User:Sidmedjo/sandbox

= Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949 = The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949, was an apartheid law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between "Europeans" and "non-Europeans". It was among the first pieces of apartheid legislation designed to separate the people of South Africa based on race to be passed following the National Party's rise to power in 1948. Subsequent legislation, especially the Population Registration and Immorality Acts of 1950, facilitated its implementation by requiring all individuals living in South Africa to register as a member of one of four officially defined racial groups and prohibiting extramarital sexual relationships between people of different races.

History of Mixed Race Marriages in South Africa (new section)
Mixed race relationships occurred in South Africa as far back as 1652, and often took place between Dutch colonizers and indigenous South African women. Mixed marriages did not become completely taboo until the rise of the National Party in 1948. In the three years before the act the following year, mixed marriages accounted for just a small fraction of all marriages in South Africa, and occurred almost evenly between the four defined racial groups (Black, Coloured, White, and Asiatic). Good!

Implementation (new section)
Enforcement of the act was left to the police, who often followed people to their homes to ensure they were not in violation and raided the homes of those believed to be in a mixed marriage. The act applied to all mixed marriages, so even marriages which took place in another country were not recognized within South Africa. The punishment for people found to be in a mixed marriage involved arrest and a jail sentence. Anyone who knowingly officiated a marriage that violated the act was also subject to a punishment: a fine was imposed not exceeding 50 pounds. Anyone who was found to have lied to an officiant was also subject to the legal punishment for perjury.

Some of the social consequences of entering into a mixed-race marriage included being ostracized from or ridiculed by one's family and community. One example is a white South African sex worker named Ethal (sp?), who indicated that she felt more accepted by her peers when she was a sex worker than when she married an black African man.

Legislative history[edit]
The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Amendment Act of 1968 updated the original legislation to invalidate interracial marriages involving a South African citizen that were contracted in other countries.

The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was repealed by the Immorality and Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Amendment Act, 1985, which was passed during the presidency of P. W. Botha. Peer Review: Jania Rhodes

-Contribution #1: Specific example of a white South African sex worker names Ethal and her experiences being in a mixed marriage

-Contribution #2: The number percentage (0.23%) of mixed marriages accounted for in South Africa.

-Overall you did a great job with adding new information. I particularly liked that you used a statistic and a real life situation of a woman as evidence to back up your claims. The order in which your sentences are written flows properly and when I read it, it doesn't feel out of place. Also, your spelling and grammar is correct.

-One technical suggestion I would make is in the "Implementation" section, I would change the first sentence of the second paragraph around. Instead of "Unofficial consequences......" I would say "The social consequences of....".

-One substantial suggestion I would make is to add the citation for the sentence "In the three years before its enactment, mixed marriages accounted for just 0.23% of all marriages in the country." I know you said it was already on the page and you moved it to a new section but I think you still have to use a citation for it in the new section.