I picked up this discussion at Politics.za which reports from the Mail & Guardian on the Chinese Association of South Africa are going to court to seek racial reclassification to that of coloured and if that fails then they want to be reclassified as being black! Once reclassified as either coloured or black the Chinese will then be able to benefit from the Employment Equity Act (EEA) and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act. (BBBEEA).
Commentary South Africa asks the question
Assuming the Chinese get their wish, would someone who is half-Chinese, half-white also be classified as “black”? If not, why? Why should the racial lineage of one parent affect an individual’s legal standing in any way? Alternatively, if we were to consistently apply the “one drop rule”, it would require the reclassification of much of South Africa’s white population as black.
Now that’s something to think about? What an absurb situation!
South Africa; Chinese; Apartheid
I picked up this discussion at Politics.za which reports from the Mail & Guardian on the Chinese Association of South Africa are going to court to seek racial reclassification to that of coloured and if that fails then they want to be reclassified as being black! Once reclassified as either coloured or black the Chinese will then be able to benefit from the Employment Equity Act (EEA) and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act. (BBBEEA).
Commentary South Africa asks the question
Assuming the Chinese get their wish, would someone who is half-Chinese, half-white also be classified as “black”? If not, why? Why should the racial lineage of one parent affect an individual’s legal standing in any way? Alternatively, if we were to consistently apply the “one drop rule”, it would require the reclassification of much of South Africa’s white population as black.
Now that's something to think about? What an absurb situation!
South Africa; Chinese; Apartheid
Tagged as:
Africa ,
Racism
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great link!
It pains me to say this, but a relative of mine fiddled with his last name to make it european sounding, and therefore to pass for coloured (we’re rather light skinned in my family… Bushman blood). He succeeded. This was in the early 80s.
Note they want to be Coloured first. They’ll settle for black. Cleary the racial strata is alive and well.
Kym@my thoughts too! Apparently they are asking for a definition of “black” presumably with the intention of either challenging the definition or finding a way to include themselves.
Talk about greed and opportunism!
I don’t know enough to say how much of a role greed and opportunism play, but I know that if I were Chinese (which I am) and in South Africa (which I’m not), I sure wouldn’t want to be classified as white, receiving neither the privileges of whiteness nor whatever public assistance might be available. I imagine the categorizations “coloured” and “black” are the government’s terms, not that of the Chinese themselves.
During the hard days of Apartheid, weren’t people of Chinese origin labelled black and those of Japanese origin labelled white?
I seem to remember something of the sort. if my memory is correct, RSA did business or wanted to do business with JPN, but was firmly against China, and vice-versa. Anybody know for sure?
Yes I seem to remember that the Japanese were classified as white but cannot remember anything about the Chinese!
Kai definately has a point here that these classifications were contstructed by the apartheid regime – I wonder why these classifications remain as part of offical government policy in a post apartheid South Africa?