“Race”, racism, and knowledge production in South African psychology: Implications for dealing with racism in contemporary South Africa

Scrutiny of the pervasive racism of South African psychology has constituted the focus of several publications in South Africa in recent years (Van Ommen, 2008). It is therefore perhaps not all that surprising that one is increasingly discerning a discourse in psychology circles that this focus is becoming somewhat overdone and “tired”. As an aside, this discourse is not too different from an increasingly strident discourse in broader South African society, which, very crudely articulated, states: “Apartheid is dead. Racism is therefore no longer a significant problem in South Africa.”