A Study in Black and White

The racial situation in South Africa has changed little in the past 50 years, according to a 700-page survey. By any measure, the country's whites are still far better off than the nonwhite majority population. The most recent figures show that whites have the lowest infant mortality rate (13 per 1,000 births, compared with 80 per 1,000 births among blacks); for every dollar earned by a white household, an Asian family brings home 59-c-, "coloreds" (people of mixed race) 40-c- and blacks 15-c-.

These findings were included in the annual report of the South African Institute of Race Relations, a widely respected private organization in Johannesburg. The study revealed the high cost of white supremacy. In 336 industrial disputes last year, 64,469 workers went on strike over low pay and working conditions, resulting in the loss of nearly a million man hours. Every 2.5 minutes, a non-white was arrested for violating pass laws that restrict where blacks may travel. Yet another statistic must have given supporters of apartheid cause for alarm: more people died or were injured from acts of sabotage in the first five months of 1983 than in all of the six preceding years.