Racial Institutionalization

Race and racism may have changed tremendously over historical time, moving from slavery to freedom, and from empire to post-colonialism, but the concept of race and phenotypical differences remained embedded in society and in the minds of people throughout different countries. The racial classification and racial hierarchization of the world was a deeply established sociohistorical fact (Winant 135). The post-world war II break brought to light the long gestation of racial tensions that had accumulated in the modern world over centuries, and made it clear that a social and political change must occur. The process of slow institutional change but no social changes is evident in the United States, South Africa, and Brazil. In the beginning, the dehumanizing and criminalization of blacks throughout history has crippled them socioeconomically and were reinforced by many policies from the governments. These post-colonial countries’ governments transitioned from black suppression from slavery to black suppression in a political sense. The destruction of the worldwide System of
New means of exploitation had to be established, especially in the colonies (South Africa) and agricultural hinterlands that had previously depended on slavery (Winant 93). With the implementation of the 1913 Natives Land Act, the government prohibited Native Africans to own land, a form of wealth, which crippled the African population economically and socially because although they were granted their freedom, they were not fully granted equality. The Native Land Act of 1913 sought to eliminate the native subsistence farming forcing them to rely on wage labor for survival (Winant 98). Similar to the land ownership issue in the United States, black South Africans were denied the opportunity to own land which would disadvantage the black population tremendously for years to