Abstract:
This study aimed at uncovering what it means to be white within the context of post-
Apartheid South Africa through examining the perceptions, beliefs, and experiences
held by a group of young Afrikaners (the first democratic Afrikaner generation or
1DAGs). Framed within the social constructionist paradigm, this study employed
Critical Discourse Analysis as overall methodological framework for analysing
participants’ discourses. In contributing to the development and refinement of
appropriate and effective methodological procedures for the generation of quality rich
data, the study employed “hanging out,” a conventional sociological data gathering
methodology, also adapting this procedure to an online version, i.e. “hanging out
online”. Seven discursive themes emerged from participants’ accounts, which
fundamentally served to describe: (i) perceptions of the current South African social
formation and the associated position of the Afrikaner (whites) and the “other,” (ii)
perceptions of the ways in which the majority ruling party utilise their position(s) of
political power, (iii) the threats 1DAGs experience, and (iv) the impact of their
subjective beliefs and associated experiences on their self and group-based
perceptions. Deeper critical engagement with these texts revealed possible
contradictions and oppositions within the data, which have exposed the potential for
alternative meanings or interpretations to emerge. Findings from this investigation
indicate that, for this particular group, whiteness in post-Apartheid South Africa is
perceived as a burden, and that being white in the new South Africa relates to being
oppressed and having to manoeuvre and manage such oppressive conditions in order
to have space to strive for a meaningful existence.
