Buttressing Whiteness by Confessing Guilt and Rejecting Racism: A Study of White-Talk about Paid Domestic Labour

ABSTRACT

This article makes a contribution to literature on “white-talk”. Existing literature shows how whiteness has been defended by criticizing black people, culture and government in subtle (and not so subtle) ways that allow speakers to deny racism. In contrast to denial, we focus on how white South Africans confess to feeling guilty for their privilege in comparison with their domestic workers. Confessions of guilt are ways of taking ownership of white privilege, while accountability is achieved by intragroup comparisons with whites whose standards and practices are not motivated by appropriate guilt. We conclude by reflecting on the costs of such confessions of guilt, namely in propping up whiteness and maintaining extant power structures.

KEYWORDS:

• Whiteness
• racism denial
• confession
• South Africa
• paid domestic labour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).