00:00Let's talk about where the racial category colored even comes from because it's not some
00:05random or vague social term. It has a very specific, very political birth date. 1950
00:13Abarthed in South Africa. This law came from the all-white national party government and
00:19its purpose was blunt. Sort every single South African into a racial box so that the state
00:24could control where you lived, what you could do and how much power you had.
00:31Everyone got an identity card. That card had your race stamped on it. At first there were three
00:37categories white, black and colored. There was even a category called other colored reserved for
00:43people of undefined heritage. Indian was added soon after as a fourth and colored became the label for
00:49people of mixed heritage or really anyone the system couldn't clearly slot into the other three.
00:55I've heard that in the South Africa of today you can be classified as colored simply by
01:02looking colored. Is this in point of fact true? Now this wasn't just bureaucratic filing. These
01:08classifications shaped entire lives. The Group Areas Act passed the same year physically divided the
01:16country into racial zones. This suburb for whites, this township for coloreds and so on. A couple of
01:22years later the past laws or the Dombas clamped down specifically on black South Africans freedom of movement.
01:31To many people it seems that apartheid is gradually turning South Africa into a police state.
01:37In today's South Africa, colored and Indian people are officially counted as black in affirmative
01:43action and empowerment legislation alongside black African people. That's not as strange as it sounds.
01:50Back in the struggle days, Steve Biko's black consciousness movement already used black to
01:56mean anyone oppressed by apartheid, whatever category you've been put in. So plenty of politically
02:01conscious colored and Indian activists were calling themselves black long before it became policy.
02:07But in daily life, colored never went away. After apartheid, the new African national congress
02:14government kept racial classifications along apartheid lines. It's still on forms and how people
02:19talk about themselves. So you get two versions of black existing side by side. The broad political one
02:27used in policy and the older more specific colored identity people still actually use.
02:34The common denominator between colored people is the Afrikaans language which is composed of different
02:41settler languages from Africa, Europe and Asia. It's important to note that the term colored in South
02:47Africa cannot be compared to its use in the USA because the history and meaning behind it are completely
02:54different. For many colored people in South Africa, the term is tied to their identity shaped by how they grew
03:00up, their culture, family and the language spoken around them. Even within South Africa, the colored
03:06community isn't uniform. Colored people in Cape Town differ from those in Johannesburg, who in turn
03:12differ from those in Northern Cape and so on. I know, I know, it seems like it's a lot and
03:18it's super confusing,
03:19but that's what makes colored people in SA so rich in culture. There are different perspectives within
03:26South Africa's colored communities on how they want to be identified. Some want to be called colored and
03:32identify with colored culture and way of life, just like pop star Tyler. Others reject the term colored
03:39altogether because it's a term from the apartheid regime. On the other hand, people reject the term
03:48colored because they don't identify with the term colored, just like Trevor Noah with the Swiss father
03:54and the Kosa mother. Then there's a group that leans towards whiteness in how they are identified.
04:00They emphasize the European ancestry and look back with a sense of pride on the higher social
04:05standing colored people held under the apartheid regime. For them, there's pride in being everything
04:11but black. A growing number of colored people are reconnecting with their Khoisan heritage. Instead of
04:17calling themselves colored, they identify as Khoisan or Khoisan, the indigenous people of South Africa.
04:23For this group, it's about reclaiming a history that was erased and hidden. This struggle is very much
04:29alive today, tied to land rights, gang violence in the township, the loss of indigenous languages
04:34and the push for government recognition and economic opportunities. Colored people today are marginalized
04:41in South Africa, economically and socially. Take jobs for example. Colored people are often caught in
04:47between. Not seen as black enough and not white enough either. It's a frustration that keeps building.
04:56There's no single answer to what it means to be colored in South Africa today. Only an ongoing search for
05:01belonging shaped by history and personal choice.
