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precisely at the heart of the banality of the evil of which Arendt wrote. It differs from the mindless adhesion to formal rules found in Heller's Catch22 (1961). The demoralization that it may produce is more like the Japanese-American Men of Company K of which Shibutani (1978) writes so eloquently about a thorough cultural demoralization produced by unbearable role strain. |
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The South African Coloured Population and Reclassification |
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Approximately 1 million South Africans fell into the coloured category at the time of the Population Registration and Group Areas Acts. It was among this group that the majority of borderline cases appeared most often in the form of a person labeled coloured and desiring to be labeled white (or European). Within the internal logic of apartheid, an apparatus had to be constructed to adjudicate these cases. The Registration Act had a proviso that if the person objected to a classification, he or she had thirty days in which to appeal. Several local administration boards were set up to hear borderline cases and reconsider classifications. Their decisions could be appealed up to the level of the Supreme Court, a costly and time-consuming business. The average waiting time for an appeal was fourteen months (many were longer), during which time the person existed in limbo. For example, if someone wanted to be classified white, but was classified coloured, she or he could not go to a white school. If they enrolled at a coloured school, this could later become legal evidence that they were coloured. Several took correspondence courses as a solution, as apartheid apparently did not work long-distance (interestingly, without a face-to-face component it was not enforced). |
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The havoc wreaked in the lives of those in between was considerable. A broadside issued by the South African Institute of Race Relations stated: |
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While the Population Registration Act of 1950 did not affect the circumstances of the vast majority of the South African population, it created the utmost confusion as to the destiny of the small minority of people whose appearance, associations, and descent do not happen to coincide. The South African Institute of Race Relations pleads with all the power at its command that this small number of persons should be allowed to remain in the racial category in which they feel most at ease. (1969) |
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But this was not to be allowed by the Nationalist government. "As from 1 August 1966 it became compulsory for all citizens of the Republic |
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