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White South Africans in Colorado: understandings of apartheid and post-apartheid society

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dc.contributor.authorWeeber, Christine A., author
dc.date.accessioned2007-01-03T04:54:23Z
dc.date.available2007-01-03T04:54:23Z
dc.date.issued2005
dc.description.abstractThis pilot study focuses on the experiences of two white ethnic groups within the South African immigrant population, Afrikaners and English-speakers, who came of age during two different phases of apartheid, between 1958-1978 and 1979-1993. Race, ethnicity, generational standing, class, and nationalism remain important fault lines, so my analysis is structured to differentiate between the entrenchment and reproduction of these identities during apartheid and the disruption of these in the post-apartheid era and in people's migration to the U.S. Using a phenomenological approach, I investigate three issues: experiences of being white, the culture of apartheid, and immigration. Among the themes that emerged from my interviews are the "schizophrenic" nature of life under apartheid; guilt and responsibility; questions of truth, propaganda, and brainwashing; "Afropessimism" and racism; what it meant to be white under apartheid versus the present 'box of being white'; the 'push factors' of affirmative action and crime; and perspectives of race and racism in the U.S. versus South Africa. I also examine whiteness in these two white ethnic groups and as perceived by black and Colored (mixed race) informants. My research addresses the question of whether or not essential characteristics of whiteness exist, cross-culturally, based on a history of whiteness-as-domination. By applying Pierre Bourdieu's practice theory to whiteness studies, I attempt to account for the complexities of whiteness in this population. Patterns within this population show how historical ideologies of whiteness as-domination shaped the habitus of whites during apartheid. Yet, important exceptions to these patterns point to how people's habitus can change, moving whites out of the 'box of being white,' which remains a significant push factor for emigration out of post-apartheid South Africa.
dc.format.mediummasters theses
dc.identifier2005_Spring_Weeber_Christine.pdf
dc.identifierETDF2005100001ANPO
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10217/38995
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherColorado State University. Libraries
dc.relationCatalog record number (MMS ID): 991021585439703361
dc.relationDT1757.S44 2005
dc.relation.ispartof2000-2019
dc.rightsCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.
dc.subjectColorado
dc.subject.lcshSouth Africans -- Colorado
dc.subject.lcshApartheid
dc.subject.lcshPost-apartheid era
dc.subject.lcshSouth Africa -- Emigration and immigration
dc.titleWhite South Africans in Colorado: understandings of apartheid and post-apartheid society
dc.typeText
dcterms.rights.dplaThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
thesis.degree.disciplineAnthropology
thesis.degree.grantorColorado State University
thesis.degree.levelMasters
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts (M.A.)

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