White People Still Come Out on Top
The Persistence of White Supremacy in Shaping Coloured South Africans' Perceptions of Racial Hierarchy and Experiences of Racism in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5936716 |
|---|---|
| Authors | W N L Pirtle (0000-0002-5357-8629, University of California, Merced, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 70 |
| Publication date | 2022-02-14 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0760 • E-ISSN: 2076-0760 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/socsci11020070 |
| OpenAlex | W4213224342 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 29 |
White supremacy shaped both the formation of the South African racial state and the formation of racial groups, including the creation of the Coloured category as mixed and liminal between White and Black. There are, however, debates about the continuing legacy of white supremacy in post-apartheid, contemporary South Africa. This paper joins others in the important task of delineating racial hierarchies within contemporary South African society to help reveal the form of oppression, and the accompanying underlying assumptions and ideologies, such as white supremacy, that allows racial difference and deprivation to remain. In this paper, I analyze semi-structured interview data from 50 "Coloured" adults in order to explore their understanding of white supremacy, the racial hierarchy, and contemporary racism. I find that white supremacy negatively impacts Coloureds' lived experiences through shaping their experiences of structural and interpersonal discrimination from White South Africans. In addition, Coloured South Africans understand the legacy of white supremacy in shaping contemporary racial hierarchies such that White South Africans "still come out on top." However, I argue that, at the same time, white supremacy also "colours" or hinders some Coloured respondents' perceptions of their remaining relative privilege in post-apartheid South Africa. This project contributes by revealing a more complete story about the pervasiveness of contemporary hegemonic, global white supremacy that impacts all aspects of the racial hierarchy, including those mixed or in the middle
Hierarchy · Oppression · Political science · Politics · Racial formation theory · Racial hierarchy · Racism · Sociology · White (mutation · White privilege · White supremacy · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Studies · Law · South African History and Culture
‘Coloured in South Africa, Black in the United States’
Anthems of oppressed voices
Uphicothonzulu lweentsingiselo zegama elithi ‘ kaffir ‘ kusetyenziswa inkcazobungcali yobuhlanga
Confronting Against Social Categories Granted to Oneself and Others
The Impact of White Supremacy on First-Generation Mixed-Race Identity in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Being black and non‐citizen in South Africa
Intent vs Reality
Whispered in corridors’
Through the lens of race
Subverting apartheid
Apartheid politics and ‘coloured’ identity in Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story (1990)
(Not) Feeling the Past
Making Race and Nation
Understanding Everyday Racism
Neoliberal Apartheid
The Unresolved National Question in South Africa
Race Otherwise
Class, Race, and Inequality in South Africa
Being and Belonging
‘Able to identify with anything’
White Fright
Racialised’ Discourses
The Spaces between Us
Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position
Mexican illegality, black citizenship, and white power
Non‐racialism’ and its discontents
The Colour of Law, Power and Knowledge
An assessment of employment equity and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment developments in South Africa
Burdened By Race
A Theory of Middleman Minorities
Rethinking Racism
Hope, Fear, Shame, Frustration
Casting a Blind Eye
Imagining race and nation in multiculturalist America
Racial categories as resources and constraints in everyday interactions
Folk conceptualizations of racism and antiracism in Brazil and South Africa
Subjective Well-Being, Poverty and Ethnicity in South Africa
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |