ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns fleshing out how subjects position themselves within the symbolic economy of the university and beyond, and shows how linguistic repertoires are accorded value through contests of symbolic power within particular fields. It focuses specifically on narratives from students who attend an historically white and English-speaking South African university in Johannesburg. The chapter looks at the position of 'authenticity' as it was spoken about in relation to blackness and language. It also looks at the position of 'ignorance', where whiteness was emblematic of a wilful ignorance of South Africa's multilingual reality and the position of 'accentedness'. This position refers to the variability of linguistic repertoires within the symbolic economy that highlighted the ideological instability of racial signifiers as experienced through language. The chapter briefly introduces Wits, the university where the study took place, and the participants who took part in the study.
