Black, white and Green. Miss SA sparks a timely conversation about 'non-whites'
Crowning raises tough question: isn’t it time to retire apartheid’s ‘coloured’ classification?
There's just no pleasing some people — coloured people, that is.
Tamaryn Green, the beauty queen from Paarl (you can't get more coloured than that) has become a lightning rod for heated discussion about what constitutes "authentic colouredness" - and about whether coloureds are even black.
The latter, despite being a particularly regrettable discussion to be taking place 24 years since the advent of democracy, is nevertheless long overdue. It's time to have an honest discussion about coloured people feeling, rightly or wrongly, that they have been marginalised by the national democratic project. Particularly if one considers that a couple of years ago, coloureds quietly knocked whites off their perch as the second-largest race group in South Africa.
While there are many coloureds celebrating her win as Miss South Africa, Tamaryn Green, with her delicate features, has flung open Pandora's box, with some commenting that a coloured woman is not "representative" of South Africa...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.
From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.
For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.
Already subscribed? Sign in below.
Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.