What Are The Causes Of Xenophobia In South Africa

As a result of racial segregation in both the United States and South Africa, the coloured people’s resistance escalated. In truth, this time of division strengthened nationalism – their weapon that “[transformed their] common suffering into hope for the future” (Mandela, Notes to the Future 2012, 84). Moreover, the American Jim Crow Laws and South African apartheid led to discrimination, activism, reform and most importantly reconciliation.

Caliendo and Mcllwain (2011) have suggested that the historical claims of white supremacy within nations such as the UK and South Africa, has created racial conflicts and segregation between ethnic communities. Relating back to Weber’s example of the caste system, the “authentically white” (Caliendo and Mcllwain, 2011:22) communities are dominant and control the minority communities. Caliendo and Mcllwain (2011) argue that the “authentically white” have increased wealth and status, which they use to create boundaries and exclude the ethnic groups within the community. An example of this would be the issue of Apartheid in South Africa throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Apartheid can be defined by the New Oxford English Dictionary (1998) as “a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on the grounds of race” (Guelke, 2005:61). Throughout the period Guelke (2005) discussed the fact that the minority white communities within South Africa ruled over the black majority, living “a lifestyle with a standard of living matching the very richest countries in the world” (Guelke, 2001:1-2), whilst the black communities lived in extreme poverty. Linking back to the system of monopolistic social closure, the white population viewed themselves as the elite members of society, and via legislation such as the native policy, used their power to justify the exploitation and segregation of the black South African

As a result of racial segregation, resistance from coloured people in both the United States and South Africa escalated. Furthermore, the history of the African civil rights movement validated: “Nationalism has been tested in the people’s struggles . . . and [proved to be] the only antidote against foreign rule and modern imperialism” (Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom 2008, 156) . By comparing and contrasting the American Jim Crow Laws and South African apartheid, we have evidence that both nations’ constitutions led to discrimination, activism, reform and reconciliation.

The themes of fear, racist social structures and scapegoating are indeed applicable to the wider society of the real world, with another infamous example of social structures promoting racial discrimination and apartheid being the Jim Crow Laws, which were enforced from 1877 to the 1950s. Unfortunately, many people are too conservative and stubborn to look beyond their beliefs, take on a different point of view and put their differences aside to understand one another, which ultimately leads to discrimination against one another. The effect of this is emphasized when people are too afraid to speak out in fear of being punished, as it only allows those who are advocating and participating in racist behaviours are allowed to do so without suffering consequences and fully realizing the implications of their

We commence by examining South-African apartheid and its historical and theoretical context. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation used in the overtly racist regime in South Africa from 1948 to 1991. It was based on laws that banned “marriage and sexual relations between different “population groups” and requir[ed] separate residential areas for people of mixed race (“Coloreds”), as well as for Africans” (Fredrickson 3). These laws were based on the same obsession with “race purity” that characterized other racist regimes, most notably Jim Crow America and Nazi Germany. The system was justified in terms of “cultural essentialism” and “seperate development”. Cultural essentialism means that each culture has inherent features that differentiate the members of this cultural group from others. The concept of separate development

The convergence of racial unity and inroads towards the non-classification of race has been compromised by the accumulation of rights, privileges, and perceptions of the “whites”, and the life experiences, inequalities and societal impediments of the ‘non-white”. These experiences represent an overarching inability to forge ahead without cognizant realizations of past injustices and reparation for past aggressions. Noting the attempts at racial reunification in South Africa and the redress of exclusionary policies existing within the

Racial prejudice and nativism are still social issues that define our present reality and affect us all. Everyday, immigrants in America find themselves victims of hate crimes like genocide because of their race and ethnicity (Wong 2). Genocide, “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group,” shows itself in racial crimes

Hate crimes are a geographical problem and humans right challenge where varies of theories and officials address to change individual formulating methods of improvement on violators. The label of hate crime existed for centuries of inappropriate human behavior violating humanity such as violent acts historically and internationally. Across the global varies of countries view hate crimes on a balance of series of bias hurt either physically or verbally some don’t even acknowledge hate crime verbally and legislation process prosecuting violators tend to be practiced differently. In this paper the scope of how governments in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, and Antisemitism define their methods amongst hate crime tracking, legislation, attacks, and protected groups.

South Africa has a history of legal segregation (Apartheid) which stems from prejudice, discrimination and anxiety with regards to intergroup contact. However, after 1994, when South Africa was declared a democracy, segregation was declared illegal and the society became racially mixed. Nevertheless, segregation still seems to be a contemporary phenomenon, though not legally enforced. In this essay I will explore Contact Theory as a way of reducing prejudice and intergroup anxiety; I will also discuss segregation and desegregation within the context of South Africa and our history and comment on whether inter-racial co-existence can be considered as the successful desegregation of South Africa. Lastly, I will also look at contact as a viable solution to segregation that is still taking place within our society.

For years, South Africa’s Afrikaner Nationalist Party was conducting all types of racial attacks that were raising ethical issues. Along with the South African government, they reshaped racial laws and regulations, continuing with violence against blacks. Nonwhites outnumbered whites by about 5 to 1. Violence consisted of the Sharpeville massacre, the Soweto Street death demonstration, and the death of black leader who was in police custody. Through such acts, South Africa’s direct investment rose dramatically.

First, in “Cry, the Beloved Country”, racism is seen in many different ways, but one example is through political power. The white community is the leading group in South Africa’s government, so they have the ability to write laws and marginalize the black community. Because of this, blacks are treated unfairly, forced to follow unjust laws, and targeted by police. This all started when the white men colonized the country and took over without regards to the black’s way of life. “It suited the white man to break the tribe, [Msimangu] continues gravely. But it has not suited him

In the course of the first half of 1900s, racism was mutual in many countries. South Africa was not the only country with laws that enforce racial segregation. As the novel “Cry the beloved Country” discussed in Book I during Absalom's trial, the white people felt threatened by other races in the country. Finally they passed laws that physically separate them from different people. For example in United States during 1940s, there were laws that separated African-Americans, Japanese-Americans, and Latino-Americans from the rest of the country.

By not sacrificing power, the whites are bringing this fear upon themselves. “And our lives will shrink, but they shall be the lives of superior beings; and we shall live with fear, but at least it will not be a fear of the unknown.”(Pg. 79) The question is: how long can this unstable and superficial lifestyle endure before the dawn of a new equity? Future generations will have to deal with these issues which are left unsolved by a power hungry nation. And if problems are left unsettled for too long, hatred may establish a permanent residence in South Africa.

Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities

Xenophobia has made itself known over the last few years and has become quite a problematic factor in South Africa’s society today. South Africa is far from the perfect country we wish it to be, we have problems all over that many of us do not think relate to