It has almost been a decade since the inception of a 'New South Africa', without apartheid, which separated South Africans and classified them hierarchically according to their 'race'. The 'eradication' of apartheid has meant that South Africans have had to re-look at issues around racial identity without a dominating apartheid ideology. The purpose of the research was to describe and to look at some of the features and dynamics concerning racial identity that are prevalent in a post-apartheid South Africa. This was done by exploring the nature and type of interactions University of Natal Durban (UNO) students (doing a Human Behaviour and the Environment module) had with persons not from their own racial group, prior to coming to UNO as well as at UNO. The possible challenges, threats and opportunities students felt were afforded them because of their racial group were also explored. Literature concerning issues of racial identification in South Africa and other parts of the world was also examined. A descriptive research design, using a triangulated research methodology incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods was used in the study. A non-probability sampling method with reliance on 83 available law, community development, nursing and psychology students representing the four racial classifications in South Africa, namely black, white, coloured and Indian was used. Data were collected through observations as well as through a self administered structured questionnaire. The findings of the research suggest that issues related to racial identification in a post-apartheid South Africa, for black, white, coloured and Indian students is in turmoil and requires reconstruction. The findings further indicated that questions about affirmative action and the future of non-black South Africans in South Africa is believed to be uncertain and negative. The issue of poverty and the internalised oppression and inferiority of black students was also identified to be problematic. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This dissertation examines the (chaotic) experiences and perspectives of Afro-diasporic peoples (particularly those living in the United States) through an Afrofuturist lens. In so doing, I neologize and situate the concept of “Chaotic Blackness”. To that end, I interrogate the ways in which the legacy of colonization, enslavement, and racial capitalism have collectively contributed to the experience of a racialized chaos for Afro-diasporic peoples and communities. Consisting of a network of patterns, signals, and gestures that are meant to signify, represent, or articulate the experience racial chaos, I offer Chaotic Blackness as a framework for understanding and examining the influence of racialized chaos on Black identity and personhood within the context of Afrofuturist music. In this way, my research calls attention to the ways in which Afrofuturist practitioners articulate and negotiate experiences of a racialized chaos within their music in the endeavor to both communicate or express Black subjectivities or perspectives and to establish critical sites of meaning-making for the community. Further, this dissertation examines the epistemological linkages between Afrofuturist and Black posthumanist strands of thought. I suggest that both frameworks offer new ways of conceptualizing or understanding the Black identity and the (Black) human within the contexts of technomodernity, racial capitalism, and contemporary issues such as climate change. Overall, this dissertation offers an analysis of the ways in which Black individuals navigate and express their experiences of chaos, suggesting that Afrofuturism and Black posthumanism are both key frames though which to understand and (re)define Black identity in the contemporary world.

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Discrimination has many effects on the individual/group being discriminated against regardless of the reasons for the discrimination. Further exploration on discrimination processes and their relationships to physiological and psychological outcomes, both of which, over time may become problematic and affect the health and well-being of individuals.

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Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

Despite evidence highlighting the crucial role of principals in driving school change and creating equitable learning environments, there remains a need for more robust research and operational guidance concerning principal anti-racist leadership development and practice. Recent studies have indicated Principals were not only unprepared to lead in schools with predominantly minoritized students and unable to articulate meaningful discourse around racial equity and implement policy that would respond to racial issues, but they also had not received anti-racist leadership preparation and support. (Gooden & O’Doherty, 2015; Khalifa et al., 2016; Miller, 2021; Young et al., 2010). Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory study is to partly address this issue and contribute to the existing body of research on principal anti-racist leadership development and practice. I posed the following questions to guide my research: 1. How do urban secondary school principals say they have been prepared and supported to be anti-racist leaders? 2. How, if at all, do these principals say they implemented anti-racist practices in their schools? 3. How, if at all, do these principals say it is having impact on reducing racial disparities in their schools? This study examines principal perceptions and experiences receiving preparation and support to be anti-racist leaders, and the extent to which it may be used to inform practice and pedagogy for reducing racial disparities in schools. Specifically, as six principals attempt to enact anti-racist leadership in low-income urban secondary school settings serving a majority of students of color, this study utilizes insights from Welton et al. (2018) and draws upon a significant body of literature to examine their journey, reflecting on their anti-racist leadership development, practice, and impact. This study draws on the essential nature of anti-racist leadership, which involves recognizing the significance of race within educational settings, elevating racial awareness, and actively working towards dismantling racial disparities (Aveling, 2007; Brooks & Watson, 2019; Diem & Welton, 2020; Lewis et al., 2023). It examines racial identity development and self-reflection as integral components of anti-racist leadership preparation and development, and classifies participants’ interview data according to Cross’ (1995) The Psychology of Becoming Black" (Tatum, 1997) racial identity model and Helm’s (1995) White racial identity model. The study further explores the extent to which participants engage in anti-racist leadership practices and how they say it is having impact on reducing racial disparities in schools, by referencing Welton et al.'s (2018) anti-racist leadership conceptual framework. This framework, encompassing both individual and systemic levels - attitudes, beliefs, policies, and practices - guided my investigation into informing anti-racist principal practice for reducing racial disparities in schools. The study concludes by theorizing how its findings can be used to better understand the intersection between principals’ anti-racist leadership development, practice, and impact. This study is significant because it contributes towards operationalizing Welton et al.’s (2018) anti-racist leadership conceptual framework, elucidating principal anti-racist preparation, development, and practice, and methods to accomplish it. By investigating the extent to which participants engage in anti-racist leadership practices and their impact on reducing racial disparities within schools, this research offers practical insights for advancing racial equity in predominantly Black and Brown secondary schools. Such contributions not only provide valuable guidance for current principal anti-racist leadership practices, but may also spark new thinking and approaches for further research and ongoing efforts towards systemic improvement in anti-racist educational leadership.

