ABSTRACT
South African cnhcs of censorship usually ignore racism and limit their comments to matters of sex and nudity. This preoccupation obscures the underlying economic determinants which created apartheid. While racism is not peculiar to South Africa, its legal form as shaped by the specific dominant ideology is. Laws affecting race relations in South Africa grew with industrialization and urbanization, reaching a crescendo following the coming to power of the National Party in 1948. Long before the triumph of the National Party, however, film had been used as a means of shaping class perceptions and work roles. From the early Cape Province ordinances of 1910 through the most recent national legislation, government policy has been geared not only to upholding "morality" but, more importantly, to upholding the prevailing class structure of South African society.
