Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Elon Musk, Twitter, Social Media, Viral, Celebrity
Abbi Murray
Twitter users have erupted into fierce debate after someone referred to Elon Musk as an ‘African American immigrant’.
It all began after author, Jillian C. York, posted an interesting exchange to her Twitter, which showed someone calling Musk an ‘African American immigrant’.
York posted a screenshot of the thread with the caption: “I couldn’t write this script if I tried.”
She went on to add: “I don't have a horse in the ‘can someone born and raised on the African continent who is not Black call themselves African’ race but ‘African American immigrant’ is just WOWZA.”
It wasn’t long before the controversial statement attracted attention from all walks of Twitter, all of whom provided their thoughts on the matter.
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Many vehemently disagreed with the statement, with one person writing: “No, he's really just wrong. Elon Musk is a South-African immigrant turned American.
“He's not African-American because that is a term for the American descendants of slaves with an African origin, and all of this even ignores his being part Canadian, too.”
Another person argued: “Like, I don't think it's disingenuous to call him African immigrant; we need a broader view of the diversity of people from that continent, but he isn't an ‘African American’.
“He's a white Afrikaans and they are hardly immune to claims of racism.”
A third person added: “An immigrant from Africa is not the same as an African-American immigrant.”
“Same logic as being born in America makes you native American lmao,” joked a fourth.
Nevertheless, there were others who didn’t see anything wrong with the claim.
Someone asserted: “The most successful African American is Elon Musk.”
Another person wrote: “Musk is literally a neurodivergent African American immigrant, but y'all keep making your little jokes about him.”
A third user claimed: “[Elon Musk] wants Donald J. Trump back on twitter. [Twitter] is refusing to hear the voice of an African-American immigrant who earned his wealth to become the largest shareholder of [Twitter].”
Erring on the side of caution, someone else proposed: “Calling Elon Musk African-American is technically true, but since the term isn’t popularly used to refer to African immigrants to America, it’s the wrong usage.
“And African-American or not, he’s still white (and a white South African at that), and not immune to racism.”
Musk was actually born to a South African father and Canadian mother, and he was raised in Pretoria, South Africa.
He first moved to Canada when he was 17, before moving to California in 1995.
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