In my dissertation, I explore the ways in which racial identity is made complex through various onlookers' misrecognition of race. This issue is particularly important considering the current state of race relations in the United States, as my project offers a literary perspective and account of the way black authors have discussed racial identity formation from the turn of the century through the start of the twenty-first century. I highlight many variations of misrecognition and racial performance as a response to America's obsession with race.

Ego identity formation in African American college students was examined within the frameworks of Erikson’s psychosocial theory and Hill’s paradigm of Black family strengths. Ego identity was measured by the Revised Version of the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status, an instrument based on the theoretical constructs of Erikson. Family strengths were measured by the Family Environment Scale and the personality variables self-esteem and ethnic identity were measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, respectively. It was hypothesized that statistically significant relationships would be found between ego identity and the family environmental and personality variables. One hundred sixty-nine African American college students attending a predominantly White university participated in the study. The results supported a relationship between ego identity and family environmental and personality variables. The study further revealed that personality variables contribute more significantly than family environmental variables to identity achievement. Self-esteem was found to be a Significant predictor of ego identity and differentiated among the four ego identity statuses, Ethnic identity also proved to contribute significantly to the ego formation of African Americans. Of the family variables, religious-orientation, cohesion and organization were found to be significant predictors for some but not all of the ego statuses. Both father’s education and family income were Significant predictors of ego identity status, but age and sex were found to be nonsignificant in predicting ego identity. / Ph. D.

Amid concerns of increased populist right-wing movements in Europe and the US, this dissertation research uncovers a core contradiction at the heart of modern nation-states: the ethnic underpinnings of the “civic nation.” In recent years, nativist and ultra-nationalist movements opposing immigration have gained popularity in Western democracies. These movements draw on “hard” boundaries such as race or religion to exclude “others” from the “nation.” However, sociological research on the nation has consistently found that most people in Western countries publicly oppose these ideas and embrace civic conceptions of the nation. At the same time, research on immigrants' experiences in these same countries suggests that “civic” conceptions of the nation may be much more exclusionary than what survey research has shown. To reconcile this tension in the nationalism and immigration integration literature, I label the mismatch between people’s stated preferences and their actual behaviors as “colorblind ethnocentrism.” By analyzing the extent to which nations are imagined to be racially restrictive by their inhabitants, my research offers a new understanding of national identity that has consequences for the integration of non-white groups into Western societies. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, I analyze the way that the category of “nation” is socially constructed, and in what ways this social construction overlaps with the socially constructed category of “race,” particularly in countries where “race” does not exist as a state-sanctioned classificatory system (unlike the US). Finally, I use these theoretical insights to reframe a classic debate in political economy and show that natives' normative understandings about national belonging moderate the way that non-White populations are perceived as an outside group and a threat to economic redistribution. This dissertation combines novel methodology from political science with advanced statistical analysis as well as qualitative content analysis research to investigate (1) the role of ancestry, and race in defining the imagined community, (2) the ways that race and nation are empirically related, and (3) to what extent different ideas of the “nation” mediate the relationship between increased racial diversity and decreased support for redistribution. Building on previous work, in chapter 1, I consider the “nation” as a cognitive category used to create social distinctions between those who “belong” in the nation-state and those who do not. Using a pre-registered conjoint experiment fielded in representative samples across France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, I challenge the long-standing assumption in the literature that the dominant conception of the “nation” in the West is based on inclusive and civic symbolic boundaries. I show that the most important characteristic across all country contexts for natives when making decisions about who is and is not a member of the nation is their ancestry: whether a given profile's parents and grandparents were all born in the country or not. I also find that people who answer in surveys that ancestry is important to be truly national in fact are espousing a racial and religious preference for White and Christian nationals. Then, I show how this colorblind ethnocentrism affects symbolic integration of non-white profiles with immigrant backgrounds. Finally, I find that racial preferences in who belongs in the nation are the most