The ideology of apartheid as proposed by Daniel Francois Malan and the implementation of these ideologies into societal regulations created a new wave of strong nationalist thinking. In conjecture with the attitudes on racial separation in America, South Africa was taking a radically opposite stance towards segregation with plans to further separate the races while in America the the seedlings of a civil rights movement began to take root. Fundamental to the understanding of these differing stances is the reasoning behind the driving forces of these doctrines and how they may or may not have influenced each other. .
Through the analysis of various text, it can be discerned that the actions of the United States heavily influenced not only the decisions of the South African government but also the actions of disenfranchised peoples, blacks and coloured alike, living in South Africa who could now emulate the social movement of civil rights in America. Furthermore, the similarities between America and South Africa prior to American radical change in social policy seemed to prove that significant intra-white conflict threatened political stability and hence nation-state consolidation, legal racial domination was used to unify whites by excluding blacks.
Key to the understanding of racial separation, as exemplified by segregation and Jim Crow laws in America and the system of apartheid in South Africa, is the understanding of race itself and the effects of categorizing people by skin color as to provide a benefit to one of the parties involved, usually the minority party. Recent scholarship on "race " has rejected the view that race is a natural or biological division among human beings, but more on the emphasis instead as a social construction, and hence its historical variable, meanings. With respect to America and South Africa, race was created as a measure of exclusion and a platform to consolidate power among a white elite.