I started out bored with the idea of whiteness and its
attendant studies, but after attending a short part of the “Negotiating
whiteness in 21st century South Africa” conference, I am now viscerally opposed
to them.
While the stated purpose of whiteness studies is to expose
white people to the legacies of post-colonial and post-apartheid privilege
which still take racial forms, in fact the field continues to place privileged
people at the centre of the gaze of the academy.