tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/race-and-culture-91297/articlesrace and culture – The Conversation2022-01-08T00:58:24Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1745702022-01-08T00:58:24Z2022-01-08T00:58:24ZSidney Poitier – Hollywood’s first Black leading man reflected the civil rights movement on screen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439876/original/file-20220107-33062-1cz5l2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C49%2C2947%2C2160&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sidney Poitier, seen here in a 1980 photograph.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sidney-poitier-the-american-actor-and-film-director-news-photo/3300155?adppopup=true">Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the summer of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. introduced the keynote speaker for the 10th-anniversary convention banquet of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Southern-Christian-Leadership-Conference">Southern Christian Leadership Conference</a>. Their guest, he said, was his “soul brother.” </p>
<p>“He has carved for himself an imperishable niche in the annals of our nation’s history,” King told the audience of 2,000 delegates. “I consider him a friend. I consider him a great friend of humanity.” </p>
<p>That man was Sidney Poitier.</p>
<p>Poitier, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/entertainment/sidney-poitier-death/index.html">who died at 94 on Jan. 7, 2022</a>, broke the mold of what a Black actor could be in Hollywood. Before the 1950s, Black movie characters generally reflected <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/toms-coons-mulattoes-mammies-and-bucks-9780826429537/">racist stereotypes such as lazy servants and beefy mammies</a>. Then came Poitier, the only Black man to consistently win leading roles in major films from the late 1950s through the late 1960s. Like King, Poitier projected ideals of respectability and integrity. He attracted not only the loyalty of African Americans, but also the goodwill of white liberals. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.memphis.edu/history/faculty/faculty/aram-goudsouzian.php">my biography</a> of him, titled “<a href="https://mclinc.polarislibrary.com/polaris/search/title.aspx?pos=1&cn=798836">Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon</a>,” I sought to capture his whole life, including his incredible rags-to-riches arc, his sizzling vitality on screen, his personal triumphs and foibles and his quest to live up to the values set forth by his Bahamian parents. But the most fascinating aspect of Poitier’s career, to me, was his political and racial symbolism. In many ways, his screen life intertwined with that of the civil rights movement – and King himself.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Actor Sidney Poitier marches during a civil rights protest in 1968." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439871/original/file-20220107-33062-bsj36m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439871/original/file-20220107-33062-bsj36m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439871/original/file-20220107-33062-bsj36m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439871/original/file-20220107-33062-bsj36m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439871/original/file-20220107-33062-bsj36m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439871/original/file-20220107-33062-bsj36m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439871/original/file-20220107-33062-bsj36m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sidney Poitier, center, marches during the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C., in May 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bahamian-american-actor-and-civil-rights-activist-sidney-news-photo/554919857?adppopup=true">Photo by Chester Sheard/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An age of protests</h2>
<p>In three separate columns in 1957, 1961 and 1962, a New York Daily News columnist named <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sidney_Poitier/MrXqCQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=dorothy+masters+sidney+poitier&pg=PA178&printsec=frontcover">Dorothy Masters</a> marveled that Poitier had the warmth and charisma of a minister. Poitier lent his name and resources to King’s causes, and he participated in demonstrations such as the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/prayer-pilgrimage-freedom">1957 Prayer Pilgrimage</a> and the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/march-washington-jobs-and-freedom">1963 March on Washington</a>. In this era of sit-ins, Freedom Rides and mass marches, activists engaged in nonviolent sacrifice not only to highlight racist oppression, but also to win broader sympathy for the cause of civil rights.</p>
<p>In that same vein, Poitier deliberately chose to portray characters who radiated goodness. They had decent values and helped white characters, and they often sacrificed themselves. He earned his first star billing in 1958, in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051525/">The Defiant Ones</a>,” in which he played an escaped prisoner handcuffed to a racist played by Tony Curtis. At the end, with the chain unbound, Poitier jumps off a train to stick with his new white friend. Writer James Baldwin <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/02/02/511860933/james-baldwin-in-his-own-searing-revelatory-words-i-am-not-your-negro">reported seeing the film</a> on Broadway, where white audiences clapped with reassurance, their racial guilt alleviated. When he saw it again in Harlem, members of the predominantly Black audience yelled “Get back on the train, you fool!”</p>
