Systems of racial segregation arose in both the United States and South Africa in the nineteenth century. As noted by Kevin Reilly, South Africa and North America were settled by Europeans in the seventeenth century (182). In both locations, African slaves were used to carry out manual labor. In the U.S., the slaves were imported from Africa. Slavery was abolished by the United Kingdom in 1833. This resulted in the institution being banned in South Africa, which was a part of the United Kingdom at the time. Slavery was abolished in the United States in 1863, during the time of the Civil War. However, despite the abolition of slavery in South Africa and the United States, racial segregation continued to exist in both places throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century.
The main reason for this practice is described by Joe Kovel, author of White Racism: A Psychohistory. As reported by Reilly, Kovel argues that there are two kinds of racism. The first kind, dominative racism, is the kind that exists under slavery. With dominative racism, segregation is legal and openly accepted (Reilly 189). The second kind of racism, aversive racism, is what occurs when slavery has been abolished but the members of the dominant race continue to seek physical distance from the former slaves (Reilly 189). Aversive racism existed in the United States and South Africa following the abolition of slavery. In the U.S., "Jim Crow" laws maintained racial segregation in the South until it was outlawed by a Supreme Court decision in 1954 (Reilly 189). In South Africa, racial segregation reached its height during the period of apartheid, which lasted from 1948 to 1994.
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