Thus, a first-generation mixed-race person in post-apartheid South Africa, with one Black parent and one White, would not be considered Coloured because they have not inherited that cultural identity and historical legacy of that culture. Coloured identity can be considered a cultural and creolised identity stemming from hundreds of years of heritage.
This distinction is necessary to make because of the existence of the apartheid racial category of ‘Coloured’, a generalised group of people with a racially mixed heritage that includes slaves from Southeast Asia, indigenous groups such as those who make up the Khoe or San people, those who do not fall into the apartheid categorisations of White, Indian, Asian, or Black, and those whose mixed heritage stems from the violent nature of colonialism and apartheid or from ‘illegal´ interracial relationships under apartheid. Ultimately, this research critically investigates how mixed-race people have constructed their identities while navigating pervasive power structures of White supremacy that continue to shape the rigid racial categorisations in post-apartheid South Africa.įirst-generation here refers to people who have parents of different races. Guided by critical race theory, through thematic analysis, three main themes emerged: defying Rainbowism, rejecting Whiteness, and policing identity. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants who have one White parent and one parent of colour and were considered ‘born frees’, as they were born during or after the transition to democracy. This research explored how dominant narratives of Whiteness influence the construction of identity among mixed-race youth in post-apartheid South Africa. Despite the relative freedoms gained after the transition to democracy in 1994 in South Africa, dominant narratives of Whiteness stemming from settler-colonial and apartheid legacies of White supremacy remain pervasive within all structures of post-apartheid society, including the identity construction and racialisation of first-generation mixed-race people.
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