<p>King won the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/summary/">Nobel Peace Prize in 1964</a>. In that same year, Poitier won the Oscar for Best Actor for “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057251/">Lilies of the Field</a>,” in which he played Homer Smith, a traveling handyman who builds a chapel for German nuns out of the goodness of his heart. The sweet, low-budget movie was a surprise hit. In its own way, like the horrifying footage of water hoses and police dogs attacking civil rights activists, it fostered swelling support for racial integration.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Sidney Poitier performs in the film 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439875/original/file-20220107-17-wc4aft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439875/original/file-20220107-17-wc4aft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439875/original/file-20220107-17-wc4aft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439875/original/file-20220107-17-wc4aft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439875/original/file-20220107-17-wc4aft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439875/original/file-20220107-17-wc4aft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439875/original/file-20220107-17-wc4aft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sidney Poitier, Katherine Houghton and Spencer Tracy in the 1967 film ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sidney-poitier-katherine-houghton-spencer-tracy-in-guess-news-photo/1174149274?adppopup=true">Photo by RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A better man</h2>
<p>By the time of the actor’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference speech, both King and Poitier seemed to have a slipping grip on the American public. <a href="https://www.history.com/news/1967-summer-riots-detroit-newark-kerner-commission">Bloody and destructive riots</a> plagued the nation’s cities, reflecting the enduring discontent of many poor African Americans. The swelling calls for “<a href="https://www.history.com/news/black-power-movement-civil-rights">Black Power</a>” challenged the ideals of nonviolence and racial brotherhood – ideals associated with both King and Poitier. </p>
<p>When Poitier stepped to the lectern that evening, he lamented the “greed, selfishness, indifference to the suffering of others, corruption of our value system, and a moral deterioration that has already scarred our souls irrevocably.” “On my bad days,” he said, “I am guilty of suspecting that there is a national death wish.” </p>
<p>By the late 1960s, both King and Poitier had reached a crossroads. Federal legislation was dismantling <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law">Jim Crow</a> in the South, but African Americans still suffered from limited opportunity. King prescribed a “revolution of values,” denounced the Vietnam War, and launched a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/mlk-last-march/555953/">Poor People’s Campaign</a>. Poitier, in his 1967 speech for the SCLC, said that King, by adhering to his convictions for social justice and human dignity, “has made a better man of me.” </p>
<h2>Exceptional characters</h2>
<p>Poitier tried to adhere to his own convictions. As long as he was the only Black leading man, he insisted on playing the same kind of hero. But in the era of Black Power, had Poitier’s saintly hero become another stereotype? His rage was repressed, his sexuality stifled. A Black critic, writing in The New York Times, asked <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1967/09/10/archives/why-does-white-america-love-sidney-poitier-so-why-does-white.html">“Why Does White America Love Sidney Poitier So?”</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Sidney Poitier receives Medal of Freedom in 2009." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439872/original/file-20220107-48044-1rx7rbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439872/original/file-20220107-48044-1rx7rbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439872/original/file-20220107-48044-1rx7rbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439872/original/file-20220107-48044-1rx7rbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439872/original/file-20220107-48044-1rx7rbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439872/original/file-20220107-48044-1rx7rbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439872/original/file-20220107-48044-1rx7rbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Barack Obama presents Academy Award-winning actor Sidney Poitier with the Medal of Freedom in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-barack-obama-presents-the-medal-of-freedom-to-news-photo/89761025?adppopup=true">Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That critic had a point: As Poitier himself knew, his films created too-perfect characters. Although the films allowed white audiences to appreciate a Black man, they also implied that racial equality depends on such exceptional characters, stripped of any racial baggage. From late 1967 into early 1968, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/02/sidney-poitier-remarkable-run-in-hollywood-history">three of Poitier’s movies owned the top spot at the box office</a>, and a poll ranked him the most bankable star in Hollywood. </p>
