The most race-saturated society hosted an academy that neglected studying race itself.

Evidence

More recently, Jacques Derrida went so far as to treat apartheid as “the unique appellation for the ultimate racism in the world” (Derrida, 1985:330). It is highly paradoxical then, that for many scholars surveying the academic literature on apartheid, one of its biggest gaps is an engagement with the nature of race itself: “there must be very few places in the academic community which has actively neglected the study of race to the same extent as in South Africa” (Greenstein, 1996:5). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 547

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the vault claim that race studies were neglected where racialization was most pervasive — parallels With a Mission to Civilize’s observation that African customary law was studied without studying Africans. — connects to: South African academia neglected the study of race despite its omnipresence — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 547; Apartheid scholarship neglected race itself until recently, leaving whiteness and hidden transcripts unstudied. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 595; Academic study of race long ignored whiteness as an unexamined norm. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 643 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: Greenstein says South African academia neglected race theory itself while race saturated life — worth chasing why that paradox held (Marxist class-framing dominance? apartheid-era censorship?).

Broader Connections

• South African academia neglected the study of race despite its omnipresence #corroborates (0.95) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 547
• Apartheid scholarship neglected race itself until recently, leaving whiteness and hidden transcripts unstudied. #expands (0.88) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 595
• Academic study of race long ignored whiteness as an unexamined norm. #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 643
• Southern Africa produced little formal racial science before 1900 due to absent universities #qualifies (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1426