Abstract
Class categorisation should not only be informed by academic pursuits but by the lived experiences of those being categorised. A human or community centred definition of class will illustrate the complexities of class experience and will thus present a dynamic conceptualisation. Through two life histories interviews of two black women from South Africa this article illustrates that middle classness for blacks during apartheid was constantly shifting due to its socio-economic and political impermanence. Thus membership to this social position included continuous negotiation driven by inclusiveness in ones own community and the effects of being racially othered in interaction with whites and white spaces. In conclusion the article argues that being middle class and black is heterogeneously experienced and thus complex.