South African teen commits racist murders

“South African teen gets 4 life terms for racist murders” (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/21/safrica.racial.killings/index.html) demonstrate a discriminatory attack in South Africa. An 18 year old white South African, Johan Nel, killed four black South Africans while injuring another seven, shouting racist slurs the whole time. Nel’s attorney claimed there were compelling circumstances in the killings – for example, Nel was home-schooled and never learned to socialize with other children, particularly black children. The judge sentenced Nel to 4 life terms anyhow. This is a clearly an act motivated by prejudice. Prejudice is very deep-seeded in that area of the world. Apartheid is not very far removed from society in South Africa. It is difficult to pinpoint which of the three perspectives – economic, motivational, or cognitive – the prejudice originated with, but it is certainly very apparent. There were likely a number of factors contributing to its root cause.