Title: How people perceive themselves and those around them is due to socialisation.

Race played a big role in how people identified themselves during apartheid era and still
do so today.
Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning separateness; it was used the National Party in
South Africa to describe a socio-political system for the country based on race segregation.
When the National Party came to power, it legislated racial segregation through which people
were classified by the colour of their skin and the segregated groups allocated different
benefits and services such as education, medical care and other public services. Black people
were provided with inferior services in comparison to that received by the white minority.
The same applied to work and economic opportunities. Racial identities were constructed by
the dominant white minority and the majority black people were socialised into the identities
that Biko talks about in the chapter We Blacks in his book I write what I like, which I will
discuss in detail in this paper. The paper will address the ways in which the political
systems racial segregation laws produced the different identities for black people that Biko
mentions and the reason for black consciousness.
According to Steve (Biko, 1978), the apartheid system socialised black people into specific
identities for specific reasons through the racial structures created by the dominant white
minority. Socialisation refers to the process via social encounters by which individuals create
meaning for themselves, that is, who they are and how different they are from other people;
this forms the basis for identity and in this context, the difference in comparison with other
people refers to black and white (Macionis and Plummer, 2008).
(Biko, 1978) observes in his introduction that the difference created by the apartheid system
with white peoples dominance on black people socialised black people into oppression.
Black people, like Biko, grew up in institutions with separate development, which made it
impossible for them to think positively about themselves or feel a sense of belonging. The
apartheid system enforced laws that separated people according to both class, gender and
race.
(Erasmus, 2008) observes that during the apartheid era, the government used race to lawfully
categorise South Africans into a hierarchy of types, which was also their way of
differentiating access to freedom and rights. Whites were at the top of this structure and
considered full citizens while black African people were considered non-beings who did not

deserve or get access to quality services as compared to whites. Indians and coloureds were
not considered full citizens, but rather half citizens and according to Biko the term black
does not only mean non-white, but everyone who was oppressed and segregated and not
aspiring to be white (Biko, 1978). Race became huge as a determiner of inequality in the
distribution of resources and service delivery by the government. Societies during the
apartheid era were shaped by the social divisions that the system legislated (Macionis and
Plummer, 2008).
From the above, we can gather that all the meanings of identity that Biko identifies in black
people during the apartheid era were introduced through the power structures, meaning that
they were socially constructed. As Biko also shows, the apartheid system influenced how the
black people thought of themselves, identified with and saw the world around them.
(Graaf, 2001) argues that structure is the way of regulating and establishing behavioural
patterns in society, with structure creating some form of unity for which there are
consequences if members do not abide by them or rewards if they do. During the apartheid
era, the power structures involved in the socialisation process imposed consequences if black
people did not comply by the set rules, such as imprisonment and other forms of state
harassment. Black people became subjects to the power structure without even realising fully
how the system socialised and constructed their identities and lives in specific ways or how to
resist this happening. Black people did not have much or any agency at all; they did not have
a sense of freedom because they were forced to comply with the laws and rules without
exercising a choice.
(Biko, 1978) argued that because the black man was socialised to believe that he is inferior to
the white man, this helped the dominant minority to hold power over the black majority,
Black people, believing that in all aspects of life they always come second as compared to
white people, accepted and followed, for example, the apartheid systems signs for white
only which reserved the best toilets, places and spaces for whites; if a black person tried to
enter a whites toilet or access other such facilities, they would be beaten up or arrested.
White was associated with something good and black with something bad and dangerous.
Another example (Biko, 1978) points to is the second hand education for blacks which was
not aimed at furthering their studies or giving them opportunities for a vast selection of work.
The Bantu education they received helped develop the way they look at themselves when

they compare with white people. They were forced to use English and Afrikaans as the only
languages of study, this made them to be less equipped to the level of being able to give
exceptional arguments even at university level, which made the black man to feel inadequate
and stupid. (Biko, 1978).
Biko (1978, 30) described black people as a defeated people, that they took on this identity
and looked at themselves with the eyes of inferior beings in comparison to the white people.
He points to black people just agreeing to and doing everything the white man instructed
without question. They had accepted that they are nothing compared to white people and that
they could never overcome the system because they found themselves in a defeated position;
the only solution for black people in this state is to call the white man boss regardless of the
age of both. The white man wanted the black man to be subservient and that what the black
man became, obedient to the white people, believing that black people are powerless and
white people powerful.
Biko (1978) goes on to observe that the black man thinks of himself as non-human. If one is
not white, going to white schools, getting the privileges set aside for whites, living fancy
white lives in luxurious white houses and acquiring what whites have acquired then one is a
non-being or less than human. Thus living in the shadow of the white people, black people
live their lives as empty and worthless beings. This is how they became a people without a
history; socialised to believe that they deserved less than white people, they also believe there
is no room for improvement of the self or their lives.
The black people were socialised into the identities they possessed and this was because of
the standards that were put in place by the power structure which is the apartheid system,
they wanted to dominate the black people by putting rules and laws that made the black man
to identify himself as inferior and to hate himself because of his skin colour. Race was the
huge factor into the identities that black people too, race brought about different meanings of
identities