New shades of "whiteness": white identity in a multicural, democratic South Africa

"Whiteness", an extremely successful ideological construction of modernist colonisation, is by definition a construction of power: Whites as the privileged group take their identity as the nonn and the standard by which other groups are measured. As the new South Africa moves towards a more equitable multicultural society, Whites are experiencing a sudden loss of privilege. Different narratives are currently being constructed within the society about what it means to be White in the new dispensation. These narratives position Whites differently in relation to the past, and to Africa and Africans, and have varying potential for building a multicultural future. From the perspective of comparative social analysis, the current South African experience of "whiteness" problematises the way in which "whiteness" is currently theorised in Euro-America. An awareness of the need to address "whiteness" within the South African context, however, is still embryonic.