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Racial Limbo: a Systematic Study of the History of Coloured South Africans and Their

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Racial Limbo: a Systematic Study of the History of Coloured South Africans and Their Racial Limbo: A Systematic Study of the History of Coloured South Africans and their Contemporary Attitudes, Perceptions of Deprivation, and Racial Identifications By Whitney N. Laster Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Sociology December, 2014 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Tony N. Brown, Ph.D. C. André Christie-Mizell, Ph.D. Holly J. McCammon, Ph.D. Richard N. Pitt, Ph.D. Mara E. Loveman, Ph.D. To my son Jackson, the light of my life ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without the financial support of the Department of Sociology and the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University, or the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. I would like to thank my dissertation committee members, Drs. C. André Christie-Mizell, Holly J. McCammon, Richard N. Pitt, and Mara E. Loveman, for the time, encouragement, and knowledge they shared with me through this dissertation process. Their varied perspectives have helped me to strengthen my work and each committee member has left an imprint on me. I would like to express deep gratitude to my dissertation chair, Dr. Tony N. Brown. I especially value his continued commitment and investment in me as a scholar since I arrived at Vanderbilt. His unwavering expectations pushed me further than I could have imagined. I am thankful for the Ronald E. McNair Scholar Program and Dr. Jennifer Stewart for supporting my first research experience in South Africa. I would also like to thank Dr. Jemima Pierre and others in the Program for African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt for broadening my intellectual scope and for encouraging me to undertake this dissertation project. I am indebted to my writing group (Drs. Leslie Collins, Ebony Duncan, and Oluchi Nwosu) for uplifting me at every step, and to my sociology peers for building up my confidence as a scholar. I must also acknowledge the support staff at Vanderbilt who encouraged me like I was their daughter. Finally, I am grateful to my family and friends for their unwavering love and support. I thank my mother who instilled in me at a young age the ethic of hard work and an eye for social justice. I owe much to Charles and Jackson, for showing me the best in life and always being there to pick me up when I fall. This dissertation could not have been completed without their sacrifices. I am blessed to be surrounded by this community. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION...............................................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..........................................................................................................................iii LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................................................vi LIST OF FIGURES.....................................................................................................................................vii Chapter I. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................1 Concept of Racial Limbo..................................................................................................................4 Project Outline..................................................................................................................................8 Conceptual Model: A Racialized Social System..............................................................................9 Contribution....................................................................................................................................12 Works Cited....................................................................................................................................15 II. Racial Formation, Projects, and Limbo: Evidence from South African Legislation During and After Apartheid...............................................................................................................................20 Framing...........................................................................................................................................22 Hypotheses......................................................................................................................................30 Data and Methods...........................................................................................................................31 Results.............................................................................................................................................32 Discussion.......................................................................................................................................56 Works Cited....................................................................................................................................64 III. Racial Hierarchy and Limbo: Generalized Attitudes and Perceptions of Deprivation among Coloureds in Post-Apartheid South Africa.....................................................................................76 Framing...........................................................................................................................................79 Hypotheses......................................................................................................................................84 Data and Methods...........................................................................................................................85 Results.............................................................................................................................................89 Discussion.......................................................................................................................................95 Works Cited................................................................................................................................. 105 IV. Racial Measurement and Limbo: Exploring a Multidimensional Measure of Racial Identification among Coloureds in Post-Apartheid South Africa................................................119 iv Framing.........................................................................................................................................121 Hypotheses....................................................................................................................................129 Data and Methods.........................................................................................................................130 Results...........................................................................................................................................136 Discussion.....................................................................................................................................142 Works Cited................................................................................................................................. 150 Appendix.......................................................................................................................................167 V. Conclusion....................................................................................................................................171 Contribution..................................................................................................................................171 Summary of Findings....................................................................................................................172 Theoretical and Methodological Implications..............................................................................176 Directions for Future Research.....................................................................................................182 Works Cited..................................................................................................................................184 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page Chapter Two 1. Expectations for the Nation-State’s Cultivation and Maintenance of Coloureds’ Position of Racial Limbo.......................................................................................................................71 2. Data: Legislative and State Documents of South Africa.......................................................................72 3. Racial Classification Objections in South Africa in 1968.....................................................................73 4. Results for the Nation-State’s Cultivation and Maintenance of Coloureds’ Position of Racial Limbo.......................................................................................................................74 Chapter Three 1. Descriptive Statistics of Study Variables............................................................................................112 2. Race Differences of Control Variables................................................................................................113 3. Race Differences of Generalized Attitudes and Perceived Relative Deprivation...............................114 4. Models Predicting Generalized Attitudes............................................................................................115
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