Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, blasted the New York Times over a recent hit piece suggesting the soon-to-be Twitter CEO experienced “white privilege” growing up in apartheid-era South Africa as a child.

“Elon Musk grew up in elite white communities in South Africa, detached from apartheid’s atrocities and surrounded by anti-Black propaganda,” the Times tweeted.

The New York Times article begins by claiming Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has led to “many people” – meaning, the media – digging into his past. Because Musk wasn’t a newsmaker prior to purchasing the social media platform?

They immediately note that Musk doesn’t talk much about his upbringing and “How growing up as a white person under the racist apartheid system in South Africa may have shaped him.”

“Interviews with relatives and former classmates reveal an upbringing in elite, segregated white communities that were littered with anti-Black government propaganda, and detached from the atrocities that white political leaders inflicted on the Black majority,” they claim.

Elon Musk grew up in elite white communities in South Africa, detached from apartheid’s atrocities and surrounded by anti-Black propaganda.

He sees his takeover of Twitter as a free speech win but in his youth did not suffer the effects of misinformation. https://t.co/bciCJDWGGP

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 5, 2022

Maye Musk condemned the New York Times article, noting that apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that was enforced by the South African government.

She says that resistance often-times was met with police brutality.

Mrs. Musk openly wondered what the New York Times would have liked a child growing up within such a system to do to fight back against the government.