The Making of a Good White - E-thesis - Helsinki.fi

Some have moved to Goodwood, some have found refuge with their
families, some have simply dispersed to the caravan parks, coloured and
even African areas in Cape Flats.
Despite the breakdown of previous social categories and the arrival of
coloured residents having caused obvious gentrification 184 of the suburb,
the policy of apartheid still influences the white residents’ perceptions of
space. Spatial patterns and urban planning of segregation and apartheid
normalised the racial ideology, and drew its outlines in the urban topography.
It will take several decades before the meanings attached to urban
space can and will be forgotten, if ever. Memory will perpetuate this construction.
People’s memories of the apartheid space will regulate social
definitions of South African urban space for a long time, in contrast to the
memories of the shared historical roots of both the White and Coloured
Cape families who lived together in working-class areas.
Some white residents see the arrival of the coloured residents as a
welcome change, and appreciate their middle-class lifestyle as a key to
a better future for the area. However, for some the presence of the coloureds
has brought a sense of spatial invasion that becomes apparent in
the interviews with white residents of Ruyterwacht. They feel that their
space has been invaded, and complaints are often about petty things, such
as the coloured children playing in the streets, or the noisiness and disrespectful
attitudes of the coloureds living in the suburb. Coloured street
culture – known for its liking of cars, hanging out in streets and playing
loud music – has arrived in Ruyterwacht, and on the street corners one
can see multiracial groups of people chatting and laughing.
”We are sitting outside Lisa’s (coloured female, 27) car. She beams, as
she has only had it for a few weeks. She turns up the music. It hurts my
ears and I am convinced the whole neighbourhood can hear it. ”This is
a coloured thing”, she laughs happily.” (Author’s field notes.)
A number of old residents stated that coloured people are noisy and
spend too much time out on the streets – an offence against the spatial
rules of a good white who ’keeps to himself’ and is rather not seen on
the streets. Alternatively, many middle-class coloured people look down
on the poorest of whites. They see their behaviour as completely embar-
184 Elijah Anderson, who studied two suburbs of Philadelphia, witnessed “a profound
confusion of race and class” (1990: 156) and pointed out that gentrification was the spatial
expression of the differences of class and race.
211