The political and legislative changes which took place in South Africa during the 1990s, with the dissolution of apartheid, created a unique set of social conditions. As official policies of segregation were abolished, people of both black and white racial groups began to experience new forms of social contact and intimacy for the first time.

By examining the processes of intergroup contact which arose in South Africa following the removal of official ethnic divides, and supporting it with evidence from the US, Racial Encounter offers a social psychological...