According to Elon Musk, people with light skin are discriminated against. But the South African-American multi-billionaire is apparently about much more.
April 25, 2026, 9:21 a.mApril 25, 2026, 9:45 a.m
Thomas Wanhoff / t-online
Elon Musk, the American entrepreneur and temporary austerity czar under US President Donald Trump, is increasingly making noise on his Platform
In January he wrote on And he called for an “end to the feeling of guilt”.
The tech billionaire publicly claims that white people are being discriminated against.Image: keystone
The SpaceX founder, who wants to take the space company public, has never made a secret of his right-wing conservative views. In the last election campaign he repeatedly appeared alongside Donald Trump, but also confused observers with a gesture reminiscent of the Hitler salute. Although Musk no longer goes in and out of the White House, he is still in line with those Republicans who have an extreme right-wing populist agenda.
As the Washington Post has researched, Musk’s comments about the white race have increased. In the past seven months, Musk has written about racial issues 850 times, nearly three times more than in the previous two years. Half of these posts contain the word “white”. Between last October and April 2026, the topic concerns the entrepreneur every day.
Accusations against South Africa
Musk doesn’t just claim that white people are subjected to relentless slander. He has also suggested that ethnicity plays a detrimental role in personnel selection and highlighted whites’ help in abolishing slavery. He accuses his home country of South Africa of discriminating against white citizens – the country that liberated itself after decades of apartheid against the black population.
Elon Musk with Donald Trump, in the background there is a Tesla Cybertruck. The entrepreneur apparently still has a good relationship with the president.Image: IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire
Musk continues to be successful professionally. SpaceX’s IPO could bring him billions more dollars, also because he has integrated his AI company xAi there. He wants to convert Tesla into a robot company and thus serve this growing global market. But privately he is becoming more extreme in his political statements.
Expert: Common arguments of white supremacy
“As far as I can tell, Musk is currently embracing the common arguments of white supremacy,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told the Washington Post, referring to Musk’s claim that whites are a “dying minority.”
Criticism also comes from supporters of the tech entrepreneur who want to see more focus on innovations instead of racist omissions. “Rivian: focused on autonomy and its next vehicle,” wrote a popular Tesla fan account on X, which is now critical of Musk, in December, referring to a rival electric car manufacturer. “Elon: focuses on the proportion of the white population in New Zealand.”
With his contributions, the South African serves a small, radical group in American society. A study by the American PEW Institute last year found that only twelve percent of Americans believe that whites face a lot of discrimination.
Tweet from Elon Musk (April 2026) about alleged discrimination against whites and Asians in South Africa.Image: Screenshot: x.com
Ashley Jardina, a professor of public policy and political science at the University of Virginia and author of the book “White Identity Politics,” told the Post that Musk’s positions are an expression of “classic white supremacy.” “It is simply becoming more and more socially acceptable to express more open and explicitly racist attitudes,” she said and warned:
“I think when a major political figure or a celebrity with that kind of platform uses that kind of language without being sanctioned, it helps make them more socially acceptable.”
Musk’s attempts to spread his white racial theory are evident in Grokipedia, his version of the encyclopedia Wikipedia. As the US magazine “Atlantic” researched, the “theory” of discrimination against whites is also being spread there and claims that debates about it are even being suppressed.
In the world of business, it is “elites” and leftists who pose a threat to the white race. In February he complained that the comic strip “Dilbert” had been banned from some newspapers. Its creator, Scott Adams, delivered a racist tirade on YouTube. Among other things, there is a survey that asked whether participants agreed with the sentence “It’s ok to be white.” 26 percent of black participants disagreed – Adams called them a “hate group.”
Musk accused “the media” and “elite colleges and high schools” of being “racist” against whites and Asians. The human rights organization Amnesty International sees it completely differently: “From the executive branch to police authorities and school boards to immigration courts, systems are being realigned – not to promote equality or justice, but to consolidate a certain racial hierarchy in which only the human rights of white people are respected,” she wrote in a report.