Elucidating the association between historical injustices and ‘black tax’ : narratives of black female professionals

Abstract

‘Black tax’ is a legacy of South African historical injustices. The study’s aim is to examine the financial and psychological impact of ‘black tax’ on Black female professionals in South Africa. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Facebook were utilised to gather information from Black female professionals across the country. Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Feminism Theory (CRF) were used as a lens to explore the intersectionality of race, class, and gender and how it impacts Black women. The study was located within the pragmatic paradigm employing a mixed-methods approach where data collection was conducted in two phases with a sample of 200 participants for the quantitative phase and 10 participants for the qualitative phase. Cross sectional and hermeneutic phenomenological designs were implemented for both phases. During the first phase, participants completed an online survey comprising of nominal, ordinal, and Likert scale questions and the data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The second phase utilised semi-structured interviews to collect data. Thematic analysis was used to make sense of data. Participants were selected by method of nonprobability sampling by making use of purposeful criteria such as accessibility. The results reveal that ‘black tax’ has negatively impacted Black professionals financially and emotionally, thus producing an integrated gendered analysis of financial-psychological nexus particularly affecting these Black women. Although this impact may cause some Black professionals to resent paying ‘black tax’, others have taken pride in assisting their immediate and extended family members. The study recommends introduction of new policies that can alleviate the financial burden of ‘black tax’ on Black professionals. These policies may include non-transferable vouchers which have never been implemented in South Africa.