Reimagining racism: understanding the whiteness and nationhood strategies of British-born South Africans

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 10 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 attempting to minimise individual implication are identified. 15 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; suggesting profound difficulties in adjusting to the new social reality.

KEYWORDS:

• South Africa
• whiteness
• apartheid
• post-apartheid
• denial
• discourse

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Daniel Conway, a wonderful friend and colleague, Nasar Meer for his support and collegiality, and the reviewers who helped the development of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The larger research project, funded by the British Academy, was conducted with Daniel Conway. I focussed on British-born South Africans Johannesburg and Kwazulu-Natal and Daniel focussed on Cape Town.

2. Dompas, literally meaning ‘dumb pass’ were the pass books that black people were required to carry under apartheid.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the British Academy [grant number SG100009].