Racial Classification
Video Interviews
"Ridiculous as it may sound ... they would put a pencil through the hair ..." Video interview segment with Ahmed Kathrada [3:09]
March 22, 2006 East Lansing, Michigan, United States.
"Africans would come to me and ask me to make their photos fair so they could apply for a so-called Coloured ID. It may seem quite a trivial request, but to these people it was so important." Video interview segment with Eddie Daniels [7:04]
May 27, 2005 Cape Town, South Africa.
"That was one of the early incidents of my own consciousness that there were people who were classified 'other'." Video interview segment with Shepi Mati [2:28]
June 18, 2007 Cape Town, South Africa.
"When he was six, which school was going to take him?" Video interview segment with Ayesha Hoorzook [3:39]
October 8, 2006 Johannesburg, South Africa.
"I had to reclassify in order to attend Roodeport High School." Video interview segment with Yusuf Omar [2:23]
September 6, 2006 East Lansing, Michigan, United States.
Summary
Apartheid, a political and economic system built on race, required laws and administrative authorities to determine each person's racial identity. Race is never an objective, biological characteristic; in any society, race is a socially constructed concept. The Population Registration Act of 1950 required that each citizen be issued an identity document stating his or her race as either White, Native [African], or Coloured. "Coloured" was used to define people who were neither white nor “native,” a catch-all category primarily for people of mixed race. A category for Indians was created by other legislation.Local Race Classification Boards had the power to determine an individual's race. In a society with so many people of mixed ethnic background, these decisions were based as much on people's social status as on their physical appearance or descent. The decision about one’s racial category determined every aspect of life in South Africa - where you could live, what job you could hold, what public facilities you could use, who you could marry, and whether you had the right to vote.
