Meritocratic masks and the colonial echo of racial distinction

This critique exposes the racial foundations of meritocracy. It challenges the dominant belief that it is an objective path to advancement. Meritocracy is often contrasted with forms of race-aware policies like affirmative action. The foundation of merit itself, however, is historically and epistemologically entangled with race. Drawing on critical theorists such as Mbembe, Fanon, Bhattacharyya and Du Bois, and using Tsitsi Dangarembga’s fiction as a method for cultural theorizing, I explore how meritocratic ideals generate internalized hierarchies and conflicted self-perceptions. To do so, I analyse young South African professionals’ evaluations of success across racialized groups drawing on an online survey. I discuss how race continues to be masked within contemporary meritocratic beliefs. Ultimately, I seek to make a case for a reimagining of success beyond distinction and towards collective thriving, resisting the logics of individualization and exclusion that underpin racial capitalism.