Community or interpersonal support is a critical source to sustain livelihoods in the Global South. At the same time, these practices can exhibit unequal dynamics such as disincentives, hierarchies, or adverse inclusion of individuals. However, an understanding of such is primarily tied to the conceptual space of poverty or small communities. Less is known about how social support systems might respond to structural inequalities within a society. This paper explores how support practices might be shaped by or respond to structurally inherited inequalities in the Namibian context. More precisely, I estimate the probability of supporting others that are notably worse off by comparing support practices of black and white Namibians across various age groups, gender, and socioeconomic standing. By drawing on primary network data, I assess racial inequality as a social dynamic within the space of practising solidarity towards others and further evaluate whether providing worse off others corresponds to consequences of former discriminatory practices under the apartheid regime. My results suggest that racial inequality shapes support practices and meaning. For black Namibians, this can entail that support among family members is a necessary act to redress economic imbalances stemming from former discriminatory policies. For white Namibians, support to worse off others seems to be an act of choice that primarily involves socially distanced contacts. I propose that racial inequality has normalized a sense of support as a necessity for black but not white Namibians. This can lead to sharing one’s merits with members of the extended family for black Namibians, rather than accumulating, saving, or re-investing its outcomes. More broadly, by recognizing differences in group practices, I evidence that exploring support practices across structural inequalities can enhance insights on the social replication of inter- and intragroup-based inequalities.

社区或人际支持是全球南方维持生计的重要来源。同时，这些做法可能会表现出不平等的动态，例如不利因素、等级制度或对个人的不利包容。然而，对此的理解主要与贫困或小社区的概念空间有关。人们对社会支持系统如何应对社会内部的结构性不平等知之甚少。本文探讨了纳米比亚背景下结构性继承的不平等如何影响或应对支持实践。更准确地说，我通过比较不同年龄组、性别和社会经济地位的纳米比亚黑人和白人的支持做法，估计了支持其他明显更糟的人的可能性。通过利用主要网络数据，我将种族不平等评估为对他人实行团结的空间内的社会动态，并进一步评估让他人过得更糟是否对应于种族隔离制度下以前的歧视性做法的后果。我的研究结果表明，种族不平等塑造了支持实践和意义。对于纳米比亚黑人来说，这可能意味着家庭成员之间的支持是纠正因以前的歧视性政策造成的经济失衡的必要措施。对于纳米比亚白人来说，支持让他人更糟似乎是一种选择行为，主要涉及与社会保持距离的接触。我建议种族不平等使支持感正常化，成为纳米比亚黑人而非白人的必需品。这可以导致与纳米比亚黑人的大家庭成员分享自己的优点，而不是积累、储蓄或再投资其结果。更广泛地说，通过认识到群体实践的差异，我证明探索跨越结构性不平等的支持实践可以增强对基于群体间和群体内不平等的社会复制的洞察力。