1 ‘They all speak your language anyway . . .’: Language and racism in a South African school Desmond Painter* and Robyn Baldwin Department of Psychology, Rhodes University, PO Box 94, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa e-mail: D.Painter@ru.ac.za This article reports a rhetorical discourse analysis of learner perspectives on language diversity in a contemporary South African high school. Based on four group discussions with Grade 12 isiXhosa, Afrikaans and English-speaking learners, the analysis traces two interrelated clusters of argument. In the first, a liberal discourse of individual freedom and human rights is mobilised to argue against a language order where languages are made compulsory, or forced upon people. We show that this argument was employed inconsis- tently: it only extended to languages other than English. To understand how this dilem- matic use of liberal ideas was justified, we trace a second line of argument. This is the construction of English as a universal language and, consequently as neutral, necessary and unifying; a language of ‘rational choice’ for all South Africans. Based on these argu- ments, language diversity – or the formal recognition and empowerment of languages other than English – was problematised as both violating individual rights of choice and a public order characterised by the mutual and universal understanding afforded by the uni- versality of English. Supporting English-only practices in the school was thus presented as itself a liberal gesture, allowing not only the continued racialisation of isiXhosa, but also a rhetoric of racial blame: isiXhosa speakers, when they use their language in public, were blamed for instigating racial tension and misunderstanding in the school. * To whom correspondence should be addressed Racism remains a reality in the modern world, even in democratic societies where discrimination is illegal, human rights are entrenched, and racism is routinely cen- sured and denied. For this reason social scientists have had to expand their under- standing of the ‘codes and practices which sustain racism’ (Wetherell & Potter, 1992, p. 1) beyond accounts of biological differences and explicit racial hierarchies. Racial © Psychological Society of South Africa. All rights reserved. South African Journal of Psychology 2004, 34 (1), pp. 1–24. ISSN 0081-2463