<p>Each film provided a hero who soothed the liberal center. His mannered schoolteacher in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062376/">To Sir, With Love</a>” tames a class of teenage ruffians in London’s East End. His razor-sharp detective in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061811/">In the Heat of the Night</a>” helps a crotchety white Southern sheriff solve a murder. His world-renowned doctor in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061735/">Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner</a>” marries a white woman, but only after winning the blessing of her parents. </p>
<p>“I try to make movies about the dignity, nobility, the magnificence of human life,” <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469622934/sidney-poitier/">he insisted</a>. Audiences flocked to his films, in part, because he transcended racial division and social despair – even as more African Americans, baby boomers and film critics tired of the old-fashioned do-gooder spirit of these movies.</p>
<h2>Intertwined lives</h2>
<p>And then, the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Sidney Poitier intersected one final time. After King’s assassination on April 4, 1968, Poitier was a stand-in for the ideal that King embodied. When he presented at the <a href="https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1968">Academy Awards</a>, Poitier won a massive ovation. “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” captured most of the major awards. Hollywood again dealt with the nation’s racial upheaval through Poitier movies.</p>
<p>But after King’s violent murder, the Poitier icon no longer captured the national mood. In the 1970s, a generation of “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/blaxploitation-movie">Blaxploitation</a>” films featured violent, sexually charged heroes. They were a reaction against the image of a Black leading man associated with Poitier. Although his career evolved, Poitier was no longer a superstar, and he no longer bore the burden of representing the Black freedom movement. Yet for a generation, he had served as popular culture’s preeminent expression of the ideals of Martin Luther King.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=weekly&source=inline-weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aram Goudsouzian does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Poitier dazzled Hollywood with on-screen grace and bankability. His dignified roles and respectable values forever changed the image of Blacks, then mostly portrayed as maids, buffoons or criminals.Aram Goudsouzian, Bizot Family Professor of History, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1615032021-06-03T15:04:18Z2021-06-03T15:04:18ZHow young Santomean immigrants in Portugal deal with identity and language<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403590/original/file-20210531-27-1xyyz7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Street mural by Nomen in Quinta do Mocho, Lisbon, to highlight immigrant experiences in Portugal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>‘My teacher always tells me, “Ah Clara, Clara, Claaaara, you have to speak like <em>this</em>!"’</p>
<p>Clara is a young Santomean woman who immigrated to Portugal to pursue her senior high school education. She grew up in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Sao-Tome-and-Principe">São Tomé and Príncipe</a>, a group of islands in the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa. She was a key participant in my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15348458.2021.1878359">study</a> on this immigrant experience.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1763/the-portuguese-colonization-of-sao-tome-and-princi/">Colonised</a> by the Portuguese in the 1490s, the islands <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-183">became independent</a> in 1975. The new republic adopted Portuguese as its sole official language. </p>
<p>Today, Portuguese is the language spoken by over 98% of the Santomean population. The remainder are mostly elders who speak one of four creole languages. In post-colonial times, Portuguese universities have continued to receive students from the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa.</p>
<p>Clara speaks Portuguese as her first and only language. But, she says, her teachers often comment on the way she speaks it. European Portuguese and Santomean Portuguese are very similar. They could be likened to British and American English. For example, there are some differences in vocabulary, pronunciation and sentence structure. </p>
<p>The fact that Clara’s Portuguese teacher picks her out about her pronunciation is not surprising. It reflects the idea that one variety of language is superior to others. This has implications for people’s identify and sense of self.</p>
<p>In my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15348458.2021.1878359">study</a> I found that a crucial issue for Santomean students who immigrate to Portugal is that identifying as both Portuguese native speakers and as Black Africans means negotiating two potentially conflicting identities – in a place where most native speakers are white. This means they also have to adapt to deal with racism. </p>
<h2>Forming identities</h2>
<p>As a sociolinguist, my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15348458.2021.1878359">research</a> set out to explore the use of Santomean Portuguese among young immigrants in Portugal and how this is linked with their identity. </p>
