Topic: Contact theory:
South Africa is a context embedded with a history of segregation, separation and racial discrimination which were enforced by the Apartheid system. Therefore, it is only important that the current social psychologists are invested in finding ways to establish integration between Black and White people who were previously segregated, With the domination of Black people by White people. However, even though measures such as increased contact between races has been implemented in the post-Apartheid South Africa and has been recorded to be effective in reduction of prejudice and intergroup conflict(Pettigrew& Tropp, 2008), the paper argues that the mere expansion of contact …show more content…
As a result, this interaction gives them a sense of collective identity and for white students they gain an impression of ownership of space because it is common that they are the dominant groups in higher institutions and they are able to navigate these with ease compared to fellow Black people( Vincent, 2008). This is due to the fact that they receive enough preparations to handle higher institutions. Hence, they see no need to adjust their behaviours in any way to take into consideration the presence of the marginalized groups in their surroundings. As a result, there is a continuation of “substantive segregation in formally integrated settings” such as those mentioned above (Vincent, 2008, …show more content…
However, this paper has argued that the expansion of contact does not amount to greater racial integration, meaning that we cannot necessarily infer that inter-racial co-existence is equivalent to the greater achievement of desegregation. This is because as the paper has shown above there is a perpetuation of covert racism within this contact which continues to marginalize and subordinate Black people through various institutional practices and every day social activities. In addition, paper has explicitly supported its notion by applying various factors such as conceptualisation of the concept of desegregation, unequal power relation between group members, intergroup anxiety and the use of space because they play a significant role in mediating positive or negative contact. Furthermore, the paper suggest that more research should be done to evaluate the effect of negative contact and how to prevent this from
South Africa is a context embedded with a history of segregation, separation and racial discrimination which were enforced by the Apartheid system. Therefore, it is only important that the current social psychologists are invested in finding ways to establish integration between Black and White people who were previously segregated, With the domination of Black people by White people. However, even though measures such as increased contact between races has been implemented in the post-Apartheid South Africa and has been recorded to be effective in reduction of prejudice and intergroup conflict(Pettigrew& Tropp, 2008), the paper argues that the mere expansion of contact …show more content…
As a result, this interaction gives them a sense of collective identity and for white students they gain an impression of ownership of space because it is common that they are the dominant groups in higher institutions and they are able to navigate these with ease compared to fellow Black people( Vincent, 2008). This is due to the fact that they receive enough preparations to handle higher institutions. Hence, they see no need to adjust their behaviours in any way to take into consideration the presence of the marginalized groups in their surroundings. As a result, there is a continuation of “substantive segregation in formally integrated settings” such as those mentioned above (Vincent, 2008, …show more content…
However, this paper has argued that the expansion of contact does not amount to greater racial integration, meaning that we cannot necessarily infer that inter-racial co-existence is equivalent to the greater achievement of desegregation. This is because as the paper has shown above there is a perpetuation of covert racism within this contact which continues to marginalize and subordinate Black people through various institutional practices and every day social activities. In addition, paper has explicitly supported its notion by applying various factors such as conceptualisation of the concept of desegregation, unequal power relation between group members, intergroup anxiety and the use of space because they play a significant role in mediating positive or negative contact. Furthermore, the paper suggest that more research should be done to evaluate the effect of negative contact and how to prevent this from