Breanna Robinson
May 11, 2022
Video
A report on Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has suggested he was bullied in school for a surprising reason.
The tech billionaire doesn't divulge too much about his upbringing. However, he has shared some details, including the bullying he experienced at school and his tumultuous relationship with his estranged father.
The New York Times spoke with former classmates and relatives who spoke about the reason he was bullied - and it's not for any reason you might think.
Musk was raised in South Africa before moving to Canada at age 17.
But what hasn't been discussed in too much detail is that he was raised as a white child during the country's institutionalized racist period of Apartheid.
Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter
The investigation also suggests that Musk opposed the racial prejudices held by his classmates, which made him receive the unjust ridicule.
Someone else called Nyadzani Ranwashe also told the outlet that Musk befriended his brother Asher Mashudu, who unfortunately died in a car crash in 1987.
When a white student used a racial slur against him, Musk also scolded that offender.
Following Mashudu's death, Ranwashe said that he remembered Musk was one of the small group of white people who went to the funeral and said, "It was unheard of during that time."
The outlet also noted that the suburban communities like the ones the Tesla CEO grew up in were "largely shrouded in misinformation."
The article detailed how the white South Africans were deceived by the government's propaganda campaign. Some newspapers even arrived to readers with whole sections blacked out. This may, the report suggested, have shaped his views on free speech.
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Top 100
The Conversation (0)