China and Africa

Chinese South Africans are black

darryl_accone.jpg
Chinese South African writer Darryl Accone, now with Empowerment

Well, not exactly black, but it makes for a good headline. From The BBC:


S Africa Chinese 'become black'

The High Court in South Africa has ruled that Chinese South Africans are to be reclassified as black people.

It made the order so that ethnic Chinese can benefit from government policies aimed at ending white domination in the private sector.

The Chinese Association of South Africa took the government to court, saying its members had been discriminated against.

An estimated 200,000 ethnic Chinese live in South Africa.

The association said their members often failed to qualify for business contracts and job promotions because they were regarded as whites.

The association said Chinese South Africans had faced widespread discrimination during the years of apartheid when they had been classified as people of mixed race.

The BBC's Mpho Lakaje in Johannesburg says the Broad-Based Economic Empowerment and the Employment Equity Acts were designed to eradicate the legacy of apartheid which left many black people impoverished.

The laws give people classed as blacks, Indians and coloureds (mixed-race) employment and other economic benefits over other racial groups.

The Black Economic Employment concept was initiated by the governing ANC to help previously disadvantaged individuals - to start their own businesses or become part of existing companies - thus redressing the country's historic inequalities.

Unfortunately, white South Africans who have spent their entire adult lives in China, such as your correspondent, will not be reclassified as a result of the new ruling.

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In late 2006, it emerged that the Chinese Association of South Africa was preparing legal action to have Chinese recognised as having been disadvantaged under Apartheid, in order to benefit from Black Economic Empowerment. Complicating this attempt is the presence of immigrant Chinese who were not disadvantaged by Apartheid, and vastly outnumber locally born Chinese. A further complication is the less lenient restrictions faced by Chinese under Apartheid, and the honorary white status of Taiwanese and Japanese under Apartheid.[1] (Wikipedia, "Asians in South Africa."

I distinctly recall that Taiwan pressed for and got "honorary white status" for its citizens in the late 1970s or early 1980s, no doubt through political pull and the fact that they were big investors in this pariah apartheid state. Given that most Chinese in South Africa are immigrants (see Wikipedia, above), the odds are that many benefited to some extent from a special non-colored status prior to black rule.

This mixed history does sort of complicate the claim to "(honorary) black" status, doesn't it?

That it's complicated is without doubt, but it should be seen in a broader context of redressing historical imbalances. I welcome this as another nail in the coffin of that f$^&&^*^*-ed up system that screwed my country and my people and really is still to blame for an unimaginable amount of suffering.

I bet the Chinese LOOOOOVE being classified with a group they despise (or at least treat as untermensch here in China)...

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