Non-Racialism: The New Form of Racial Inequality in a Neo-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

Non-racialism is a deep-rooted ideal in the history of resistance in South Africa. It is not only the basis of the post-apartheid legal order, but also crucial to the form of capitalism. This paper reinterprets non-racialism and inequality in post-1994 South Africa by revisiting conventional understandings of the nature of the state and the rule of law. It shows that racial inequality is inscribed in the non-racial form of the state. The non-racial democratic shell correlates with the commodity form. Scholars have neglected the shift in the form of the state after 1994, partly because they focus on policy and see the state as an external structure in a racial society.