Discourses of whiteness informing the identity of white English-speaking South Africans

Salusbury, Theresa

Discourses of whiteness informing the identity of white English-speaking South Africans

Master Thesis

2003

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Psychology

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

Given South Africa's ethnic complexities, comparatively little has been written about the group known as white English-speaking South Africans, or WESSAs. This is partly because of the lack of collective sentiment shared by people categorised as WESSAs, partly because the group boundaries are not clear-cut, and partly because on the surface there appears to be little that can be said about them. Besides a proclivity for business, a continued attachment to Europe and an apparent inability to organise politically, the acollectivity of the group has been the focus of the literature on the subject, and its cause has been a matter of some bewilderment on the part of authors. This work examines WESSA identity from a new perspective, one influenced by the proliferation of writings on the topic of "whiteness" in Europe and America in recent years. These writings concentrate on how whiteness as a set of discourses positions being white as neutral or "raceless", in contrast to other race groups who are constructed as "ethnic".

Description

Bibliography: leaves 126-139.

Keywords

Research Psychology

Reference:

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