Just learned that Elon Musk actually corrected people about his ancestry not too long ago. Apparently there's been this whole misconception that he's Afrikaner, but he clarified he's from British/English background instead. Kinda wild because he drew a parallel to J.R.R. Tolkien, who was also born in South Africa. Both of them have this interesting connection to the country but different heritage roots.

It's actually a pretty cool detail about Musk's background that most people probably don't know. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein back in 1892 and had English parents, while Musk was born in Pretoria in 1971. Different eras, different circumstances, but that shared South African birth makes the comparison interesting. And apparently Musk is a huge Tolkien fan anyway, so maybe that heritage connection resonates with him on some level.

The whole thing started because someone on social media had written about Musk growing up in an Afrikaner family, which apparently bugged him enough to set the record straight. There's actually a meaningful difference between Afrikaner heritage (descended from Dutch, German, French settlers) and English South African heritage (from 19th century British settlers). Makes sense he'd want to clarify which one applies to his ancestry. You don't really hear people breaking down these distinctions much, so it's one of those details that shows how his background actually shaped his identity.