An investigation into racism amongst students at the University of Zululand

The study investigated racism amongst students at the University of Zululand. The history of racism in South Africa was briefly described to contextualize the stereotypes and discourses that are found in contemporary. This study was deemed relevant and pertinent due to the increasing reports of racist attacks and xenophobia at tertiary institutions and in the workplace in South Africa. The study assumptions were that racism exists amongst students at the University of Zululand (UniZul.); male students will be less positive toward other race groups and that female students will be more positive toward other race groups. Questionnaires adopted from Durrheim (2007) were utilised for data collection as they seek to identify stereotypes that students have about other ethnic groups. Discourse analysis was used to unpack the underlying discourses from the qualitative responses given by participants. These discourses were related to the prevailing paradigm at the time which was more patriarchal and oppressive. Data from the quantitative questions was analysed using descriptive statistics and an independent T test. There were various stereotypes discussed by the respondents indicating that racism does exist amongst students at UniZul. The results also indicate that female respondents are generally not more positive towards other groups than male respondents. However, male respondents did show some negativity toward the Coloured group.

Author dc:creator

• Tebele, Cebile

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Nel, K.A.
• Vezi, M.F.

• Racism -- University of Zululand
• Xenophobia

Licence

• https://devspace.unizulu.ac.za/bitstreams/d2d123d8-cf66-4b5e-97fa-d2bf5bb2f71a/download