Social apartheid

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Social apartheid refers to de facto segregation on the basis of class or economic status in which an underclass develops which is separated from the rest of the population.[1]

Contents

[edit] Latin America

See also: Social apartheid in Brazil

The term has become common in Latin America in particular in societies where the polarization between rich and poor has become pronounced and has been identified in public policy as a problem that needs to be overcome, such as in Venezuela where the supporters of Hugo Chavez identify social apartheid as a reality which the wealthy try to maintain[2] and Brazil, where the term was coined to describe a situation where wealthy neighbourhoods are protected from the general population by walls, electric barbed wire and private security guards[3] and where inhabitants of the poor slums are subjected to violence.[4]

[edit] Europe

The term social apartheid has also been used to explain and describe the ghettoization of Muslim immigrants to Europe in impoverished suburbs[5] and as a cause of rioting and other violence. In the past, some scholars named the German Empire an "apartheid state" following World War I, due to openly supported racial discrimination of non-Germans.[6]

[edit] South Africa

In South Africa, the term "social apartheid" has been used to describe persistent post-apartheid forms of exclusion and de facto segregation which exist based on class but which have a racial component because the poor are almost entirely Black Africans.[7][8] "Social apartheid" has been cited as a factor in the composition of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.[9]

[edit] Urban apartheid

In the context of apartheid in South Africa, urban apartheid was a component of the apartheid system and referred to "the spatial separation of the four racial groups according to the Population Registration Act of 1950 into group areas according to the Group Areas Act of 1950."[10]

Outside of South Africa, the term "urban apartheid" has also come to refer to ghettoization of minority populations in cities within particular suburbs or neighbourhoods. The term has been used in France to describe the situation of largely impoverished Muslim immigrants being concentrated in particular suburban housing projects and being provided with an inferior standard of infrastructure and social services.[11]. The issue of Urban apartheid in France was highlighted in the aftermath of the 2005 civil unrest in France.[12].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Charles Murray. The advantages of social apartheid. US experience shows Britain what to do with its underclass – get it off the streets. The Sunday Times. April 3, 2005.
  2. ^ Paul-Emile Dupret. Help Venezuela Break Down Social Apartheid. Le Soir. Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004.
  3. ^ Michael Lowy. The Long March of Brazil's Labor Party. Brazil: A Country Marked by Social Apartheid. Logos, vol.2 no.2, Spring 2003
  4. ^ Emilia R. Pfannl. The Other War Zone: Poverty and Violence in the Slums of Brazil. Damocles (Harvard Graduate School of Education), April 5, 2004 Edition.
  5. ^ Michel Collon. Racism and Social Apartheid. French Suburbs: 10 Questions. Global Research, November 22, 2005.
  6. ^ Martin Kitchen, A History of Modern Germany, 1800-2000 Blackwell Publishing 2006, page 130
  7. ^ Kate Stanley. Call of the conscience; As circumstances focus Western eyes on Africa, American visitors find the place less a mystery than they expected. Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), October 1, 2000.
  8. ^ Andrew Kopkind. A reporter's notebook; facing South Africa. The Nation: November 22, 1986.
  9. ^ Rochelle R. Davidson. HIV/AIDS in South Africa: A Rhetorical and Social Apartheid. Villanova University (2004).
  10. ^ South Africa Glossary, impulscentrum.be
  11. ^ Urban apartheid in France, mondediplo.com
  12. ^ Civil Unrest in France, riotsfrance.ssrc.org

[edit] See also