Someone asked the internet why Elon Musk is white if he was born in SA...

Someone asked the internet why Elon Musk is considered white if he was born in South Africa and the answers are pretty damn funny… and awesome!

Global (22 January 2018) – An anonymous user asked the internet (on Quora) why Elon Musk is considered white if he came from South Africa? We’re guessing they decided to stay anonymous because the question is so ridiculous.

But the answers are all pretty awesome (and funny) and will make us all proudly South African… no matter what colour we are.

Rucinde-Ann Edson, who describes herself as a part Dutch, French, Philipino, Indonesian, English, Khoisan but totally Capetonian said:

“I am pretty sure he’s not white. Are you sure he’s white? I mean, did you walk up to him with one of those paint flashcard situations and hold it up to his face???? If you didn’t… well, then. There you go.

I’m sure PARTS of him are white, like his teeth, and some of his hair if he doesn’t dye it.

I’m pretty sure most of him tends to be kind of pinkish with a beige trend.

As for his RACE? Well, then. Open a history book. Read up about Bartholomew Diaz and those crazy Portuguese and to this day, you’ll find fish shops in Cape Town… then came Jan Van Riebeeck and the crazy Dutch and their weird way of naming things like “Heerengracht” and ,”Katzenellenbogen” and why every second place is called “Welgelegen”!!!!

Then came the French and they brought wine, so we are ok with them.

Then came the English. But they came mostly in 1820. And then everything became confusing.
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After that, came the Greeks, Italians, and more recently, the Russians. But ja, that is another crazy tale.

To make things even weirder, there are Indians who look European but aren’t. African people who look Asian but aren’t. Then Chinese people who don’t look black but are, according to the law in any case. And then you can have siblings that have the same parents but were classified as different races because pencils…

The funniest part of race in South Africa? If we had adopted the US idea of the ‘one drop rule’ there’d probably be no ‘white’ people. Most Afrikaner families have a mixed European-Aboriginal/Khoisan ancestry.

That’s a short history of race in my country.

I don’t know what Elon Musk considers himself to be race wise. I don’t really care. Dude looks tan and it works for him. So I’d go with that.”

Bernhard Erasmus, a South African Sales Representative added his opinion:

“So just to be clear are you assuming that if you are born in South Africa you have to be black or some other race? Just not white right?

That seems like a darn ignorant assumption to me. That’s like saying if Donald Trump was born in America why isn’t he a red Indian?

Google colonisation of South Africa. It was one of the key points to making the spice trade open. It was originally discovered by accident after a severe storm by a Portuguese captain named Vasco Da Gama (note this may not be 100% accurate, will confirm and update). Whom was trying to find an alternative to getting spice from the East to Europe as opposed to using the Arab controlled trade lines through the Eastern land route.

South Africa was colonised by Dutch, French, German, British and a dozen other cultures as a trading post and later as a colony.

Majority of these colonists were…….. Believe it or not…… White! And their children didn’t amazingly turn black or some other race just because they were born in South Africa. We fought two versions of the war of independence in neither case did we have assistance from any allies what so ever. We started guerrilla warfare, known to be probably the best marksman’s from horse back, decimating British soldiers in a 15 to 1 kill ratio for years. The British had to start using some the first versions of concentration camps and the “scorched earth policy” to stand a chance at beating us.

Winston Churchill was even a prisoner of war here but luckily managed to escape from a converted school house in Pretoria which served as a temporary POW camp.

During our last civil war we designed in some aspects better weapons/military systems than the Americans. Once again we had no allies yet we fought the Russians, Cubans and Swapo. Tactically we won, politically we conceded to end apartheid which was the right thing to do.

Please don’t make unnecessary assumptions about people being born in South Africa, we have an extremely rich heritage and we are vastly underestimated.

Edit: Thank you John Elsegood for correcting me on the Winston Churchill escape facts.”

Hennie De Ruyter, a South African who was born here answered:

“We are not called the rainbow nation for nothing! We have it all. Not only do we have a lot of people of European descent but also from Asia; most specifically India. Many of them have roots going further back in South Africa than those from the USA.

Despite what you may read we get along well and peacefully.

The same apply to religion: we have all major religions here and no tension between them.”

Boitumelo Dube, a University student in South Africa added:

“Lol this really just tells me that you are one ignorant person and it’s 2018 I curve ignorant and stupid questions like this.

Some piece of unsolicited advice : next time you have a question, any question at all, ask Google first so that you spare yourself the embarrassment because now all South Africans who are on Quora now know that you are one ignorant shmuck.

Thanks Bye Felicia”