On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we look at the ultimate in institutionalized racism, South Africa’s Apartheid. Apartheid literally means separateness, and it was a policy of social discrimination turned into pretty hardcore laws that stripped the rights away from black South Africans. Although the black population was almost 4 times larger than the white, after these laws were in place, the wealth and land was owned by whites in staggering proportions.

Apartheid formally started in 1950 when the Population Registration Act was passed. This law classified all citizens as white, black (Buntu), colored, or Asian. At this time, it also became illegal for whites and blacks to be married, and even mixed children (aka colored) would be forcibly taken away from parents to be raised by someone with the same muted skin color as them. (The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah talks about this in much of his stand-up act since he is one of the “colored” children who went through this.)

Other laws were passed that combined to make what was called The Grand Apartheid. Blacks were forced to move to ghettos called Bantustans and stripped of the right to vote in South African national politics. They had to carry passports everywhere. Much of their land was taken by the government and sold to white farmers for cheap. Those who resisted in public were arrested by the thousands or just plain shot by the police. Resistance leadership such as Nelson Mandela were arrested, many of them being beaten to death in prison.

So what finally made Apartheid come to an end in the 1990s? What was “Sun City,” and how did it bring together Bono, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, The Fat Boys, Run D.M.C., Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards, Hall and Oates, Ringo Starr, and Joey Ramone? How did the Soweto Protests lead to change and support by the United Nations? Since nobody in American every teaches this subject, how much did we get right? Listen, laugh, learn.

Sun City Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY3w9gLjEV4

David Goldblatt Photos: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/david-goldblatt-south-african-photographer-who-exposed-apartheid/news-story/d710b2d7194ae54aaa473c0c912b26d3