Racial and class discrimination in assessments of “just desert” in post-apartheid Cape Town

dc.contributor.authorSeekings, Jeremy
dc.date.accessioned2016-05-08T20:23:37Z
dc.date.available2016-05-08T20:23:37Z
dc.date.issued2007
dc.date.updated2016-05-08T20:21:47Z
dc.description.abstractIn multi-racial or otherwise multi-cultural societies, people may discriminate in the allocation of scarce resources against members of particular racial or cultural groups. This paper examines how people in post-apartheid Cape Town – a city characterized by both inequality and cultural diversity – assess the ‘desert’ of others in terms of access to social assistance from the state and employment opportunities. The paper uses attitudinal data from two sets of vignettes included in a 2005 survey of a representative sample of adults. The paper extends the findings of previous studies that a wide range of South Africans distinguish between deserving and undeserving poor on the basis, primarily, of their willingness or ability to work and their responsibility for dependents. The paper also confirms the preliminary findings of previous research that there is little racial discrimination in respondents’ assessment of how deserving the subjects were in a narrow range of vignettes, but that race and class are significant in that richer and especially rich, white respondents are more generous in their assessment of what deserving people should receive. There is stronger evidence that racial considerations are relevant with respect to popular assessments of the justice of employment decisions, although it is difficult to distinguish (using available data) between racial prejudice (on the part of the respondents) and a principled opposition to affirmative action (i.e. opposition to perceived unfair racial discrimination on the part of employers or the state).en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationSeekings, J. (2007). <i>Racial and class discrimination in assessments of “just desert” in post-apartheid Cape Town</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19503en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationSeekings, Jeremy <i>Racial and class discrimination in assessments of “just desert” in post-apartheid Cape Town.</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR), 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19503en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationSeekings, J. (2007). Racial and Class Discrimination in Assessments of" just Desert" in Post-apartheid Cape Town. Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Working Paper AU - Seekings, Jeremy AB - In multi-racial or otherwise multi-cultural societies, people may discriminate in the allocation of scarce resources against members of particular racial or cultural groups. This paper examines how people in post-apartheid Cape Town – a city characterized by both inequality and cultural diversity – assess the ‘desert’ of others in terms of access to social assistance from the state and employment opportunities. The paper uses attitudinal data from two sets of vignettes included in a 2005 survey of a representative sample of adults. The paper extends the findings of previous studies that a wide range of South Africans distinguish between deserving and undeserving poor on the basis, primarily, of their willingness or ability to work and their responsibility for dependents. The paper also confirms the preliminary findings of previous research that there is little racial discrimination in respondents’ assessment of how deserving the subjects were in a narrow range of vignettes, but that race and class are significant in that richer and especially rich, white respondents are more generous in their assessment of what deserving people should receive. There is stronger evidence that racial considerations are relevant with respect to popular assessments of the justice of employment decisions, although it is difficult to distinguish (using available data) between racial prejudice (on the part of the respondents) and a principled opposition to affirmative action (i.e. opposition to perceived unfair racial discrimination on the part of employers or the state). DA - 2007 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - Centre for Social Science Research LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2007 T1 - Racial and class discrimination in assessments of “just desert” in post-apartheid Cape Town TI - Racial and class discrimination in assessments of “just desert” in post-apartheid Cape Town UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19503 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/19503
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationSeekings J. Racial and class discrimination in assessments of “just desert” in post-apartheid Cape Town. 2007 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19503en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Social Science Research(CSSR)en_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en_ZA
dc.sourceCentre for Social Science Research
dc.source.urihttp://www.cssr.uct.ac.za/
dc.subject.otherRacial discrimination
dc.subject.otherPost-apartheid
dc.subject.otherCape Town
dc.titleRacial and class discrimination in assessments of “just desert” in post-apartheid Cape Townen_ZA
dc.typeWorking Paperen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceResearch paperen_ZA
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