How race shows up in meritocratic belief systems

In a meritocracy, success results from talent and hard work alone; other circumstances do not matter. But how is this meant to make sense for racialised minorities whose talent and hard work, historically, have been largely decoupled from reward? For young Black adults in South Africa, the very idea of meritocracy rests on a precarious kind of “double consciousness”, argues Annalena Oppel.