Reimagining racism: understanding the whiteness and nationhood strategies of British-born South Africans
Reimagining racism: understanding the whiteness and nationhood strategies of British-born South Africans
This paper explores strategies deployed by a sample of white, British-born South Africans to account for their positions during apartheid and post-apartheid. Whereas literature on white racism identifies denial as a key strategy towards racial discrimination and the maintenance of privilege, the historical and political context of South Africa makes this tactic implausible. The paper contributes to understandings of pluralism within white identifications through investigation of diverse discursive strategies used to frame the overtly racist, apartheid regime and the present post-apartheid, supposedly, ‘post-race’ state. A range of positions are identified, in different ways attempting to minimise individual implication. A common feature however is to reimagine the structure of social relations, in order to diminish responsibility for the sins of the past or the success of the future. While the picture is fractured by the plurality of white responses, the paper demonstrates profound difficulties in adjusting to the new social reality.
South Africa, whiteness, apartheid, post-apartheid, denial, discourse
579-594
Leonard, Pauline
a2839090-eccc-4d84-ab63-c6a484c6d7c1
3 September 2019
Leonard, Pauline
a2839090-eccc-4d84-ab63-c6a484c6d7c1
Leonard, Pauline
(2019)
Reimagining racism: understanding the whiteness and nationhood strategies of British-born South Africans.
Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 26 (5), .
(doi:10.1080/1070289X.2019.1637624).
Abstract
This paper explores strategies deployed by a sample of white, British-born South Africans to account for their positions during apartheid and post-apartheid. Whereas literature on white racism identifies denial as a key strategy towards racial discrimination and the maintenance of privilege, the historical and political context of South Africa makes this tactic implausible. The paper contributes to understandings of pluralism within white identifications through investigation of diverse discursive strategies used to frame the overtly racist, apartheid regime and the present post-apartheid, supposedly, ‘post-race’ state. A range of positions are identified, in different ways attempting to minimise individual implication. A common feature however is to reimagine the structure of social relations, in order to diminish responsibility for the sins of the past or the success of the future. While the picture is fractured by the plurality of white responses, the paper demonstrates profound difficulties in adjusting to the new social reality.
Text
IDS-2017-0149_R1 (1)
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 21 June 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 July 2019
Published date: 3 September 2019
Keywords:
South Africa, whiteness, apartheid, post-apartheid, denial, discourse
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 426956
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/426956
ISSN: 1070-289X
PURE UUID: 118b39c6-eb7e-4d1c-8449-f6f97a27152f
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Date deposited: 19 Dec 2018 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 07:26
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