Apartheid was the decades-long system of institutional racism and segregation in South Africa that lasted from 1948 to the early 1990s. The population of South Africa was split into four racial categories that were then hierarchized by supposed supremacy, in the following order: white, Indian, Colored, and Black. This division was enacted to uphold white minority rule by creating strife between non-white people. While these divisions attempted to striate people, the lines between groups were not as clear-cut in practice. For instance, Trevor Noah identifies as “mixed” and Black. There is no racial category for “mixed,” since being “mixed” was illegal, and Noah is not perceived as Black due to his light brown skin color. He is largely perceived as Colored, though this does not align with his own sense of his identity.

Apartheid divided all aspects of life along racial lines. Each apartheid-era racial category was restricted to its own neighborhood, schools, and places of employment. Eden Park, for instance, is a Colored neighborhood and Soweto is a Black township. Highlands Park and Johannesburg are for white residents only, in theory. After apartheid ends, Patricia can buy several houses in Highlands Park due to the salary from her white-collar job.