ERIC Number: EJ937034
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1011-3487
EISSN: N/A
Confronting the Categories: Equitable Admissions without Apartheid Race Classification
Erasmus, Z.
South African Journal of Higher Education, v24 n2 p244-257 2010
South Africa's government requires information on apartheid race classification to implement and monitor racial redress. This has sparked resistance to race classification as a criterion for redress in higher education admissions. I argue that (1) jettisoning apartheid race categories now in favour of either class or "merit" would set back the few gains made toward redress; (2) against common sense uses of "race" and against the erasure of "race" through class reductionism; and (3) for developing and testing new indicators for "race" and class disadvantage with a view to eventually replacing apartheid race categories. I offer a critical-race-standpoint as an alternative conceptual orientation and method for transformative admissions committed to racial redress that is socially just. I conclude that admissions criteria should encompass the lived realities of inequality and be informed by a conception of humanism as critique. This requires resistance to ways of knowing orchestrated by apartheid's codes. (Contains 7 notes.)
Descriptors: Race, Classification, Affirmative Action, College Admission, Social Justice, Critical Theory, Universities, Foreign Countries
Unisa Press. Preller Street, P.O. Box 392, Muckleneuk, Pretoria 0003, South Africa. Tel: +27-24-298960; Fax: +27-24-293449; e-mail: sajhe@vodamail.co.za; Web site: http://www.sajhe.org.za
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa (Cape Town)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A