User:Henri Cilliers/sandbox

White Talk
White Talk is a concept part of critical whiteness studies developed by Melissa Steyn. It is an arsenal of linguistic resources that white South Africans can take part in to justify and maintain their position of privilege in the social and political landscape of South Africa after the fall of apartheid. After the instantiation of democracy in 1994 the political power was no longer held by a purely white government and resources was starting to be distributed more equally throughout the population. With this redistribution of social, material, and financial resources many white South Africans resisted this change that challenged the privileged norms that they have grown accustomed to. White Talk is a process wherein right-wing discourse is emphasized and justified whilst criticizing any change to the racial status quo of South Africa. Complimenting this there is also an emphasis placed on liberal ideas of equality to fit in with the international and local social norms.

Discursive Repertoires
In a discursive analysis of weekly Sunday Times columns from the year 2000 Melissa Steyn and Don Foster highlighted ways in which the authors wrote about states of affairs in a racialized manner that worked to justify and perpetuate critiques to the changing social order. Two sets of repertoires were recognized that form the structure of White Talk, namely New South Africa Speak and White Ululation.

New South Africa Speak
New South Africa Speak uses a language of progressive ideals such as non-racialism, non-sexism, democracy, and equality to preserve face and present a positive - anti-racist - image that matches the expectations of the modern social environment. There are reasons why this repertoire is a strategically necessary part of White Talk. Firstly, South Africa is a country that fought for freedom and democracy; therefore, the white population needs to disprove suspicion that their beliefs stem from racism or loyalty to the apartheid regime. Secondly, after the international sanctions during apartheid was lifted, the South African expression of whiteness needed to fit in with that of the rest of the globe, therefore New South Africa Speak is required to save face and fit in locally and internationally.

White Ululations
Where New South Africa Speak is a mode of defense against being dismissed and labelled as bigoted, White Ululation is an offensive strategy that compliments New South Africa Speak by provoking emotional reactions from whites to undermine the current state of South Africa and endorse self-interest and thus the propagation of white privilege into the post-apartheid setting. White Ululation is the language that challenges black political power by proposing white victimhood and a national decline in the state of the country. South Africa is depicted as hopeless under the government of Africans and this reframing is used to rally whites with the ideology that minimizes historic atrocities and promotes the persistence of white power and privilege within the context where their political dominance has been lost. Strategies of moral and rational logic is used to legitimize and justify support for the preservation of a racially based hierarchy.