1 research outputs found
South African racial discourse: a social psychological study
This study examines South African racial discourse within
what may be described as a 'critical social science'
framework. Despite South Africa's long racist history,
research which provides a thorough understanding of racism
is limited. Consequently, this study aimed to explore the
ideological nature of young 'white' South Africans'
commonsense understandings of 'race' and racism through a
discursive and rhetorical analysis. Twenty-five young,
'white' South Africans were interviewed on a wide range of
topics relating to the category of 'race' and the
phenomenon of racism. Interviews were loosely structured
and lasted between two and four and a half hours. The
analysis was oriented to identifying the key discourses
participants used in the construction of their accounts, as
well as the linguistic devices and rhetorical strategies
employed in negotiating the "dialectic of prejudice"
(Billig et al., 1988: 100). Three principal discourses were
identified: the discourse of biologism, the discourse of
cognitivism, and the discourse of constructivism. However,
not all participants drew equally upon all three of these
discourses. The declared political affiliation of the
speaker (Nationalist, Liberal or Left-wing) was related to
the selection of discourses and the nature of the
linguistic resources and rhetorical devices used in the
production of accounts. For example, Nationalist speakers
tended to construct accounts in terms of the discourses of
biologism and cognitivism, but not in terms of the
discourse of constructivism. These findings are discussed
in the light of contemporary research on the "the language
of racism" (Wetherell and Potter, 1992), and their
theoretical and pragmatic implications are considered