pronounced in continental Europe, where “race” is not an institutionalized categorization system (i.e. countrieswhere racial statistics and “race” is taboo). This provides some evidence in favor of my theory that countries that do not have an available discourse around race tend to use “nation” as a proxy for it. I further investigate the origins of this discrepancy in the next chapter. In chapter 2, I leverage a drastic change in curriculum in the mid-1990s in Spain that led to the sudden and (almost) complete removal of racial vocabulary from social-science textbooks to explore what happens to the construct of race once racial language has been removed. Through my analysis of 82 textbooks from 1975 to 2017, I find that a racial classification system was replaced by one based on cultural categories. Yet, far from moving away from essentialist beliefs about human nature, culture continues to reproduce the social hierarchies previously associated with phenotype. Because the books present culture as a scientifically valid classification system, the use of culture legitimizes and entrenches those same beliefs in racial differences, while creating a new double meaning for cultural categories (often “national cultures” or “nation”), i.e. its purported meaning and a short-hand for “race”. In chapter 3, I follow up on a question that emerged from my textbookstudy: to what degree do Europeans believe (or not) in biological racial differences? I find that people in Europe hold racist beliefs at similar rates to the United States. I also show that an under-studied source of variation across countries is the differences within a country between the proportion of people who believe in one racial belief but not another. In my final chapter, I investigate the consequences of this racialized “imagined community” for support for welfare in contexts of increased immigration. In this chapter, I shift the focus of attention from “immigrants” to “natives.” I argue that the well-documented reduction of native support for redistribution in the presence of immigrants is moderated by how strongly the natives imagine the “nation” as racially white. Using survey and census data from 30 European countries and 270 regions, I show that the negative association between the share of immigration and support for welfare is driven by those who imagine the nation in racial terms. Moreover, I show that ethnic nationalists’ support for welfare policies is only sensitive to non-European foreign-born immigration, not European foreign-born immigration. This suggests that racism, more than xenophobia, is the mechanism behind the withdrawal of solidarity. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of implications and directions for future research.

𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 offers an ethnographic analysis of the project to revive 𝐴𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑐𝑎 𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑎 coffee production in Martinique, originally introduced during the colonial period. The heritage initiative aims to use Martinique’s coffee history as a narrative touchstone, connecting the island’s natural and cultural heritage with sustainable economic development. By examining how the project seeks to shape a transformed future from an unresolved colonial past, this dissertation argues that the romanticization of agricultural heritage can obscure contemporary challenges, such as climate change, and hinder imaginative and practical future planning. The dissertation explores various orientations toward the future that are cultivated within the coffee revival project, including expectation and promise, possibility and hope, anticipation and speculation. Interludes woven through the text highlight the interconnectedness of the environment and the experience of becoming and being Black. These interludes lead to the concluding epilogue that introduces the conceptual methodology of attending to Black Atlantic Elements—it foregrounds fluidity and relationality among various cultural, ecological, and social elements, a counterpoint to the essentializing tendencies of Western ontological paradigms. The research utilizes a multi-methodological approach, including ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and qualitative interviews, complemented by critical textual analysis. Over ten months of fieldwork in Martinique, interactions with coffee farmers, Island Parks Service officials, local residents, and other collaborators provided firsthand insights into the coffee revival project. Archival research conducted in both France and Martinique supplied historical context on the introduction and decline of coffee production on the island. The study also draws on contemporary scientific, journalistic, and policy texts to understand how these narratives are currently used to shape both local and global perceptions of Martinican coffee. Overall, this dissertation takes heritage seriously to understand the people and places that mobilize it, focusing on the histories they choose to bequeath and their visions of the future. The findings highlight the complex temporality involved in bringing material pasts into the present to shape future visions. This vexation of time troubles not only this ethnography and its interlocutors but also the Caribbean as a whole, where theories of Caribbean temporality often explore how futures are shaped and constrained by the past and its afterlives. Through critical attention to the parallel temporalities and future orientations within Martinique’s coffee revival project, this work reveals how interpretations of the past and present are shaped by the ends pursued.

