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Transforming Youth Identities: Interactions Across “Races/Colors/Ethnicities,” Gender, Class, and Sexualities in Johannesburg, South Africa

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Abstract

In South Africa, and especially in Johannesburg, apartheid’s “racial” paradigms are being transformed. Fifteen years after the end of apartheid and the elimination of all forms of inequity based on notion of “race,” including the abolition of the Immorality Act of 1949 that prohibited mixed marriages, the discourses of youth challenge preestablished boundaries. Today, the South African Constitution gives people the right to proclaim their sexual orientation and to shape their own identities. Through ethnographic observations carried out in Johannesburg and in-depth interviews with young people, this paper explores transforming notions of identity based on “race/color/ethnicity,” gender, class, and sexuality. The dynamics and challenges faced by young people with regards to mixed interactions in post-apartheid Johannesburg are analyzed and the paper looks at how “race,” gender, and sexuality interact in the various spaces in Johannesburg and how they affect young people’s lives, particularly their perceptions of risk, violence, and HIV/AIDS vulnerability.

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Notes

  1. In South Africa, “previously disadvantaged people” refers to the apartheid “racial” categories of “Indian,” “colored,” and “African.” According to employment equity legislation, women are also included among them.

  2. Oral information from direct observation during apartheid.

  3. Local term for bar in the townships.

  4. Four researchers were women, five were men, five “black” African, four whites, three lesbians, three gays, and one bisexual.

  5. At the time of the research, 1 US = 7 ZAR.

  6. “Ama” is a prefix indicating plural for people.

  7. The name Y-culture refers to the radio station YFM and the magazine YMagazine which cater to youth.

  8. Pseudonyms are used here and throughout.

  9. End of high school examination.

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Correspondence to Brigitte Bagnol.

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Bagnol, B., Matebeni, Z., Simon, A. et al. Transforming Youth Identities: Interactions Across “Races/Colors/Ethnicities,” Gender, Class, and Sexualities in Johannesburg, South Africa. Sex Res Soc Policy 7, 283–297 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-010-0027-9

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