The ideas of Social Darwinism also affected South Africa. Because of South Africa's long colonial and apartheid history, the ethnic and racial terms that have been used to categorise us - white, African, coloured, Indian - have in many ways become part of our identities. And because the laws that existed were applied according to these categories, we often still use these racial and ethnic labels. However, it is important to remember that the racial and ethnic categories used to describe South Africans are constructed and based on the false ideas of Social Darwinism.