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Racial Discrimination In South Africa

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Racial prejudice is a global issue that is not unique to South African’s (Tredoux & Dixon, 2009). Social scientists all over the world are busy trying to solve this issue as it serves to solve some of the greatest barriers to achieving equality and desegregation worldwide (Tredoux & Dixon, 2009). The apartheid laws that were in place before 1994 in South Africa ensured that people belonging to different racial groups were segregated socially and geographically (Durrheim & Dixon, 2010). The apartheid laws segregated individuals according to their racial identity and through oppressing those who did not identify as white, a hierarchy was created that is today represented by the socioeconomic differences that appear between each racial group (Durrheim …show more content…

The socioeconomic status of black, white and colored individuals in South Africa prevents contact between any members of a different racial group from being under the condition of “equal status” (Erasmus, 2010). It was noted in a study that there are a significant number of black individuals in Cape Town who remain segregated geographically and socially living in poverty (Durrheim & Dixon, 2010). Secondly results showed a significant imbalance in the number of people living in South Africa belonging to each racial group indicating that there is a greater chance of contact between non-white racial groups (Durrheim & Dixon, 2010). Post-apartheid studies on contact theory have indicated a positive outcome but it has been noted that black individuals are less likely reduce their prejudice towards white individuals during contact (Tredoux & Finchilescu, 2010). In the same study it was found that the quality of the contact between individuals need not be high but rather the frequency of the contact that provides a greater prejudice reduction in South African individuals (Tredoux & Finchilescu, 2010).Between the years of 2001 and 2004 there was an increase in the number of interracial friendships amongst university students however in a more fixed setting such as eating meals together in the food court , it was observed that racial groups would prefer to share meals with their own racial group (Gibson & Claassen, 2010) . Overall it was found that regardless of the frequency of contact between racial groups increasing since the apartheid , there is an overall increase in prejudice amongst black people however in South Africa there is an overall consensus in research that contact between these members generally does decrease prejudice (Gibson & Claassen,

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