BOOK REVIEW: Can We Unlearn Racism? What South Africa Teaches Us About Whiteness

Abstract

An outstanding work of rigorous, original interdisciplinary scholarship, Can We Unlearn Racism will be of interest to, and merits the attention of, a wide cross-section of scholars—from sociologists, political scientists, and historians, to anthropologists and scholars of communication and African Studies. Its analysis of communication and discourse is particularly compelling and extremely astute and revealing of deep, complex, and nuanced social attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and emotions. Although clearly oriented as a work of sociology, social psychologists will find much of interest here, and Boersema’s (2022) analysis of emotions—individual and collective—and how they inform Afrikaaner identity and white supremacy are another unique and particularly well-executed feature of the book. Its broad reach and the relevance of its scholarship to so many different fields is one of the book’s most notable strengths and exceptional qualities that makes it stand out in the field of African Studies. Boersema is a keen observer of South Africa and South Africans with extensive knowledge based on long-term field work that took place over many years and multiple trips. His knowledge is grounded in substantive and serious engagement that informs formidable scholarship. Written with insight, clarity, and verve, this is a work of genuinely innovative scholarship that contributes substantially and consequently to understanding South Africa’s history and contemporary social reality and is one of the most important works of scholarship on South Africa in recent years. It illustrates with lucid analysis the tenacity of racism, its malleability and adaptability, and the ways in which culture and discourse recreate racism in new forms, defend and justify it, and do so often through the strategic and manipulative use of anti-racist discourse and