What term best describes the system of apartheid?

The term that best describes the system of apartheid is segregation. Apartheid was a legal system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination that was enforced in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. Under apartheid laws, different racial groups were separated in various aspects of public life, including education, healthcare, and housing, effectively creating a divided society where non-white populations were marginalized and subjected to a range of restrictions.

Desegregation refers to the process of ending the separation of two groups, typically involving efforts to eliminate the injustices of segregation. This concept is opposed to apartheid, which upheld separation. Equality denotes a state where individuals have the same rights and opportunities, a principle that apartheid directly violated through its discriminatory practices. Violence can be associated with the resistance to apartheid and the aggressive methods used by authorities to maintain control, but it does not accurately define the systemic and legal framework that apartheid represented. Segregation, therefore, captures the essence of apartheid as a structured system that enforced racial divisions and inequality in society.