BACK TO THE FUTURE: WHITE STUDENTS ACCOUNTING FOR NON-PARTICIPATION IN STUDENT POLITICS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/1812-6371/1738Keywords:
discourse, political participation, race, racism, student politics, whitenessAbstract
Our research examines the role that race, racial identity and racism play in talk about student politics. In this article we examine white male and female students’ accounts for non-participation in student politics at a historically black university. Our analysis of talk in focus group discussions identifies a range of conceptual dichotomies. We link these conceptual dichotomies to deeply entrenched racially binarized narratives and show how recourse to them is used to articulate and legitimize decisions not to participate in student politics. We discuss the implications of the strategies employed by white students to account for non-participation in student politics and conclude the article by giving consideration to suggestions for alternate frames for doing whiteness in contemporary South Africa.
References
Bozzoli, B. (2015). Behind the university funding crisis. Politicsweb. Retrieved from http://www. politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/behind-the-university-funding-crisis.
Department of Education (2001). National plan for higher education. Pretoria: Government
Printers.
Department of Higher Education and Training (2011). Report of the Ministerial Committee for the review of the provision of student housing at South African universities. Pretoria: DHET.
Durrheim, K. & Dixon, J. (2001). The role of place and metaphor in racial exclusion: South
Africa’s beaches as sites of shifting racialization. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 24(3), 433–450.
Fanon, F. (1967). Black Skin, White Masks. Trans. C. Markmam. New York: Grove Press.
Foster, D.H. (2005). Racialization and the micro-ecology of contact. South African Journal of Psychology, 35(3), 494–504. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630503500307
Gibson, H. (2008). Upright and free: Fanon in South Africa, form Biko to the shack dwellers movement (Abahlali baseMjondolo). Social Identities, 14(6), 683–715. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630802462802
Goldschmidt, M.M. (2003). Identifying labels among university students in the new South Africa: A retrospective study. Journal of Black Studies, 34(2), 204–221. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934703255314
Hay, D., & Fourie, M. (2002). Preparing the way for mergers in South African higher and further education institutions: An investigation into staff perceptions. Higher Education, 44(1), 115–131. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015569229047
Hook, D. & Vrdoljak, M. (2001). Fear and loathing in Northern Johannesburg: The security park as heterotopia. Psychology in Society, 27, 61–83.
Hook, D. (2010). Retrieving Biko: A black consciousness critique of ‘whiteness. African Identities, 9(4), 19–32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14725843.2011.530442
Mabizela, S. (2015). In SA, university is open to rich and poor – but what about the missing middle? The Conversation. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/in-south-africauniversity- is-open-to-rich-and-poor-but-what-about-the-missing-middle-36801.
Mapesela, M., & Hay, D. H. (2006). The effect of change and transformation on academic staff and job satisfaction: A case of a South African University. Higher Education, 52(4), 711–747. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-004-6821-7
Truscott, R., & Marx, J. (2011). A response to ‘Retrieving Biko’. African Identities, 9(4), 481 485. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14725843.2011.614419
Parker, I. (1992). Discourse Dynamics: Critical analysis for social and individual psychology. London: Routledge.
Parker, I. (2004). Discursive practice: Analysis, context and action in critical research. United Kingdom: Lawrence & Wishart.
Reddy, T. (2007). Staff perceptions of the merger between two South African regional technikons. South African Journal of Higher Education, 21(3), 485–502. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v21i3.25719
Robus, D., & Macleod, C. (2006). ‘White excellence and black failure’: The reproduction of
racialised higher education in everyday talk. South African Journal of Psychology, 36(3), 463–480.
Said, E.W. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
Said, E.W. (2003). Freud and the Non-European. London: Verso.
Schrieff, L., Tredoux, C., Dixon, J. & Finchilescu, G. (2005). Patterns of racial segregation in university dining halls. South African Journal of Psychology, 35(3), 433–443. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630503500303
Steyn, M. (2005). “White Talkâ€: white South Africans and the management of diasporic whiteness, in A.J. Lopez (ed.), Postcolonial Whiteness: A critical Reader on Race and Empire (pp. 119 –136). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Steyn, M. (2009). Rehabilitating a whiteness disgraced. Communication Quarterly, 52(2), 143– 169. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01463370409370187
Steyn, M., & Foster, D. (2008). Repertoires for talking white: Resistant whiteness in post-apartheid South Africa. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31(1), 25-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870701538851
Wambugu, J.N. (2005). When tables turn: Discursive constructions of whites as victims of affirmative action in a post-apartheid South Africa. Psychology in Society, 31, 57–70.
White, M. (1997). Narrative of Therapists’ Lives. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
