In post-apartheid South Africa, a gap exists between higher education transformation policies and practice. In this study, I investigated two related factors, namely the understanding and use of non-racialism and the roles of white students in racial transformation. This research was conducted within a framework provided by Critical Race Theory and whiteness studies, which views "race" as socially constructed but structurally salient in systems that privilege whiteness by rendering it invisible to white groups. This qualitative study aimed to investigate the ways in which white students talk about transformation and "race" at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and what role these discourses play in opposing or facilitating transformation. Four focus groups were conducted with 27 white UCT students from different programmes of study. Data analysis was guided by Willig's (2008) framework for Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. Three discursive sets of Rational Control, Defensive Rainbowism and Conscious Allyship were identified according to how broader discourses drawn on by participants in constructing "race" and transformation positioned white students differently in practice and subjectivity. The study indicated that there are differences in participants' willingness for transformation and their involvement therein that can be traced back to the ways in which they understand and experience aspects of life in post-apartheid South Africa. These findings contribute to critical whiteness literature by suggesting that white students' consciousness of white privilege is related to their acceptance of meaningful higher education transformation roles.
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