Elon Musk knows a lot about apartheid. After all, he lived under that system until he emigrated from South Africa to Canada and then America. He went to Canada first because it was unlikely that America would have welcomed him if he came directly from the pariah state of South Africa.
Apartheid is institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination, where one racial group is given political, economic, and social dominance over others through laws, policies, cultural expression, and enforcement mechanisms. While the term has not been applied to America, it perfectly fits the historic treatment of Native Americans, slaves, and then free Blacks, Chinese, Japanese, Hispanics, and other people of color. Many white immigrants, like the Irish, Italians, Eastern Europeans, and Jewish immigrants, experienced a “transitory apartheid” involving economic exploitation, segregation, and social exclusion. This was transitory because white social mobility enabled them to escape this oppression within a generation or so.
While racial apartheid is the most common system of oppression, there are a number of subsets listed in the postscript.
Elon Musk’s hacksaw seeks to impose economic apartheid in America by directly harming thousands and thousands of federal employees and the public that they serve, as well as by cutting benefits like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security to enrich himself and other American oligarchs.
Opposing Musk’s economic apartheid is challenging, but South Africa offers a playbook. In the 1980s, businesses, banks, and governments withdrew investments, loans, and trade from South Africa to protest apartheid.
It is time to wage war against Tesla, a war that has attracted allies worldwide—one that should serve as a warning to oligarchs everywhere. People in many countries are refusing to buy Tesla cars. Consider these declines: Australia down 72%, Norway and Denmark down 48%, Sweden down 42%, France down 45%, Portugal down 53%, Germany down 76%, China down 49%, Canada down 70%, Spain down 10%, Italy down 55%, Netherlands down 24%, and the U.S. down 6%.
But there is more. Tesla shares reached a high of $480 a share on December 17, 2024. It is now trading at $240. A decline of 50% has wiped out half of the stock’s value. But there is more. Analysts at JP Morgan cut their price target on Tesla by about 41%, from $230.58 to $135. This is where they expect the stock to be in a year. Down. Down. Down. To stimulate sales, Tesla has continued to lower the sales prices of models, which decreases their profit margins. Musk has used Tesla stock as collateral to borrow money. It is estimated that if Tesla shares fall to $114, Musk will experience margin calls on those loans, forcing him to liquidate shares to pay off the loan, thus driving the stock price even lower.
But there is more. There have been protests at many Tesla dealerships. Unfortunately, there have also been a number of instances of vandalism at dealerships and Tesla charging stations.
But there is more. Trump’s tariffs will negatively impact costs, as they will for all U.S. automakers.
But there is more. Tesla board members are selling Tesla stock. This includes James Murdoch, who sold $13.2 million, and board chair Robyn Denholm, who liquidated close to $117 million. Tesla CFO Taneja Vaibhav sold 7,000 shares for $2.7 million. Kimbal Musk, Elon Musk’s brother and Tesla board member, sold 75,000 Tesla shares for $27.5 million. Some of these sales involve settlements over excessive compensation claims, while others indicate a loss of confidence.
But there is more. Outside institutional investors are also selling Tesla stock. Graham Tanaka has liquidated $21.5 million of Tesla stock held in his Tanaka Growth Fund over the last six months. Market Analyst Axel Rudolph writes, “Institutional investors, who typically provide stability during market volatility, have been reducing their Tesla positions according to recent SEC filings. This shift in institutional sentiment suggests a more cautious approach to the company’s prospects among professional money managers.” (Source)
But there is more. Now, there are calls, like the ones that happened to South Africa in the 1980s because of apartheid, for institutional investors to liquidate their Tesla stock.
Twenty-three state senators in New York sent a letter to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli asking him to divest the state pension fund of Tesla shares. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, known as CalPERS, reduced its holdings by half, down to 4.9 million shares in late November 2024. And there is pressure from civil rights groups on CalPERS to sell the remaining stock.
Randi Weingarten, union president of the American Federation of Teachers, has sent letters to T. Rowe Price, TIAA-CREF, Fidelity, Vanguard, State Street, and BlackRock asking them to analyze Tesla stock to see if it merits divestment. While her focus is explicitly on the dismal performance of the stock, threats to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education likely motivated the letters.
Despite Trump opening up a Tesla showroom at the White House and threatening protestors at Tesla dealerships, this is the whirlwind that Musk has brought down on himself. To curry Trump’s favor and influence, Musk just contributed $100 million to Trump’s political apparatus. That will not buy him favor with the public. Tesla, once the darling of environmentally conscious liberals and institutional investors, has become the pariah, just as South Africa once was.
This movement is called the Tesla Takedown. Valerie Costa, a co-founder of the Seattle-based environmental group Troublemakers, is one of the many organizers involved in the Tesla Takedown. She has caught the attention of Musk, who lied when he X/tweeted, “Costa is committing crimes.” Musk has probably forgotten the First Amendment. Trump certainly has, but free speech and peaceable protest are permissible ways of addressing grievances against the government and others. In America, they are called freedoms.
Costa’s opinion piece in “The Guardian” is entitled, “Elon Musk targeted me over Tesla protests. That proves our movement is working.” (Source) Costa counters in her piece, “In fact, Musk and Trump are the ones committing crimes.” She adds, “If we can’t show our opposition to what the government is doing, we are living in a dictatorship. If we are criminalized for calling out the rich and powerful for their illegal actions, that is a dictatorship. I don’t want to live in a dictatorship.” According to Costa, there will be at least 91 Tesla Takedown protests planned across the world this coming weekend and more the following weekend. Consider joining or organizing one.
Since Musk is intent on destroying American democracy, he should learn just how powerful democracy is, especially among the ones he is oppressing through his economic apartheid. He started this war. May the people finish it—and him. You can help. Sell your Tesla, sell your Tesla stock, protest at Tesla dealerships, and pressure institutional investors to sell their Tesla stock.
Time left to January 20, 2029: 1,408 days
PS: Apartheid Subsets
1 Economic Apartheid features severe wealth equality and low economic mobility that reinforces class and racial divides using economic segregation that disproportionately affects Black, Latino, and Rural communities.
2 Social Apartheid is enforced through social institutions, culture, and daily life without explicit laws. For example, private schools and elite institutions remain overwhelmingly white and wealthy, and neighborhoods are highly segregated from gated communities to barrios, public housing projects, etc.
3 Health Apartheid segregates access to healthcare and health outcomes by race and class. This includes higher maternal mortality rates for Black women, disparities in access to hospitals, and differences in life expectancy based on zip code.
4 Environmental Apartheid affects marginalized communities that are disproportionately exposed to pollution, toxic waste, and climate disasters. Consider the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan, or Cancer Ally in Louisiana, where Black communities face extreme generational exposure to pollution from oil refineries and chemical factories.
5 Digital Apartheid involves the gap in access to digital technology, which disadvantages rural and low-income areas with limited broadband access, reinforcing economic and educational inequality.
6 Political Apartheid undermines voting rights, skews political representation, and limits civic power for certain groups. In the U.S., voter suppression laws and gerrymandering enforce political apartheid.