<p>How do Santomeans in Portugal negotiate being both native speakers of Portuguese and Black Africans? Answering this question is key to understanding the role that language plays in racial boundary-making and identity processes.</p>
<p>To address the question, I conducted in-depth interviews with 18 Santomean immigrant youth (7 women and 11 men) in two towns in Central Portugal. Clara was one of them. </p>
<p>Identity is created at multiple levels at the same time. It becomes meaningful only when we engage in processes called alignment (Do I identify with this person?) and authentication (Is this real and genuine?). For example, think about your school or peer group experience and the different cliques that exist – the nerds, the popular kids, the jocks, the loners. All acquire meaning in relation to the other groups. </p>
<p>So how do Santomeans in Portugal self-identify? My research showed that young Santomeans identified on three levels: their language use and practices, racial categorisation, and the PALOP social category. </p>
<p>"PALOP” stands for <em>Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa</em>, which means Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa. It refers to the six African countries in which Portuguese is an official language – Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Equatorial Guinea. Santomeans use this term to describe people from these countries.</p>
<p>I examined each level of identity formation. </p>
<h2>Language use and practices</h2>
<p>One could say that Santomeans linguistically align with Portuguese nationals since they speak the same language. But from a Portuguese perspective, the variety of Portuguese spoken by the African students is problematic. For the Santomeans a poor command of the language is often considered to be one of the main elements that hinders their success at school. Not being understood by the Portuguese is detrimental to Santomeans’ integration. </p>
<p>But many Santomeans found strategies to be understood by the Portuguese. The most common is imitation, highlighted by one of the participants in the study: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have to speak in a way that they… like, try to imitate them so they can understand us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But even so, Santomeans said they were frequently reminded that they spoke differently based on three main characteristics: slang words, speech rate and a different pronunciation of the r-sounds. </p>
<p>Based on these elements, Santomeans did not feel that they aligned with Portuguese nationals even though they spoke the same language.</p>
<h2>Racial categorisation</h2>
<p>When it comes to racial categorisation, Santomeans did not align with the Portuguese either, but with other African students.</p>
<p>For Santomeans, the racial conversations and practices in Portugal differed from their experiences back home. The focus in São Tomé was not on the common Black/white distinction, but rather on distinctions among local ethnolinguistic groups (groups unified by both a common ethnicity and language). All these groups identified as Black. </p>
<p>A few of the Santomean participants expressed how strange and uncomfortable it was for them to be part of a visible minority in Portugal. Santomeans in Portugal learnt that they were seen as Black, and what this meant in a dominantly white society. This process was mainly derogatory, as there are few benefits of being Black in Portugal.</p>
<h2>Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa</h2>
<p>Finally, there was the positioning of identity through the social category of belonging to an African Portuguese-speaking country. Here the affiliation was not as clear-cut. </p>
<p>Sometimes, Santomeans included themselves in the category and sometimes they didn’t. Santomeans often referred to <em>Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa</em> students as being Portuguese-speaking Africans who also have a home language other than Portuguese. The Santomeans I interviewed lived together with Guineans and Cabo Verdeans, most of whom spoke a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/creole-languages">creole</a> as their first language. </p>
<p>In contrast, most young Santomeans typically didn’t have a common language other than Portuguese. As such, Santomeans didn’t always align with other members of the category of belonging to an African Portuguese-speaking country in relation to language use.</p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>These findings reflect two main divisions: authentic versus inauthentic speakers of Portuguese; and white versus Black individuals. </p>
<p>What does this mean and why does it matter? </p>
<p>Beliefs, likely perpetuated since colonial times, indicate that “authentic” speakers of Portuguese are white individuals, and “inauthentic” speakers of Portuguese are Black individuals. But Santomeans are Black individuals and speak Portuguese as their first (and often only) language. Therefore, young immigrant Santomeans in Portugal have to adapt to align with different categories according to their needs. