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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Race and socio-economic status as factors in the friendship choices of pupils in a racially heterogeneous South African school |
Authors: | Watson, S.G.S. Lampkin, H. |
Year: | 1968 |
Periodical: | Race |
Volume: | 10 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 181-184 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | apartheid social networks |
Abstract: | Apartheid has been interpreted as an attempt to re-establish a congruence of class and colour as indices of status, a congruence established during the colonial phase of South African history and eroded since the beginning of the country's industrial revolution. In the course of more than a year's field work in a mixed 'White' and 'Coloured' suburb of Cape Town (here called pseudonymously 'Under-suburb') it was found that socio-economic status was a more reliable index of association than 'racial' status. This observation is surprising not only in view of the South African government's efforts to segregate the 'races' but also in view of the assertion that it is the poorest of 'Whites' who commonly exhibit the most marked colour prejudice, for Under-suburb was inhabited by working-class people. The evidence on which this observation is based is impressionistic. To put it to the test of quantitative analysis a study of the friendship cliques of Under-suburb High School pupils was conducted. This paper presents some of its results. References, tables. |