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

The social work has changed, and the children are no longer easily institutionalised.
Certain aspects of sexuality, such as living together out of
wedlock, have become private again. Families have to solve their lesser
problems themselves.
The embodied taste is still a tool in the establishment and maintenance
of social distinctions, and in the symbolic ordering of the social space.
Lack of personal hygiene came across as the strongest indicator of a low
status, and the most definite sign of belonging to the group of the bottomdwellers.
Shorts, plakkies and bare feet are still seen as common, whereas
real shoes, lipstick and pantyhose are signs of civilisation. Cleanliness is
still regarded as important.
“How can a person go to bed without bathing?…But it seems to me its
like a virus…I’ll make a big hot bath and chase them in there everyday
(laughing). There is this man here, and for seven years now I have
been looking at him and wanted to bath him.” (F., 60 years, 10 years
in Ruyterwacht.)
The dream of upliftment, and better times is still alive, and internalised
to a great degree. Some residents have reconstructed their life histories in
the process of rehabilitation, and some of them have become part of the
controlling, conservative forces in the area.
The hierarchy in the community was and still is constantly changing,
and the power relations between the residents are strained. This process
of establishing a hierarchy is defined by the residents’ own politics of
inclusion and exclusion. When the CHL’s agenda grew weaker, and the
social workers gave up controlling and ruling the residents’ lives, these
controlling elements were not only taken over by other professionals, but
also by some of the residents of Group C, who took it on themselves to
continue the mission of rehabilitation.
Although the 1990s were the era of symbolic gestures of resistance at
the level of identities, and a relaxation of morality and its guardians, the
old, internalised ideals are still strong. On one hand, people still recast
the humiliation of personal poverty by being honourable, emphasising
those parts of whiteness that they possess: upward mobility, appearance,
cleanliness, values, and honour.
“If I was a car I would be a Mercedes-Benz, for it is a smart car.” (F.,
76.)
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