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Prejudice, Discrimination, and Antagonism; they are acts of superiority
against someone that are seen as insignificant, and those are the main
principles of Racism. The history and the present world has continuous conflicts
that arise to become one of the biggest problems why world peace is still not
met by any intergovernmental organisations. Racism is a principle that became
a foundation of these conflicts. These kinds of phenomena are empowered
from hatred and hostility. The ideology of exclusivity has caused races to
separate themselves linked to any individual’s inherited physical traits and traits
of personality, intellect, morality, and other cultural and behavioral features;
and that some races are innately superior and has more privileges than the
others.
In the past, history was surely twisted onto the favour of the white men
who were constantly discriminating against the ethnic minority. These Ethnic
Minorities were taken and stolen out of their rights of their basic needs:
Separation, Segregation, and Ostracization, were the constant activity done by
the supposed superior race and has gone to the extreme of making laws and
facilities to remove the demographic on Ethnic Minorities out of their sites. The
contact between the two races was severely judged and limited and almost all
opportunities of job and employment were taken away from the Ethnic minority.
The most prominent activity that happened was on South Africa and the African
people were the people who were greatly affected by the actions of racism by
the “Whites”. It was then the creation of ‘Apartheid’ became one of the biggest
catastrophe of racism and discrimination in the American and African
communities. Racial segregation and white supremacy had become central
aspects of South African policy, and the birth of Apartheid highlighted fear on
abuse and punishment by the whites and the irresponsible fear of the whites
that they would lose their job's because they became the smaller group in
numbers.
‘Apartheid' is a white government policy on the separation of the white
and the ethnic minority; changing and constructing separate facilities for the
respect of service -- mainly for the whites. The main reasons fall in the ideas of
racial superiority and instilling fear. Across the world, racism is influenced by the
idea that one race is superior to another. Such ideas are found in all population
groups. The other main reason for Apartheid was fear, as in South Africa the
white people became the minority simply because they are inside the African
nation and not entirely the American denomination, and many of the whites
were worried they would lose their jobs, culture, and language. Variety of
reasons can be given for Apartheid, although they are all closely linked.
Population Registration Act, 1950 was an Act in South Africa that
demanded that people be registered according to their racial and ethnic
group. This event meant that the Department of Home affairs would have a
record of people following whether they were white, coloured, black, Indian or
Asian. People would then be treated differently according to their population
group, and so this law formed because of Apartheid. It was however not always
that easy to decide what racial group a person was a part of, and this event
caused some problems. The provided framework for Apartheid by classifying the
population in 4 different categories: Bantu (black Africans), Coloured (mixed
race), Asian (meaning Indian and Pakistani), and white and this legislation
divided families; parents could be classified as white, while their children were
classified as colored.
The Apartheid laws were a complete act of superiority and racism
towards the black majority and the creation of Bantu Self-Government Act, 1959
This Act said that different racial groups had to live in different areas. Only a
small proportion of South Africa was given to offer for the black people (who
was comprised as the vast majority) to form their 'homelands'. This Act also got
rid of 'black spots' inside ‘white areas’, by moving away all the black people
out of their own houses in the city. The black majority could not own property in
South Africa, which was their own country and could only rent it, as the land
could only be white owned. This Act caused many struggles and resentment.
People lost their homes, were moved off the land they had owned for long
years and were moved to undeveloped areas far away from their place of
work. As well as the extreme prohibition on mixed marriages and mixed couples
that led to prejudice where the coloured partner were seen as abhorrent. The
creation of this was in full intent of enabled the government to claim there was
no black majority, and reduced the possibility that blacks would unify into one
nationalist organization.
Resistance to Apartheid within South Africa took many forms alike hunger
strikes and assassinations, in many cirlces over the years, it was from non-violent
demonstrations, protests and strikes to political action and successively to armed
resistance and coalitions. Organizations involved in the struggle for liberating for
freedom was the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan-Africanist
Congress (PAC) which were the forefront of the demonstration where inviting
arrest was an act of resistance and that they could not achieve their objectives
by peaceful means, and has made military units. Nelson Mandela, a founder of
Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), the military unit of the ANC, was
incarcerated from 1963 to 1990; his imprisonment would draw international
attention and help gather support for the social upheaval of the Anti-Apartheid
cause.
The protests strikes and government regression that happened,
integrated with an economic stagnation , drew more international attention to
South Africa and shattered all illusions that Apartheid had brought peace or
prosperity to the nation. The United Nations General Assembly gave
denunciation on the Apartheid in 1973, and in 1976, the UN Security Council
voted to impose a mandatory embargo on the sale of arms to South Africa. In
1985, the United Kingdom and the United States imposed economic sanctions
on the country. A new constitution, which empowered blacks and other racial
groups to take back their rightful places in the community, took effect in 1994,
and elections that year led to a coalition government with a non-white majority,
marked the official end of the Apartheid system.
The world surely has gone for the betterment from the realisation of the
past and that the actions today by the people are completely influenced by
the history that took place. As changing times where cultures crossover and
influence on another history revolved around ideas that was discriminating and
destructive in nature. Racism surely was one of the ugliest ideas in the world that
has spawned White Supremacy, Slavery, and Ethnic Ostracisations.
The radical changes improved the world but if the advice of sensitivity to
diversity of cultures and proper responsibility on different races no taken seriously
the perception and the lines of racism and culture will cross-over itself and will
put everything in shambles. A mesh of greed, hatred, and antagonism was the
main principles around racism and it will rise again if there was no cry for
change and equality. It is the most definite fact that freedom across cultures
must exist and respected. Everyone is deemed worthy of living and human rights
and that should be the international standard amongst everyone in the world.