This article presents classroom-based research conducted in a first-year undergraduate English and Cultural Studies course at an historically 'white' and Afrikaans university in South Africa. I document my attempt to address issues of social inequality, especially racism and the apartheid past, in a South African literature course. Drawing on poststructuralist identity theory, I explore the students' difficulties in dealing with the apartheid past, arguing that their racialised identities are central to understanding their (in)ability to engage with the course.