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-dimensions-of-human-inequality-affect-who-and-what-we-are-137296">How the dimensions of human inequality affect who and what we are</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>My findings served to highlight the importance of race in the process of identity formation among these Santomeans. It creates challenges which can result in lower achievement in school and lower chances of good employment. Santomeans in Portugal learn that they are being seen as Black, and discover what this means in a dominantly white society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie-Eve Bouchard received funding from the Swedish Wenner-Gren Foundations and the Department of Romance Studies and Classics at Stockholm University. </span></em></p>Students from São Tomé and Príncipe must negotiate being both native speakers of Portuguese and Black Africans. And how they speak Portuguese is perceived as an issue.Marie-Eve Bouchard, Assistant professor, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1414512020-08-25T14:31:45Z2020-08-25T14:31:45ZWhat young people have to say about race and inequality in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352247/original/file-20200811-23-1ojsq4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School students participate in a national quiz in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nick Bothma/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Meritocracy is the belief that holding power or success should be judged on people’s individual ability, rather than on wealth or social connections. At first glance, this appears to be a reasonable proposition. But the focus on individual merit becomes harder to fathom as one enters the messy world of structural inequality and discrimination. </p>
<p>As our <a href="https://bit.ly/2DyFmo9">research</a> shows, ideologies of meritocracy and individualism create obstacles for collective action towards a more equal and just society. Our findings were published in the book <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=See9DwAAQBAJ&"><em>Race in Education</em></a>, the outcome of a <a href="https://stias.ac.za/ideas/projects/effects-of-race/">thinktank</a> on the effects of race at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study.</p>
<p>Using a methodology called <a href="https://www.dreamingworkshops.org.za">Dreaming Workshops</a>, our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339958237_Non-racialism_racialism_racism_The_power_of_youthful_dreams">study</a> explored how Grade 11 students, of around 16 and 17 years old, from different schools in the South African coastal city of Durban imagined race, racism and non-racialism in a utopian future. </p>
<p>Young South Africans are being socialised into a highly racialised society and experience severe disparities. Expecting them to eradicate racism without dismantling material <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-dimensions-of-human-inequality-affect-who-and-what-we-are-137296">inequalities</a> is a deferral of adult responsibility. Mindful of this, we designed a study to listen to young people’s ideas, as opposed to looking to them for solutions.</p>
<h2>Complex views</h2>
<p>The five schools that participated in this study, three government and two private, are located in a middle-class, formerly “white” area in Durban. The schools have, on average, a diverse but mostly middle-class student body, with some students travelling from townships to attend class. Under apartheid townships were poorly resourced and under-serviced residential spaces designated for people racialised as black. Each school in the study had approximately 20 students per class. One school markets itself as girls-only, one as boys-only, the other three are open to all genders.</p>
<p>Young people involved in the study were deeply aware of inequality. For them, reducing inequality was a priority if the country was to move towards a better future. </p>
<p>It is notable that non-racialism was not a concept volunteered by any of the students as a future ideal, despite it being a constitutional principle in South Africa. At present there is little clarity on the meaning of non-racialism. It is equated to a multiplicity of ideas, among them mobilisation against apartheid, multiracialism, multiculturalism, nation-building, and race-blindness. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352219/original/file-20200811-15-1yzmm7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352219/original/file-20200811-15-1yzmm7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352219/original/file-20200811-15-1yzmm7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352219/original/file-20200811-15-1yzmm7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352219/original/file-20200811-15-1yzmm7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352219/original/file-20200811-15-1yzmm7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352219/original/file-20200811-15-1yzmm7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352219/original/file-20200811-15-1yzmm7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poster version of a dreaming tree, a method used in the high school workshops.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What students did want eradicated from their utopia was racial discrimination and racism. The meanings they attached to race shifted depending on the conversation, for example, race when it related to racial quotas as opposed to race when it related to culture, identity or politics.</p>
<p>Racial identities played an important role in these young people’s sense of self. But some thought it is the “weirdest thing ever” that people sit in “race groups” during lunch breaks. They make sense of this by explaining that people sit with others who share their culture. Using race and culture as proxies for each other is very much part of the South African experience of racialisation.</p>
