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Contact Theory: Racial Segregation In South Africa

1721 Words7 Pages

South Africa is a country with a long history of racial segregation legalized in the apartheid system. Since 1994 desegregation has been officially outlawed in the country however inter-racial coexistence is still an issue of much debate. This paper will seek to explore racial prejudice in South Africa through the lens of contact theory. Contact theory will first be outlined and the conditions of the theory discussed. A critique of the theory in terms of the optimal contact strategy will also be offered and additional criticisms of the approach given. Through these discussions the paper will reflect on how the prejudice that exists between different racial groups maintains racial segregation in a country where interracial co-exists.

Contact theory is social psychological theory based on Gordon Allport’s “Prejudice Problematic”. Prejudice, according to Allport (1954) is routed in misperceptions held by dominant social groups regarding subordinate social groups (Erasmus, 2010). Therefore contact theory proposes that bringing such groups into contact with each other, allows group members to correct negative mental states regarding out groups and pre conceived notions about such social groups (Erasmus, 2010). Allport’s contact hypothesis is founded on four basic conditions …show more content…

According to Brown&Turner (1981, p61 as cited in Dixon, Durrheim & Tredoux, 2005), a lack of contact could be an indicator of prejudice rather than being a contributing factor that causes prejudice to occur. Therefore contact theory is criticized, as it does not take into account that there could be reasons that are unrelated to the frequency of interactions between individuals that cause prejudice; in other words there could possibly be factors that are not being taken into account (Dixon, Durrheim & Tredoux,

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