Thesis (DPhil (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The uncertainty and insecurity generated by social transformation within local and global contexts foregrounds concerns with identity. South African society has a legacy of an entrenched racial order which previously privileged those classified ‘white’. The assumed normality in past practices of such an institutionalised system of racial privileging was challenged by a changing social, economic and political context. This dissertation examines the discourse of white middle-class South Africans on this changing context. The study draws on the discourse of Afrikaansspeaking and English-speaking interviewees living in urban and rural communities. Their discourse reveals the extent to which these changes have affected the ways they talk about themselves and others. There is a literature suggesting the significance of race in shaping people’s identity has diminished within the post-apartheid context. This study considers the extent to which the evasion of race suggested in a literature on whiteness is apparent in the discourse on the transformation of the society. By considering this discourse a number of questions are raised on how interviewees conceive their communities and what implication this holds for future racial integration. What is meant by being South African is a related matter that receives attention. The study draws the conclusion that in spite of heightened racial sensitivity, race remains a key factor in the identities of interviewees.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The focus of this dissertation is the examination of the relationship between space and identity in recent narratives of migration, in contemporary African literature. Migrant narratives suggest that there is a correlation between identity formation and the types of boundaries and borders migrants engage with in their various attempts to find new homes away from their old ones. Be it voluntary or involuntary, the process of migrating from a familial place transforms the individual who has to negotiate new social formations; and tensions often accrue from the confrontation between one’s culture and the culture of the receiving society. Return migration to the supposed country of origin is an equally important trajectory dealt with in African migrant literature. The reverse narrative stipulates similar tensions between one’s diasporic culture – the culture of the diasporic space – and the culture of the homeland. Thus, intra- and inter-continental migrations and diaspora is a bifurcated inquiry that examines both outward and return migrations. These movements reveal the ways in which Africans make sense of their Africanity and their place in the world. The concepts of “border”, “boundary” and “borderland” are useful to examine notions of difference and separation both within the nation-state and in relation to transnational, intra-African as well as inter-continental exchanges. I focus more fully on these notions in the texts that examine migrations within Africa, both outward and return movements. This study is not only interested in the physical features of borders, boundaries or borderlands, but also on their consequences for the processes of identity formation and translation, and how they can help to reveal the social and historical characteristics of diasporic formations. What undergirds much of the analysis is the assumption that the negotiation of belonging and space cannot be separated from the crossing or breaching of borders and boundaries; and that these negotiations entail attempts to enter the borderland, which is a zone of exchange, crisscrossing networks, dissolution of notions of singularity and exclusive identities. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die fokus van hierdie proefskrif is ‘n ondersoek na die verhouding tussen ruimte en identiteit in onlangse migrasie-narratiewe in kontemporêre Afrika-literatuur. Migrasienarratiewe dui op ’n korrelasie tussen identiteitsvorming en die soorte skeidings en grense waarmee migrante gemoeid raak in hulle onderskeie pogings om nuwe tuistes weg van die oues te vind. Hetsy willekeurig of gedwonge, die migrasieproses weg van ’n familiale plek verander die individu wat nuwe sosiale formasies moet oorkom, en spanning neem dikwels toe weens die konfrontasie tussen die eie kultuur en dié van die ontvangersamelewing. Migrasie terug na die sogenaamde land van herkoms is net so ’n belangrike onderwerp in Afrika-migrasieliteratuur. Die terugkeernarratief stipuleer dat daar ooreenkomstige spanning heers tussen ’n persoon se diasporiese kultuur – die kultuur van die diaspora-ruimte – en die kultuur van die land van oorsprong. Die ondersoek na intra- en interkontinentale migrasies en diasporas is dus ’n tweeledige proses wat uitwaartse sowel as terugkerende migrasies beskou. Hierdie bewegings openbaar die ware maniere waarop Afrikane sin maak uit hulle Afrikaniteit en hulle plek in die wêreld. Die