Racial incorporation of immigrant identities has not been extensively theorized in communication. We theorize immigrant identity formation as translation between the cultural and political expressions of different racial regionalisms. As communication studies have begun to address the global dimensions of whiteness, there is a need to address particular cultural inflections that maintain its power. We situate a critical and postcolonial notion of translation within the framework of a discourse theory to explain how Polish immigrant identities are strategically articulated within the changing narratives of South African whiteness. The findings demonstrate that Polish immigrants negotiated their identity and belonging in postapartheid South Africa through strategies of exoneration to deny their implication in apartheid and its legacy. The analysis highlights particularized, contextual, and ongoing inflections of whiteness and argues for understanding racial incorporation of immigrant identity as an intercultural communication process. The paper develops the concepts of translation gap and anchoring to elucidate the discursive character of immigrant racial identity formation. © 2009 International Communication Association.

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racial identity Africa Sub-Saharan Africa theoretical study identity construction post-apartheid Communication South Africa Southern Africa European immigrant