Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. The word apartheid means "separateness" or "the state of being apart" in Afrikaans. The system was characterized by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically through minoritarianism by the nations dominant minority white population. According to this system of social stratification, white citizens had the highest status, followed by Indians and Coloureds, then Black Africans. Apartheid made laws that forced the different racial groups to live separately and develop separately, and grossly unequally too. It tried to stop all inter-marriage and social integration between racial groups. During apartheid, to have a friendship with someone of a different race generally brought suspicion upon you, or worse. More than this, apartheid was a social system that severely disadvantaged the majority of the population, simply because they did not share the skin color of the rulers. Millions of black citizens were forcefully removed from their homes, restricted, and confined within tribal homelands according to their ethnicity, while whites remained and occupied towns and cities. Blacks were not allowed to vote or engage in politics and were reduced to labor for the whites. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly inequality. The policies dictating the physical and political separation of racial groups were referred to as "grand apartheid," while the laws and regulations that segregated South Africans in daily activities were known as "petty apartheid". The implementation of apartheid, often called "separate development" since the 1960s, was made possible through the Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans as either Bantu (all Black Africans), Coloured (those of mixed race), or white. The Indemnity Act (1961) made it legal for police officers to commit acts of violence, to torture, or to kill in the pursuit of official duties. The policies of apartheid were repealed by the early 1990s, but the social and economic repercussions of the discriminatory policy persisted into the 21st century.