Coloured Ethnicity and Identity

Democratization processes create opportunities for some, but cause economic and psychological hardship - whether perceived or real - for others. For the latter, transformation situations may strengthen a sense of group belonging, may foster the emergence of a new group identity. After 1990, some media and scholars observed a new ethnic assertiveness among persons classified as "coloured" in apartheid South Africa. As a majority in the Western Cape, yet a minority on the national level, they expressed fear of being discriminated against under black majority rule: "In the past we were not white enough, today we are not black enough." In this statement resonates a sense of exclusion from the democratic process. By evaluating a quantitative survey, this book analyses how a minority perceives the South African transformation process. The author examines attitudes towards the old regime, towards new government policies and intergroup relations as well as their impact on the self-perception and the political behaviour of coloured people in South Africa.