:
Let’s face facts, people: The guy can’t put up with life in South Africa because it’s no longer the all-white paradise it used to be, and so instead of just immigrating to Holland or some other part of Europe, he came to Canada as a ‘political refugee’ -and of course, our amazing refugee board-the same one that can’t let Jeremy Hinzman stay, or any persecuted GLBT man or woman fleeing real persecution-lets this loser in.
Time for a fall election, and for the asshole in power to get his right-wing Christofacist ass voted out-it can’t come soon enough.
Posted 16 Sep 2009 at 5:57 am ¶