<p>The “commitment” to racial identities, however, was more complex than it first appeared. There was an uneasiness between accepting and feeling pride in racial identities, and not wanting them to count as measures of social value. They frequently vocalised a rejection of racial stereotypes and racism.</p>
<h2>Tensions</h2>
<p>In each school, there were students committed to eradicating their own racist thoughts, who openly challenge parents and family members about racism and actively refused to essentialise their peers. Students felt a generational responsibility to challenge racial stereotypes. </p>
<p>They were also vehemently against race as a category in government policies. Arguments against racial quotas, such as broad-based black economic empowerment and affirmative action (race-based legislation aimed to <a href="https://www.brandsouthafrica.com/investments-immigration/business/trends/empowerment/black-economic-empowerment">redress</a> past and current discriminations) were present in all the schools. As were statements that “we need to get over blaming the past”, or linking poverty with laziness, or refusing to recognise the role of privilege in individual achievement. </p>
<p>These sentiments reflected a socialisation process happening at schools, and in the family, that raised real tensions for young people. Many students were taught to believe that individual hard work pays dividends. Principles of individual success and meritocracy were well established in their homes, and valorised daily at their schools. Schools acutely focused on individual competition in sports and academic achievements, rewarding individual rather than collective effort. </p>
<p>The “wiping out” of the individual in favour of a group racial identity for employment and university entry appeared unfair and contradictory to the meritocratic values they were being taught to aspire to.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-unpack-the-word-race-and-find-new-language-138379">We need to unpack the word 'race' and find new language</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These views were present in students who would be racialised as belonging to all four of South Africa’s racial categories, socially constructed in this country as black, Indian, Coloured and white.</p>
<p>Meritocratic arguments were also against the redistribution of wealth in South Africa. Taxing the rich was often seen as “making the poor lazy”. Here, class privilege was indiscernible from what would usually be thought of as a defence of white privilege.</p>
<h2>Dilemma</h2>
<p>In our view meritocratic sentiments are highly problematic in the context of structural inequality. In South Africa there is no equal playing field on which to justify individual merit. </p>
<p>It is not just race-blindness that we should guard against in South Africa; class-blindness too leads to a repetition of the status quo. Since structural inequalities fundamentally enable reproductions of racism this creates a complex dilemma for these students. </p>
<p>What does it mean to desire social justice and equality but refuse to “give up” any privileges?</p>
<p>This dilemma poses a challenge for education in South Africa. Certainly more frank and critical classroom conversations on race, class and culture are needed. More pressing is how to restructure schooling so that it is less focused on individual merit and reward. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338540/original/file-20200529-96699-18rjzg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338540/original/file-20200529-96699-18rjzg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338540/original/file-20200529-96699-18rjzg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338540/original/file-20200529-96699-18rjzg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338540/original/file-20200529-96699-18rjzg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338540/original/file-20200529-96699-18rjzg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338540/original/file-20200529-96699-18rjzg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338540/original/file-20200529-96699-18rjzg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>This article is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=RaceSeries&sort=relevancy&language=en&date=all&date_from=&date_to=">series</a>. Other authors include Barney Pityana, Göran Therborn, Nina Jablonski, George Chaplin and Njabulo Ndebele.</em> </p>
<p><em>The three edited volumes of essays published by African Sun Media in 2018 (<a href="https://stias.ac.za/ideas/publications/volume-11-the-effects-of-race/">The Effects of Race</a>, edited by Nina G. Jablonski and Gerhard Maré), 2019 (<a href="https://stias.ac.za/ideas/publications/stias-series-volume-13-race-in-education/">Race in Education</a>, edited by Gerhard Maré), and 2020 (<a href="https://stias.ac.za/ideas/publications/stias-series-volume-15-persistence-of-race/">Persistence of Race</a>, edited by Nina G. Jablonski) contain the complete representation of the project’s scholarship.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141451/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kira Erwin has received funding from the National Research Foundation, as well as other external funders for research projects at the Urban Futures Centre at the Durban University of Technology.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Pillay receives funding from the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>Students feel a generational responsibility to challenge racial stereotypes, a study finds.Kira Erwin, Senior researcher, Durban University of TechnologyKathryn Pillay, Senior Lecturer, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.