[No data] by Expansion of Theory

Author:Expansion of Theory
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-09-07T04:00:00+00:00

Postscript: Further Explorations of Unraveling.

In my ongoing musings about Whiteness I have been fascinated with the struggle of Whites in post-apartheid South Africa. In particular, I have pondered how the dismantling of power affects the structure of Whiteness; Whiteness as both a sociopolitical construct and as a lived identity.

In revisiting South Africa for the first time since apartheid fell 16 years before in 1994, I was struck by the precariousness of Whiteness. Among Whites there seems to be a profound sense of insecurity, marginalization, a sense of having lost one’s place, or being out of place, not knowing exactly what that place might be. With this uncertainty there is a withdrawal, a retreat into a fortified world as exemplified by the high walls topped with barbed wire or electrified fences, alarm systems linked to armed private security forces, security checkpoints, and guard dogs.

So what is the precariousness? What is it that needs to be guarded, so carefully hidden away and simultaneously so clearly visible? To step back for a moment, race, racial identity, what it means to be White is in a transitional space, a space of uncertainty. Whiteness was, in its colonial heritage, a site of knowing, a position of clarity: One knew who one was, what one could do, what one could have and be, and who one was in relation to all others.

Now one might easily counter argue that Whiteness in South Africa was always precarious. And this would be true. Whiteness, with all its certainty, was built on the instability of fear—the fear of being attacked by Blacks, the fear that what one had could be taken away. However, the reality of the dismantling of power, the loss of that world, even if precariously certain, has been destabilizing and profound. Whiteness is no longer the dominant discourse.*

To be clear, Whiteness is still enshrined in privilege, especially economic privilege, and many Whites still believe in their sense of superiority.† Nonetheless, there is an acute sense of loss of power, especially political power. Something fundamental to the structure of Whiteness has crumbled.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (with its daily broadcasting in the late 1990s of the violent acts perpetrated under the mantle of maintaining White hegemony) dispelled any illusions of innocence that Whiteness may have tried to cling to. Indeed, the refrains “We did not know,” and “We did not participate” could no longer be upheld.‡ Whiteness was slowly exposed for its brutality, and a certain façade of morality behind which Whites hid was shattered.

Perhaps the precariousness I perceived (the vulnerability of Whiteness without its veneer) is akin to the wound that lies behind a narcissistic structure. With the loss of power, with the sudden dispossession of identity, a crumbling sense of self ensued.

Undoubtedly there is not one White South African identity, as there is not one American White identity, but rather a variety of fragmented and contradictory constructions and experiences of White identity (Steyn, 2001). However, in trying to abstract some common patterns, I am going to take the liberty of being more general than specific.

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