konsepte van “grens”, “grenslyn” en “grensgebied” is nuttig wanneer die begrippe van verskil en verwydering ondersoek word binne die nasiestaat asook in verhouding tot transnasionale, intra-Afrika en interkontinentale wisseling. Ek fokus meer volledig op hierdie begrippe in die tekste wat ondersoek instel na migrasie binne Afrika, beide uitwaartse en terugkerende bewegings. Hierdie studie gaan nie net oor die fisiese kenmerke van grense, grenslyne en grensgebiede nie, maar bestudeer ook die gevolge daarvan op die prosesse van identiteitsvorming en vertaling, en die manier waarop hulle kan help om die sosiale en historiese eienskappe van diasporiese formasies te openbaar. ’n Groot deel van die analise word ondersteun deur die aanname dat die onderhandeling tussen tuishoort en ruimte nie geskei kan word van die oorsteek of deurbreek van grense en grenslyne nie, en dat hierdie onderhandelinge lei tot pogings om die grensgebied te betree, waar die grensgebied gekenmerk word deur wisseling, kruising van netwerke en die verwording van begrippe soos sonderlingheid en eksklusiewe identiteite.

University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Humanities Political Studies Master’s Research Report, February 2017 / The history of segregation in South Africa is well documented. The shadows of the apartheid system still linger in society to date, especially in the form of racial inequality, race consciousness and racial classification. Contemporary student protests and vandalism in institutions of higher education reveal deep-seated tensions that open a can of worms concerning race and equality – elements that have long been of concern in the Black Consciousness Movement and its ideology in the early 1960s and 70s. This research report assesses how Black Consciousness tenets’ and rhetoric are re-emerging in the current national student movement, from the #RhodesMustFall to the #FeesMustFall movements. Black Consciousness ideology in South Africa, as articulated by Biko, sought the attainment of a radical egalitarian and non-racial society. Amongst some of the espoused principles of the Black Consciousness Movement that defined South African youth politics in the 1970s, is that Black Consciousness emphasised values of black solidarity, self-reliance, individual and collective responsibility, and black liberation. The year 2015 witnessed the resurgence of Black Consciousness language at the forefront of student movements, most notably the #RhodesMustFall and the #FeesMustFall campaigns. The #FeesMustFall movement and its supporters uphold that their cause is legitimate because it does not make sense for household incomes to depreciate next to escalating costs of living and rising tuition fees. It further states that the ANC fears it because its demands stand contrary to ANC-led government’s interests and have accused the ANC of attempting to capture the movement – hence the declaration that #FeesMustFall is a direct critique of the entire socio-economic and political order of the ruling ANC and exposes ANC corruption and betrayal. The movement continues, though its cause tends to be diluted and convoluted, the struggle is real but so is the legacy of Biko and the spirit of Black Consciousness. / MT2018

This report is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of masters by coursework and research report in the faculty of humanities in the university of Witwatersrand / This thesis explores the different ways that identities are negotiated and renegotiated in different spaces. It intends to unearth the contradictions, tensions and complexities that occur as a result of racialised subjectivities. This study unpacks the socially constructed term "Coconut" and challenges the existing dominant discourses that speak of "Coconuts" as inauthentic Black people who have lost touch with their heritage.What it means to be Black today in South Africa is being contested and there is resistance towards binary and rigid understandings and conceptualizations of blackness. In the intersection of race and class, class is often the silent signifier of distinction and difference post-apartheid but proves to be significant in understanding the different nuanced lived experiences of the Black subject. This thesis is specifically interested in how the inability to comprehend or communicate in an African language further complicates and adds another layer of complexity to not only the lived experiences of Black monolinguals proficient in English only, but also to their personal sense of self. Being a "Coconut" is experienced in conflicted and precarious ways. On the one hand it is experienced with alienation and rejection and in other contexts, it holds significant value and serves as social cultural capital necessary for maneuvering social, political and economic spaces. Key words: Identity, Coconut, Blackness, Class, Cultural capital, Monolinguals, Language, Accent, Racial subjectivity / GR2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Diversity