Racial appropriation in white expatriate South African discourses: Reading race on social club websites

Abstract

This essay explores racial appropriation in white expatriate South African discursive practices in the early 2000s. Through an examination of expatriate South African social club websites, the author highlights the use of images and language that ground these appropriational rhetorics. Ultimately, he asserts that these appropriational rhetorics obscure whiteness, are reflective of hierarchical relations of power and privilege, and perpetuate traditional and racist ideologies. The author concludes by proposing several possible explanations for and implications of these discursive practices of appropriation.

Keywords:

• blackness
• expatriate discourse
• racial appropriation
• rhetoric
• white South African expatriates
• whiteness