The Social Construction of Race

Jesse Walker | June 20, 2008

The BBC reports:

The High Court in South Africa has ruled that Chinese South Africans are to be reclassified as black people.

It made the order so that ethnic Chinese can benefit from government policies aimed at ending white domination in the private sector.

Back in the apartheid days, South Africa classified the Japanese (and, even more curiously, visiting Maori rugby players) as "honorary whites." I suspect the court did not cite that as a precedent.