Segregationists moving to Apartheid SA?

[Kevin R.]

An idea that I got from groups like Christian Exodus and the competing Free State Projects, but applied on an international scale.

What if, sometime during the '60s and early '70s, some of the die-hard segregationists (let's say 500,000 to a million), seeing that they were getting their asses beat in the civil rights debate, decided to just say "screw it" and make an exodus to apartheid South Africa? Would SA have gone along with it? What would have been the ramifications of this in both the US and SA? Less resistance to desegregation in the former, a later end to apartheid in the latter? Or something else? And what if like-minded people in other "white" countries (Canada, Australia, western Europe) followed?

 

[Flocculencio]

They're not exactly going to be very compatible. The cultural outlook of those Afrikaners who were die hard segregationists tended to be somewhat...idiosyncratic.nthey might welcome this immigration at first but I think it would lead to some serious cultural issues down the road.

 

[thekingsguard]

You get a race of slave-owning Ubermensch in a few hundred years that conquers the entire planet

 

[Kevin R.]

They're not exactly going to be very compatible. The cultural outlook of those Afrikaners who were die hard segregationists tended to be somewhat...idiosyncratic.nthey might welcome this immigration at first but I think it would lead to some serious cultural issues down the road.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Initially they'll be welcomed as a way to boost the white population's numbers, but eventually a big divide will open up between the English-speaking American immigrants and the locals, especially the Afrikaners. At the very least, the immigrants are going to demand looser restrictions on TV programming, which was one of the luxuries they enjoyed in America but which SA didn't have on a national scale until 1976(!), partly because conservative Afrikaners felt that it would give greater weight to English and erode their culture.

 

[pa_dutch]

Why would white racists move to a country where they'd be the minority?

 

[wormyguy]

Not going to happen for two obvious reasons:

1. Whites with segregationist sentiments tended to be poor; they wouldn't uproot themselves to live in an alien culture with uncertain job prospects (plus an even larger amount of blacks who are actually trying to kill them).

2. Afrikaners hated English-speaking whites almost as much if not more than blacks. There's a good chance SA won't let them in.

 

[Orville_third]

It should be noted that a lot of the Segregationists in SA were members of the Reformed church there. Meanwhile a lot of the Americans would likely be other sects.

 

[Devolved]

Why would white racists move to a country where they'd be the minority?

Also if they went to South Africa they would have to play Rugby. I can't imagine inbred rednecks with beer bellies lasting 5 minutes in such a country.

They would also have to learn another culture, which would take them out of their comfort zone. Truth was that civil rights only marginally affected their lifestyle. Not enough to drive them abroad.

 

[TheMann]

1. Whites with segregationist sentiments tended to be poor; they wouldn't uproot themselves to live in an alien culture with uncertain job prospects (plus an even larger amount of blacks who are actually trying to kill them).

2. Afrikaners hated English-speaking whites almost as much if not more than blacks. There's a good chance SA won't let them in.

These are good points, though the second part has one inaccuracy. I highly doubt that they wouldn't be allowed in, as South Africa did allow in lots of whites from other parts of the world in the 1970s and 1980s - Rhodesians, African Portuguese, Eastern Bloc whites. I figure that they would get in, but the point about the Afrikaners being only lukewarm in supporting them (If these diehards were also religious, and many would be, it helps somewhat) is quite accurate.

The point about black Africans being highly against them is quite true, though. They would not be terribly welcome in South Africa, and I think they would probably end up clustering in one area (probably in the Johannesburg area, though they may also choose one of the coastal cities) and if they get such numbers they end up being the dominant "white" group in the area. Flocc's point is also bang on. The apartheid state was not a real tolerant place for diversity even among whites. They would have to adapt to South Africa, and they may not like that.

As for the rugby, I don't think that that's much of an issue. Anybody who knows rugby and football knows that one can be good at both because of some of the similarities. Yeah, fatsos need not apply, but there were (and still are) plenty of fat Afrikaners, too.

 

[danwild6]

Also if they went to South Africa they would have to play Rugby. I can't imagine inbred rednecks with beer bellies lasting 5 minutes in such a country.

They would also have to learn another culture, which would take them out of their comfort zone. Truth was that civil rights only marginally affected their lifestyle. Not enough to drive them abroad.

The Aussies are actually quite good at both.