Apartheid
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| − | {{Race}}{{cquote| | + | {{Race}}{{cquote|Apartheid is essential to the free world.|||[[Ronald Reagan]], freedom-fighter.<ref>[http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/mandela-s-gut-check-for-the-political-right-1.2459082 Can't make this stuff up.] (Also, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfK804n1D7M&feature=youtu.be&t=22s this video.])</ref>}} |
'''Apartheid''' was the codified system of [[white supremacy]] that was in effect in [[South Africa]] from 1948 to 1994. | '''Apartheid''' was the codified system of [[white supremacy]] that was in effect in [[South Africa]] from 1948 to 1994. | ||
Revision as of 07:44, 2 February 2014
| The touchy subject of |
| Key concepts |
| Racism and racists |
“”Apartheid is essential to the free world.
|
| —Ronald Reagan, freedom-fighter.[1] |
Apartheid was the codified system of white supremacy that was in effect in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.
Contents |
Its nature
While similar in spirit to laws that limited the rights of African-Americans until the passing of the Civil Rights Act, apartheid encompassed a far stricter set of rules; it denied non-whites any sort of participation in the democratic process, limited where people could work and live, and went so far as to prohibit sexual liaisons across racial lines. Essentially antebelleum America without the slavery.
Official South African government policy during this time was to racially classify the South African population into four groups: whites, "coloured" (i.e. those of mixed ancestry), Indian, and "Bantu" (a Bantu language word meaning "people," but in apartheid parlance meaning all blacks.) Only whites were allowed participation in South Africa's government, and the four groups were assigned separate neighbourhoods, beaches (and guess whose beaches got the shark nets), and so on. People had to have special permission or passes to enter areas assigned to another racial group, ie. to work there.
As blacks made up 3/4 of South Africa's population, starting in 1951 the government set aside Bantustans, or black homelands. Black people were then granted "citizenship" in their respective Bantustans, and their South African citizenship was revoked, as a way of codifying their lack of voting rights in South Africa. Indians and "coloured" were not assigned any homelands at all. Starting in the 1970s South Africa embarked on a policy which would grant national independence to the Bantustans, leaving the rest of South Africa sans the Bantustans for whites, who were only 10% of the population. They only got as far as declaring four of the Bantustans independent nations, none of which received any international recognition as such, before international pressure and tensions between the South African government and the four independent Bantustans (South Africa kept invading them to restore "order" after their governments had the nerve to actually act as independent nations instead of merely puppet governments) convinced them they really didn't want to continue to go down that route.
During most of the apartheid era, South Africa's neighbors included countries friendly to their apartheid policies such as Mozambique (then a colony of the right-wing Portugese regime), Rhodesia (also ruled by a white minority government), and South-West Africa (a protectorate of South Africa, now Namibia). However, by 1980 both Mozambique and Zimbabwe were independent, followed by Namibia in 1990, and South Africa found itself increasingly isolated and fighting its neighbors, now ruled by post-colonial (in many cases Communist) governments. International pressure to end apartheid became a major issue in the 1980s.
Jerry Falwell's good Christian response to apartheid, in 1985, was to declare Desmond Tutu a "phony," denounce the U.S. Congress' move to enact economic sanctions against South Africa, and encourage people to buy South African Krugerrand coins. This was in keeping with his earlier denunciations of the US Civil Rights movement (starting in the 1950s) and more liberal clergy who supported it (he did a quick about-face and recalled the newsletters in which he made these statements after the wind had firmly blown the other direction).
Apartheid ended in 1994 thanks in large part to black leaders like Tutu and Nelson Mandela, as well as President F.W. de Klerk[wp] realising that the whole situation was untenable.
See also
External links
- BBC's archive of South African apartheid
- Apartheid's Useful Idiots, The Atlantic
- District 9, Hollywood sci-fi's take on the townships.
Footnotes
- ↑ Can't make this stuff up. (Also, this video.)