Q: I just came from a political science class at university and we were discussing Affirmative Action. And my lecturer said that Asians are now classified as black in South African law. She was serious when she said it to. Does anyone know anything about this?
A: Not asians per say but rather South African born Chinese before 1994. It was said that during the years of Apartheid chinese weren't part of the movement with blacks, coloureds and indians.. However due to the numbers of Chinese in SA at the time it was mistakenly seen as they weren't supporting the struggle when they actually were. However to add confusion there were many JAPANESE delegates coming to SA for business (etc) but they were seen as "honorary whites" and since the public could not tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese they therefore just assumed they were all the same. But after many years since 1994, we as a chinese community have won the case against the government and are now seen as "black" therfore are entitled to schemes such as "BEE - Black economic empowerment". However many people still do not know these facts and constantly complain and bicker about how it is unfair that us (chinese born South Africans) have been classified as black.. When actually what they percieve chinese as someone who doesn't speak English and owns a dodgey shop selling cheap things.. but this is not the case! Those aren't the people who this applies to! For instance i am currently studying at one of the best institutions in SA and can fluently speak english (with a SA accent), it applies to me and many others like me, not those sterotypes people percieve the chinese to be! By the way, there are less than 10 000 Chinese who this applies to so i don't get why people are so angry, it isn't an influential figure that will affect the entire BEE scheme. Here's an article on it: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2342606,00.html