{"id":7953,"date":"2023-08-04T16:44:42","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T16:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/srilanka.factcrescendo.com\/english\/?p=7953"},"modified":"2023-08-05T13:58:38","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T13:58:38","slug":"misleading-claims-being-spread-about-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/srilanka.factcrescendo.com\/english\/misleading-claims-being-spread-about-the\/","title":{"rendered":"This is NOT a Photo of Elon Musk’s Family during Apartheid in South Africa!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The world-famous business magnate Elon Musk is also renowned as a figure who often comes up with controversial discussions on social media. As a result, Elon Musk gets criticized a lot also on social media circles; however, sometimes, these criticisms are based on false information. Let’s look at the claim first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social Media Posts<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Social media posts being shared about Elon Musk, based on a photo, state that the picture depicts young Elon Musk with his mother and a black servant, who was not allowed to at least sit on a chair. These posts try to convey that Musk is racist because even in childhood, he was grown in a racist background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Facebook<\/a> | Archived<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, we did a Google Reverse Image search and found that the image is unrelated to Elon Musk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact Check<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The image was captured in 1988 by a photographer named Rosalind Solamond in Johannesburg, South Africa. The title of the photo is “Mother, Daughter, Maid (Johannesburg, South Africa)<\/em>.” Hence, the kid in the photo was a little girl and could not have been Elon Musk. Furthermore, Elon Musk was born in 1971, and in 1988, he was a 17-year-old teenager. The original photograph is below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NGA<\/a> | Archived<\/a>\u00a0 Harvard Art Museum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that the woman seen in the social media posts is Musk’s mother, Maye Musk<\/a>,\u00a0from the mid-80s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So clearly, the above photo had no connections to Musk’s family, yet it is true that Elon Musk was raised in South Africa at a time when apartheid<\/a> was still being practiced. This New York Times article<\/a> shed light on Musk’s childhood years in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, some recent statements of Elon Musk have created a spur in social circles, and some interpret these as Musk is skeptical about the discrimination and hate speech against black Americans, such as this report<\/a> which states that Black workers at a California Tesla factory, which Musk owns, had alleged rampant racism directed towards Black factory workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, especially Musk’s comments for this video on X<\/a> by Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) gained a lot of attention recently when Musk replied that the \u201cKill the Boer, the farmer<\/em>\u201d chants in the video by EFF leader refer to “openly pushing for the genocide of white people in South Africa.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, in February this year also, Elon Musk accused the media of being racist against whites and Asians after U.S. newspapers dropped a white comic strip author who made derogatory comments about Black Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today were among the newspapers that canceled the cartoon “Dilbert” after its creator Scott Adams said Black Americans were a hate group and posted racist comments on his YouTube channel. Elon Musk even tweeted his displeasure over above mentioned media institutes censoring the content of controversial cartoonists. Archived<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent controversial behavior of Elon Musk against Black Americans can be read here<\/a>. Archived<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Conclusion<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

According to our investigation, we found out that the viral photo, which claimed to have depicted Elon Musk and his mother treating a black servant inhumanly, was not connected with Elon Musk or his family and it`s a photo of another family. However, some of Musk`s recent behavior towards black Americans have been controversial, which likely paved the way for such criticisms in social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t