“Race”, Ressentment and Racism: Transformation in South África (original) (raw)

Over centuries, a particular "racial" regime emerged in which "race" came to be bound up with class. While the meaning of "race" was fluid over time, once apartheid was firmly entrenched, officially prescribed "racial" categories divided the country"s society. After apartheid, "black" and "white" people continue to live together in a democratic society in which all have equal rights and duties, notwithstanding their "race". However, the terms of reconciliation and what is required to live together is contested. From a qualitative perspective, this paper analyses how "black" people in South Africa strive to overcome and ressignify the marks of a history of repression and "racial" marginalization. We will follow the trajectory of Mpho, a "black" woman, with the objective to reflect on how the intersection of "race" and gender involves situations of negociation, cohersion, ressentment and refusal. In her narrative of the self, Mpho, explains how feelings of injustice about past discrimination, racism, and violence affect her co-habitation with "white" people. While there are points of entanglement, the legacy of past discrimination looms large and renders living together fraught with difficulties. The paper discusses how some individuals reorganize their network of sociability in post-apartheid South Africa with a focus on the "field of possibilities" available for different "racial" groups.