Whiteness under threat: Farmlands and the construction of whiteness in its YouTube comment space
- Authors: Kelly, Megan
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Farmlands (Documentary) , YouTube (Firm) , Mass media and propaganda -- South Africa , Afrikaners -- South Africa -- Attitudes , Propaganda, South African , Farmers -- Violence against -- South Africa , Racism in mass media , Whites -- Race identity -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/165722 , vital:41275
- Description: This study examines how whiteness, particularly South African whiteness, is constructed in a propagandistic YouTube documentary entitled Farmlands and how these constructions are taken up and negotiated by its viewers in its associated comment section. I suggest that these constructions are not only racialised, but resuscitate and popularise old colonial discourses that perpetuate the fear of a ‘white genocide’ and the perceived extermination of a ‘pure white civilisation’. A thematic analysis informed by theories of representation, the establishment of difference through meaning, discourse and critical whiteness studies show that there are several narratives constructed through binary oppositions informed by colonial understandings of race, juxtaposing whiteness and blackness. In analysing these constructions, I aim to demonstrate that whiteness often becomes violent and defensive when its power is perceived to be under threat, reproducing itself through binary constructions that aim to protect it. In doing so, I demonstrate how whiteness is globalising from previous narrow nationalist framings to embracing a globalised notion of ‘white civilisation under threat’. This study supports research that is sceptical of the democratizing ability of the internet and social media, focusing specifically on YouTube’s comment forum and how it is utilized to mobilize attitudes based on hatred, racism and profound social exclusion.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Target white schoolchildren: Black Sash tries to radicalise school pupils
- Authors: Victims Against Terrorism (South Africa)
- Date: 1989-07
- Subjects: Apartheid -- South Africa , Racism -- South Africa , Terrorism -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government , Propaganda, South African , Black Sash (Society) , Government Resistance to – South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , leaflets , newsletter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/57664 , vital:26979 , This item is held at the Cory Library for Humanities Research at Rhodes University. For further information contact cory@ru.ac.za. The digitisation of this image was made possible through a generous grant received from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation 2014-2017.
- Description: Excerpt: "The organisation by political pressure groups amongst school pupils, particularly groups with close links with revolutionary organisations which have played a leading role in trying to create an ungovernable situation in black townships, provides grounds for real concern. Whilst one may question the morality of an organisation which targets school pupils as a means for achieving its own political ends one may be sure that these efforts are not meant as an honest attempt to broaden the thinking of the youth. Rather it is part of a well thought out strategy on the part of such organisationaddElement(0, 'physicalDescription'); hidemenu()s to politicise school pupils along radical lines."
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- Date Issued: 1989-07
Rumours of spying
- Authors: Rhodes University. Students' Representative Council
- Date: 1987-03-07
- Subjects: Apartheid -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government , Propaganda, South African , Government Resistance to – South Africa , Vincent, Louise , Knight, Janet , Espionage -- South Africa , Spies -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , tracts (ephemera)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/57715 , vital:26984 , This item is held at the Cory Library for Humanities Research at Rhodes University. For further information contact cory@ru.ac.za. The digitisation of this image was made possible through a generous grant received from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation 2014-2017.
- Description: A response from NUSAS SRC at Rhodes University, about allegations (published in The Star newspaper dated 17 February 1987) about two members of the Rhodes community acting as informants.
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- Date Issued: 1987-03-07