Words of hate: The language of racial discrimination laws

Derived from the Afrikaans language, which has developed from Dutch and is also called Cape Dutch or Taal, it means ‘separateness’ or ‘apartness’ and referred to a set of laws that stemmed from a policy of economic and political discrimination against the non-white citizens of South Africa, including Bantu (all black Africans), Coloured (of mixed race) and Asians (Indians and Pakistanis), as well as their physical segregation.

The word entered the lexicon after the National Party came to power in 1948 and began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation. The policies which dictated physical and political separation of the racial groups were called ‘Grand apartheid’ and the ones which segregated South Africans in daily activities, like transportation, recreation and dining out, were called ‘Petty apartheid’.

Following worldwide condemnation and sanctions, the laws were repealed under a new constitution, jointly worked out by President FW de Klerk and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela in 1993. A year later, the latter would become the first black president of the country.

‘Separate development’, which became popular around the mid-1950s, was originally used in South Africa as an English synonym for apartheid. It implies systematic development and regulation of a group or race by itself independently of other groups or races in a society.

In the United States, the end of the Civil War was expected to put an end to the slavery of African-Americans. But once reconstruction ended and federal troops were withdrawn in 1877, the southern states, aided by a conservative Supreme Court, began putting in place a slew of segregationist laws that came to be known as Jim Crow laws. The name came from a minstrel show song, Jump Jim Crow. (Also called minstrelsy, minstrel show was a form of American theatre in the 19th century in which parts were played by white men with their faces painted black. They mocked the dance and songs of the African-Americans. Minstrels were travelling musicians).

The laws were an official effort to keep African-Americans separate from whites in the southern US states. Each state had its own set of Jim Crow laws which limited freedom and opportunity for the blacks. The laws remained in force from the late 1870s until the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. The landmark US Supreme Court order in Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka (1954) that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional was the beginning of the end to the Jim Crow laws. Topeka is the capital city of Kansas.

Ghetto traces its genesis to medieval times when Jewish communities in European cities were compelled by law to live in small walled districts into which they were locked at night. In Italian cities such as Venice and Rome, these districts were called ghettos. Gradually, the word came to be used to mean Jewish quarter of a city with or without walls and restrictions. In modern usage, the word has been extended to mean a ‘slum district in a modern city chiefly inhabited by people of minority race or culture.

The verb ghettoise means to restrict members of a community in an isolated area. Ghettoisation is the process that leads to such a situation, which may also be a voluntary act when fear and hostility may compel a community to group together as they feel more secure living among their own.

Coming back to apartheid, it is interesting to look at its construction. A tri-syllabic word, the first two syllables are pronounced ‘apart’ and the last as ‘hate’. The sound is the sense!

Wordly Wise is a weekly column by Amitabh Ranjan published every Saturday in the Explained section. Please tweet your feedback to @ieexplained