So apparently Elon Musk had to correct people on his actual ethnicity back in early 2024 because everyone kept assuming he was Afrikaner. Turns out he's British/English descent, which is kind of a random detail but he felt the need to set the record straight on Twitter. The interesting part? He brought up JRR Tolkien as a comparison - also born in South Africa but from an English family. Both ended up leaving and building their legacies elsewhere. It's one of those things that makes you wonder how much your background actually shapes who you become. Musk is apparently a huge Tolkien fan too, which tracks given his whole Mars colonization vision and ambitious worldbuilding mentality. The article mentions his upbringing in South Africa wasn't exactly easy - some pretty intense wilderness survival stuff as a kid - but yeah, the heritage thing seems to be what got people talking. Kind of funny how people fill in the blanks about someone's background when they don't actually know the details.