Changing Construction of Whiteness and Institutional Transformation

Societies can be understood in part as sets of organizations, whether the home, schools, hospitals, churches and mosques, government departments, private sector corporations or universities. The ways in which identities are enunciated within such organizations contributes to the texture of the society as a whole. At the same time, organizations may be sites for change where concepts of identity are challenged and reformulated through the everyday work of social reproduction. In South Africa, where the reproduction of, and challenges to, racial identities remain a key parameter in housing, schooling, employment and access to resources, working for equitable and de-racialized conditions within organizations has the potential of making a significant contribution to realizing the objectives of transformation as set out in the 1996 Constitution. This study looks at aspects of white identity within one such organization – the University of Cape Town. UCT is the oldest of twenty-three public higher education institutions in South Africa. Established in the nineteenth century to provide for colonial administrators, UCT gained widespread recognition in the 1970s and 1980s for its opposition to apartheid. As such, it was the classic manifestation of the liberal university, standing for academic freedom and the rights of the individuals. Today, as with many South African organizations, UCT is in a long and often difficult process of making equality of opportunity a reality for all South Africans.