Race Talk In The South African Media

This book makes a very significant, timely and relevant contribution to a very topical subject of immense local as well as global interest. Through tracing the evolution of media discourse about race and racism, which the author prefers to call ‘race talk’, the writer prised open a window to a panoramic, variegated and yet nuanced perspective of the perennial South African race question etched across the vistas of time and memory since Jan Van Riebeeck set up the first European settlement as a refreshment station for the Dutch East India Company, at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 up to the time of writing this book. It lends a fresh lens through which to re-read South African society, not only to a studious scholar of media history but also to anybody interested in the general history of South Africa. - Dr Zvenyika Mugari, WITS This book is based on meticulous archival searching, presented in a new, fresh and highly engaging way. This is a book based on evidentiary-led scholarly principles that has lucidity as a goal. Unlike so many scholarly works which are turgid and very difficult to read because they are written in restricted codes meant only for other academics, this manuscript is wonderfully lucid, accessible and a pleasure to read. The prime readership will be academics but its lucidity makes it appealing beyond a purely academic readership, hopefully reaching media professionals and students also and influencing debates on race policy. This is how academic books, in fact, should be written. - Prof Keyan Tomaselli, University of Johannesburg The author has embarked on a very difficult and complex task of understanding the race construct in the South African media context. This is a highly contested and contentious space in South Africa and it is particularly arduous for a “white, middle-class, middle-aged, Afrikaans male” to navigate this space. The author has however eloquently managed to pilot this fine line of controversy. He offers a balanced view of the belligerent debate without treading insensitively on the toes of protagonists and at the same time challenges prevailing views. - André Rose, National Cancer Institute

The author interviews some South Africans of different hues, about the idea of race, what it has meant to them and how they envision a future South Africa, steeped as the country and its people are in a highly charged and often unacknowledged world of racial sensitivity. Amongst the interviewees are Naledi Pandor, Minister of Education; Wilmot James, executive director of the African Genome Education Institute; Rhoda Kadalie, journalist and human rights activist; Melanie Verwoerd, former South African ambassador to Ireland; Phatekile Holomisa, president of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa); and Carel Boshoff, the founder of Orania, an Afrikaner homeland established in 1991 in the Northern Cape.

Paradise Lost. Race and Racism in Post-apartheid South Africa is about the continuing salience of race and persistence of racism in post-apartheid South Africa.

'Every voice raised against racism chips away at its power. We can't afford to stay silent. This book is an attempt to speak' The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today. THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION NARRATIVE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR BLACKWELL'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE JHALAK PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR A BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD

This book draws on the South African experience to develop a theory of race trouble with the central observation that transformation in South Africa has reshaped patterns and practices of encounter and exchange between historically defined race groups. Race continues to feature prominently in these new forms of social interaction and, by participating in them, South Africans are cast once again as racial subjects - advantaged or disadvantaged, included or excluded, colonizers or colonized.