“When I talk about the end of apartheid, I prefer not to claim the honor that I have ended it.”
–F. W. de Klerk
On 2nd February 1990, perhaps the most institutionalised version of racism ended: The Apartheid in South Africa. President De Klerk finally lifted the ban on anti-apartheid political parties in South Africa, including the African National Congress whose leader was none other than Nelson Mandela. In this contemporary time, with the resurgence of authoritative and racial right wing sentiments internationally – there is a need to be cognisant of what this day represented. It represented a group of rebels standing for equality, in spite of all odds being against them – the military, courts and even the police. With this context in mind, it needs to be realised that the Apartheid was a theoretical cum practical extreme; however it needs to be an incessant reminder. No regime should become desensitised to the needs and rights of all the polity’s members, to the extent they start carrying out legalised racism.