I've seen quite a few posts regarding Jim Crow laws and the like and I thought I might get some insight on this matter.
I am a white Afrikaans speaking South African, who was born and spent my first years living in Apartheid South Africa and I was wondering how it compared to life in the Old South before the Civil Rights movement.
A quick summary: Apartheid (which means segregation or separation in Afrikaans) was a system where we divided everyone into racial groups of white, black, coloured (mixed) or indian. They were then each allocated areas in which they lived and were then not allowed to enter the other races' areas without permission. The different black tribes were given 'homelands' which they ruled semi-autonomously which were then used to exclude citizenship and settlement rights to the black population in the rest of the country, as they were considered inhabitants of their homeland regardless where they lived. The non-whites were given passbooks to keep track of them if they entered white areas and as 93% of the country (excluding the homelands) was allocated to the whites, they never needed nor had passbooks.
Non-whites who worked in white areas then always needed permission to enter them and had completely separate amenities from the whites, also separate beaches, hospitals etc. Some areas two identical hospitals were built next to each other, one for whites and one for the rest (Notably Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town).
In all towns there were white or coloured or black or indian areas in which the other races were excluded. When Apartheid was enforced, this involved clearing people out of mixed-race neighbourhoods to make them have only one race (most notoriously District 6 in Cape Town).
Racial miscegenation was banned, meaning theoretically no one could marry or date someone of another race although in practice only in regard to whites versus the others was it enforced.
As most of the country was allocated to the white population (who comprised about 10% of the population) they had historic and practical control of all wealth and power. The other groups essentially acted as labour for the whites. They did not exclude teaching to the other races as they had their own separate universities and schools (for instance Mandela had studied to become a lawyer), but when they graduated they could only be employed amongst their own people, so could never rise much above their station of birth. Non-white doctors or lawyers were essentially employed only in their neighbourhoods which were by nature poor.
All government affairs and teaching was done in Afrikaans or English which only about 23% of the population could understand and all schooling was effectively only in those languages. (Today it is essentially the same except that there is less Afrikaans and a minute smattering of the other 9 official languages)
Obviously there was resistance to this regime from certain quarters which resulted in police raids on townships, arrests of 'troublemakers' and police brutality that sometimes occurred. In turn there were bombings and terrorist attacks carried out by some of the anti-apartheid movements. The US largely turned a blind eye to this until about the mid-80s as South Africa was an anti-communist ally and only then did judicious use of sanctions force the peaceful dismantling of Apartheid in 1990 and the release of Mandela as peacemaker in spite of his militant roots (similar to Malcolm X, I think?).
Sometimes the racial classification was quite bizarre as three brothers might be classed white, coloured or black respectively when it was first implemented, but it was cemented as fixed thereafter. Also, as South Africa did a lot of business with Japan and Taiwan, Japanese and Taiwanese were classed as white and all other East Asians as black.
I would like to know how this agrees with or contrasts to the system of Jim Crow laws and Racial Segregation in the old South. Were the two systems similar or is there some radical difference?
I am a white Afrikaans speaking South African, who was born and spent my first years living in Apartheid South Africa and I was wondering how it compared to life in the Old South before the Civil Rights movement.
A quick summary: Apartheid (which means segregation or separation in Afrikaans) was a system where we divided everyone into racial groups of white, black, coloured (mixed) or indian. They were then each allocated areas in which they lived and were then not allowed to enter the other races' areas without permission. The different black tribes were given 'homelands' which they ruled semi-autonomously which were then used to exclude citizenship and settlement rights to the black population in the rest of the country, as they were considered inhabitants of their homeland regardless where they lived. The non-whites were given passbooks to keep track of them if they entered white areas and as 93% of the country (excluding the homelands) was allocated to the whites, they never needed nor had passbooks.
Non-whites who worked in white areas then always needed permission to enter them and had completely separate amenities from the whites, also separate beaches, hospitals etc. Some areas two identical hospitals were built next to each other, one for whites and one for the rest (Notably Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town).
In all towns there were white or coloured or black or indian areas in which the other races were excluded. When Apartheid was enforced, this involved clearing people out of mixed-race neighbourhoods to make them have only one race (most notoriously District 6 in Cape Town).
Racial miscegenation was banned, meaning theoretically no one could marry or date someone of another race although in practice only in regard to whites versus the others was it enforced.
As most of the country was allocated to the white population (who comprised about 10% of the population) they had historic and practical control of all wealth and power. The other groups essentially acted as labour for the whites. They did not exclude teaching to the other races as they had their own separate universities and schools (for instance Mandela had studied to become a lawyer), but when they graduated they could only be employed amongst their own people, so could never rise much above their station of birth. Non-white doctors or lawyers were essentially employed only in their neighbourhoods which were by nature poor.
All government affairs and teaching was done in Afrikaans or English which only about 23% of the population could understand and all schooling was effectively only in those languages. (Today it is essentially the same except that there is less Afrikaans and a minute smattering of the other 9 official languages)
Obviously there was resistance to this regime from certain quarters which resulted in police raids on townships, arrests of 'troublemakers' and police brutality that sometimes occurred. In turn there were bombings and terrorist attacks carried out by some of the anti-apartheid movements. The US largely turned a blind eye to this until about the mid-80s as South Africa was an anti-communist ally and only then did judicious use of sanctions force the peaceful dismantling of Apartheid in 1990 and the release of Mandela as peacemaker in spite of his militant roots (similar to Malcolm X, I think?).
Sometimes the racial classification was quite bizarre as three brothers might be classed white, coloured or black respectively when it was first implemented, but it was cemented as fixed thereafter. Also, as South Africa did a lot of business with Japan and Taiwan, Japanese and Taiwanese were classed as white and all other East Asians as black.
I would like to know how this agrees with or contrasts to the system of Jim Crow laws and Racial Segregation in the old South. Were the two systems similar or is there some radical difference?
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