Studies). March 2014 / Despite the end of apartheid, South Africa remains a grossly unequal society. This has meant that the current social order must again be challenged. One of the tasks faced in post-apartheid South Africa is the philosophical and moral interrogation of white privilege. This research investigates the ways of speaking of Argentine immigrants living in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed by making use of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory as well as Melissa Steyn’s characteristics of “white talk”. It was found that Argentine immigrants living in South Africa aligned themselves with the ways of speaking of white South Africans. These are largely informed by and embedded in Eurocentric discourses; in particular liberal ideology. In line with the agenda of Critical Whiteness studies, this positionality was exposed and theoretically interrogated. Keywords: whiteness, immigrants, discourse, Laclau and Mouffe discourse theory, white talk, racism, identity, liberalism

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of the Witwatersrand December 2016 / Within a narrative paradigm, this research project had two elements. Firstly, the project aimed to enable the researcher to gain an understanding of the construction of adolescent identity from the perspective of a cohort of first-generation, post-Apartheid adolescents as members of an NGO’s after-school support programme. Secondly, a participatory action element aimed to provide the participants with an opportunity to reflect upon their own lives in a positive, empowering way thereby providing an understanding of their past lives, strengthening a realistic power of agency for their future lives, balanced between self-identity and self transcendence in the present (Crites, 1986). Within this research, the self is theorised psychosocially, presented as both a narrated and narrating subject in which identity construction is consolidated through story-telling and the adaption of these stories to different audiences and cultural contexts. 12 volunteer participants were provided with disposable cameras and asked to take photographs of people and objects that were important to them. Using these photographs, the participants then constructed art timelines of their lives in the narrative format of ‘past’, ‘present’, and ‘future’. Each participant was then narratively interviewed twice, four months apart. The two datasets (the art timelines and the interview transcripts) were subject to three levels of analysis. Firstly, the construction of each participant’s descriptive narrative portrait was analysed across the time zones of ‘past life’, ‘present life’, and ‘future life’; secondly, thematic analysis was horizontally conducted across the narrative portraits identifying the similarities and differences between the participants, extending the specific experiences discussed by the participants into generalised themes; and thirdly, the vertical analysis of portraiture was re-invoked in greater depth, examining how the different theoretical dimensions of narrative identity identified, coalesce in one case history. The first level of analysis focused specifically on the imagoes, or personified concepts of the self, identified within the narrative portraits of three participants. It was found that these imagoes had significant effects on the identity construction of these young people, specifically on those whose parents had died. In the second phase of analysis three different dimensions of, or ways of thinking about, narrative identity were distinguished: relationality and the sense of belonging or alienation experienced by the participants in their interaction with others; the consolidation of life stories at adolescence and the participants’ social positioning within the systems of structural identity markers of race, class, gender and sexuality; and lastly the participants’ hopes and dreams, their narrative imaginations and future-orientated lives. In the third level of analysis, one participant’s narrative was selected to illustrate the theoretical concepts that underpin the construction of narrative identity, particularly constructionist intersectionality (Prins, 2006) and cultural creolisation (Glissant, 1989). These young people’s narratives indicate a patent tension between their lives to date, the histories of their families marked by insecurity and feelings of being unsafe as the effects of racism, disease and poverty, and their future imagined lives characterised by the promise of freedom and agency, education, employment and health. Through listening to and analysing these young people’s past, present and future stories, this study gained an insight into the ambivalence that exists in their lives, the contradictions they face between their moments of belonging and their moments of alienation, and how all these experiences inform and contribute to their identity constructions. / MT2017