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Masters of Arts in Political Studies to the Faculty Humanities, School of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016 / Blackness has become a right to death that sees in death its almost essential property. The essence of blackness, its origin or its possibility, would be this right to death; but a death denuded of that ...sovereignty that gains from death its own sacrificial mastery ... and maintains itself in it. This is life as the work of death, a work born of fidelity to death, but death without transcendence (Marriot cited in Sexton 2015: 132). The advent of colonial modernity in South Africa marks the rupture of identity and being of Africans. That is, after the emergence of colonial modernity Africans cease to be Africans only but however they become black. Blackness becomes an object exclusion in the encounter with modernity. Blacks and by extension Africa is seen as being outside modern temporality inhabiting a zone of non-being and fungability. The encounter with modernity, without any doubt causes doubts in the Africans modes of existence or being and it is here that liberation and emancipatory movements/projects that have been initiated by blacks have sought to steer their lenses to try and liberate as well as understand how blacks can best live in modern conditions of racism or should there be any alternative to modern empty time. This study seeks to make an intervention, especially in South African Political studies, with concern to alternative political strategies that have not been take into consideration. [No abstract provided. Information taken from introduction]. / MT2017

Thesis (M.Fine Arts)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Arts, 2016. / This paper will be an analysis of the covers and contents of the South African editions of Glamour magazine from September 2014 to August 2015 and True Love magazine from September 2014 to August 2015. The analysis will consider the effects of: globalisation; globalised culture and consumption; and perceptions of race and skin colour, (specifically the notion of colourism) in South Africa. Colourism is a prejudicial system that renders value and perpetuates social hierarchies along perceived tonal difference in skin colour. It has been asserted by writers like Deborah Gabriel and Nicole Fleetwood that this value system exists within communities of people of colour and is perpetuated by mainstream media, but maintains a somewhat obscure presence. I will consider the mechanisms that inform this colour system and will show how globalisation works to facilitate colourism. Finally, I aim to explain how skin colour extends beyond the body and define the effects of global cultural interaction, showing that colourism is not simply about skin colour and tone, but about economic, social, and political realities. / MT2017

Thesis (M.A (Psychology))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2016. / The purpose of the research was to explore issues of identity amongst young, English speaking black middle class women focusing on belonging and alienation. Qualitative research using narrative interviews was conducted with 10 middle class women, aged between 20 and 35 years, who were among the first cohort of black children to attend model C schools at the end of the apartheid era and be taught in English. Several themes and findings were identified, starting with the multigenerational influence on the journey into being assimilated into the English language and culture. Grandmothers and parents experienced tensions between loss of indigenous languages and gaining class mobility for their daughters. Participants also unpacked their journeys of being assimilated into the English language and whiteness and the traumatic experiences they went through as their childhoods were racialised and they became positioned as inferior black people. These traumatic experiences of race continued into their adulthood and intersected with gender, class and language, as the women were positioned as ‘cultural clones’ in the workplace. Language also influenced the women’s intimate relationships as they positioned English speaking male partners as providers and therefore potential life partners. Issues of hair and skin colour were also found to be significant identity markers through insertion into western culture through language, and blackness is actively redefined, resisted and reclaimed. This shows how our identities are fragmented and fluid, allowing the women to experience multiple identities and make them work. The women experience tensions between the loss of their mother tongue and culture, and the positive gains of class mobility that they attribute almost solely to their adoption of the English language as their primary (or only) language of communication. They are alienated from their communities because of their immersion into English and western culture but they are actively generating a new sense of belonging and identity within a new imagined community of English speaking black middle class women / GR2017