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| looking out over the demolition site |
Today we got up bright and early to take a tour of District Six with a woman from the District Six museum. During apartheid, District Six was on of around 42 communities razed to the ground to make room for white communities in areas of prime real estate. According to our wonderful guide, whose was forcibly displaced from her home as a child in District Six, this particular community was vibrant and though purposefully neglected by the government for many years, leaving general infrastructure in shambles, people intermingled regardless of race or religion and the apartheid government found this incredibly threatening. District Six was a great melting pot of Jewish, Muslim, Black, White, Colored, Asian and other foreign- all jumbled into one thriving community that managed without access to public transport or personal vehicles. Almost everyone walked everywhere they needed to go, and although employment was restricted by race, the economy within the community was alive and well. An interesting part of apartheid, well maybe more “critical” than “interesting,” was the way in which races were classified. Our guide said that technically there were around 12 race categorizations for which an id card would be issued. “Black African” was not one of the apartheid authorized categories because those deemed “black” were issued passes, not ids, which more intensely restricted their movement throughout the country. Race categories were relatively superficial though. When a baby was born, 
the nurse would look at the complexion and hair type of the child, and of the mother, and then determine the race. That meant that a “white” child could be born to a “colored” woman or vice versa- among the many 12 categories. Our guide said that because everyone carried a pass and the government required “separate” (i.e. apartheid) facilities for each race. If you were planning to have a wedding and invite whites to it, you had to be able to provide separate toilets for them to use, and this accommodation would be policed by government staff who would show up for the entire party. This issue became particularly complex when the government issued notices that District Six would be torn down (they said it was slums and needed to be removed). Unlike many other districts, district 6 had warning and the government would tell them their eviction date which was determined when alternative accommodation was available. They were not given new homes for free, rather they were allowed to rent or buy (if they could) a home in the assigned section of the new community they were allowed to live in. At this point, blacks were assigned to 2 or 3 communities (now sprawling townships of over 2 million a piece), Asians to one, coloreds to a few areas, etc. Problems arise when some families have children that were categorized differently than the parents. In many cases, the
the nurse would look at the complexion and hair type of the child, and of the mother, and then determine the race. That meant that a “white” child could be born to a “colored” woman or vice versa- among the many 12 categories. Our guide said that because everyone carried a pass and the government required “separate” (i.e. apartheid) facilities for each race. If you were planning to have a wedding and invite whites to it, you had to be able to provide separate toilets for them to use, and this accommodation would be policed by government staff who would show up for the entire party. This issue became particularly complex when the government issued notices that District Six would be torn down (they said it was slums and needed to be removed). Unlike many other districts, district 6 had warning and the government would tell them their eviction date which was determined when alternative accommodation was available. They were not given new homes for free, rather they were allowed to rent or buy (if they could) a home in the assigned section of the new community they were allowed to live in. At this point, blacks were assigned to 2 or 3 communities (now sprawling townships of over 2 million a piece), Asians to one, coloreds to a few areas, etc. Problems arise when some families have children that were categorized differently than the parents. In many cases, the 
wife and some children sharing her classification would be shipped off to live in one area, while the husband and the other children would be forced to live somewhere else. Often families would have to visit each other in the dead of night to avoid government restrictions. Passes and permits were required of everyone if they were to enter the other community. She said that her siblings were once arrested when they attempted to drive home a black colleague after work one day. They did not have the appropriate paperwork to enter the black township, so the police immediately arrested them. This is a fascinating aspect of apartheid that I think is often overlooked from an outsider perspective. Apartheid wasn’t just about blacks and whites and not allowing them to interact in any way. Apartheid pitted other racial groups against each other, as well as intra-group conflict. Someone with lighter skin could request to be reclassified by the government, but that reclassification would required you to renounce your family. If you managed to get reclassified from colored to white, then you would have to cross the street to walk on the other side if you saw your colored uncle coming your way. Race was also pinpointed (not on passes, but in real life) by speech patterns, so reclassification might get you ostracized by both your new and
old communities (for different reasons). It was an incredibly complex system, and it’s no wonder that the apartheid government went broke trying to sustain it. What’s really sad about the demolition of district six is that now, South Africa strives to be a “rainbow nation” – a melting pot of races, religions, etc. District Six already knew how to do that, but the government tore it down. Now, many years later, racism has been so institutionalized that it’s hard to see how these people will come to live in harmony with one another. Of course, that’s not to say that my own countrymen have harmonious living down pat or anything, but I’ve never witnessed racism internalized as fact on the individual level like I see it here.