Customer Reviews

Not White Enough, Not Black Enough: Racial Identity in the South African Coloured Community (Ohio RIS Africa Series)

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Years ago, my college newspaper said three South African students were attending that year. Two were clearly black; the other was "of color." He looked Indian to me and I asked him how Indians were treated in his home country. He laughed and said, "In the US, ppl assume I'm Indian, Iranian, Moroccan, and more. But I would be called coloured in South Africa, AND SO WOULD YOU." (I'm an African American with two African-American parents.) I always assumed I knew who was Black and this time I was cleary wrong.
It's great that someone has written a book on those in South Africa who had both African and European ancestries. Still, unlike many scholarly books that emphasize change and social construction, the author said that coloured identity has been fairly consistent for more than a century. Further, his analysis of coloured identity today was dull and inconclusive.
This book just did not strike me as strong. Perhaps if I lived in that country or was born there I'd feel differently. I just think books about multiracial individuals in the US have been sooooo much stronger than this one.
There was something missing here, and a little boring. I can't quite put my finger on it.