Racism - As State-sponsored Activity

As State-sponsored Activity

State racism—that is, institutions and practices of a nation-state that are grounded in racist ideology—has played a major role in all instances of settler colonialism, from the United States to Australia to Israel. It also played a prominent role in the Nazi German regime and fascist regimes in Europe, and in the first part of Japan’s Shōwa period. These governments advocated and implemented policies that were racist, xenophobic and, in case of Nazism, genocidal. The politics of Zimbabwe promote discrimination against whites, in an effort to ethnically cleanse the country.

Legislative state racism is known to have been enforced by the National Party of South Africa during their Apartheid regime between 1948 and 1994. Here a series of Apartheid legislation in South Africa was passed through the legal systems to make it legal for white South Africans to have rights which were superior to those of non-white South Africans. Non-white South Africans were not allowed involvement in any governing matters, including voting; access to quality healthcare; the provision of basic services, including clean water; electricity; as well as access to adequate schooling. Non-white South Africans were also prevented from accessing certain public areas, using certain public transportation and were required to live only in certain designated areas. Non-white South Africans were taxed differently from white South Africans and were required to carry on them at all times additional documentation, which later became known as “dom passes”, to certify their non-white South African citizenship. All of these legislative racial laws were abolished through a series of equal human rights laws passed at the end of Apartheid in the early 1990s.

State racism contributed as well to the formation of the Dominican Republic's identity and violent actions encouraged by Dominican governmental xenophobia against Haitians and "Haitian looking" people. Currently the Dominican Republic employs a de facto system of separatism for children and grandchildren of Haitians and black Dominicans, denying them birth certificates, education and access to health care.