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

to study them, but it also makes it easy to stereotype and oversimplify
the white experience. The shades of white seem to disappear where they
should most be looked at.
The study of whiteness can be helpful to those anthropologists undertaking
studies of Western cultures instead of concentrating on alien,
exotic cultures. Studying whiteness offers the anthropologist an opportunity
to ‘decolonize anthropology’ (Harrison 1991). But whiteness
studies could also be a potential new way of justifying the self-absorbed
concentration of the academic world on the dominant white centre, and
lead to the legitimisation of white racism and nationalism instead of removing
whiteness from its authoritarian position (Dyer 2000: 542). Some
academics have therefore abandoned the whole discourse as an altogether
too dangerous one.
Hence, also when studying South African whites, there is a need to stay
alert and be aware of the pitfalls in the discourse of whiteness, and of the
complexity of the whole concept of being White. Frankenberg notes that
since whiteness has had many different phases and forms over time and
space, it is a complexly constructed product of local, regional and global
relations, past and present. Whiteness is a constantly changing category
constructed together with class, gender and many other racial and cultural
categories. (Frankenberg 2000: 454.) Mark McGuinness therefore warns
us against forgetting to deconstruct whiteness when looking at the Other
(2000: 225-230).
While both the United States and South Africa were melting pots
of whites of ‘all colours’ (Jacobson 1998: 91-135), whiteness in both
countries differs demographically and historically. Thus, transferring a
North American discourse without significant critique to a South African
context as such is not viable. Undoubtedly parts of this US-originating
discourse on whiteness, such as the interest in hybridity in whiteness, the
studies that demonstrate the othering of lower class whites, and discussions
on the representations of Self and the Other within whiteness, are
relevant when studying South African whites. These ideas and interests
to be found in the whiteness studies have also influenced the background
of this thesis.
While the anthropologically inspired approach to South African
whiteness is still seeking its expression, local historians have conducted
convincing work on whites. The work of Carnegie Commission was an
indisputable starting point for the academic interest in poor whites. Many
South African historians in particular have also thought the poor whites a
worthy topic (see Dubow 1995; Freund 1992; Hyslop 1995; Marijke du
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