‘Collectively, the very least White South Africans can do is to apologize, not just for this sick act, but for the centuries of abuse that we have inflicted on Black people in this country.’ —Lance Greyling, White opposition legislator

To many, the video that was splashed around the world suggests that 13 years after apartheid formally ended, racism is rampant and the nation isn’t paying enough attention.

When Culture Minister Pallo Jordan, a Black, protested on a radio talk show that the incident was isolated, people called in to contradict him.

According to many discussions in the media and Associated Press interviews with a half-dozen analysts and human rights workers, there’s a creeping increase in racist incidents.

“It’s getting worse because it’s becoming more overt. This is not isolated; we have really appalling and degrading incidents,” said Theresa Oakley-Smith, who for 15 years has run a human resource development company that offers diversity workshops.

With its strong economy and democratic structures, South Africa is the African nation with the most potential to bring about change on a beleaguered continent. Yet, where racism is concerned, Ms. Oakley-Smith said, nothing has changed in the 10 years since she took part in an investigation at a school resisting integration.

There, White pupils, parents and teachers, including senior staff, disguised their faces with camouflage paint, went into a classroom of Blacks and “beat the children up horrifically,” she recalled.

“Nothing was done. The senior guy involved in the attack wasn’t fired, he may still be teaching there for all I know,” said Ms. Oakley-Smith, who is White.

Jody Kollapen, head of the government Human Rights Commission, said: “We haven’t come to terms with dealing with the past and with racism.”

When Nelson Mandela walked out of the prison where he was held for 27 years, he forgave his captors and urged fellow Blacks to be equally magnanimous in reconciling with Whites who held power through terror tactics.

Reconciliation in the new “rainbow nation” meant forgiving Whites, but the needed transformation of society was resisted by the Whites who had benefited from apartheid, says rights commission head Kollapen, an Asian.

Whites got off too lightly, Ms. Oakley-Smith agrees.

South Africans tend to avoid discussing racism, callers to talk shows agree, and few victims, including the abused cleaners at the University of the Free State, ever complain.

Both Oakley-Smith and Kollapen called for a collective apology from Whites similar to that made in February by the Australian government to Aborigines.

“Collectively, the very least White South Africans can do is to apologize, not just for this sick act, but for the centuries of abuse that we have inflicted on Black people in this country,” White opposition legislator Lance Greyling, said in a statement.

Under apartheid, Black education was purposely substandard and certain skilled jobs, notably in big corporations such as the railroad, were reserved for Whites. Now White South Africans complain about government affirmative action programs that work against them.

Yet, despite these programs and a booming economy, more Blacks are out of work than under White rule.

Government statistics show that 10 percent of Black households are in the top income bracket compared with 65 percent of White households. Blacks are 85 percent of the 48 million population.

President Thabo Mbeki hoped business friendly policies would create a trickle-down effect, but they didn’t, and many Blacks criticize Mr. Mbeki for leaving the reins of the economy in White hands.

In 2004, in its most recent available figures, the Department of Trade and Industry said Black ownership of businesses had gone from zero to 10 percent and Blacks occupied 15 percent of skilled positions.

Whites-only suburbs and restaurants have been desegregated, but few Blacks can afford their prices. Most still live in Black townships and work for Whites as laborers, farm hands or domestic workers.

Ms. Oakley-Smith says she can list scores of racist incidents—segregated toilets in big companies, rude and racist remarks by White supervisors in the mines, Whites posting pictures of monkeys under the names of Black supervisors.

“I think it has a devastating effect—the negative impact on business, on productivity, that racism causes if people can’t talk to each other and don’t respect each other,” she said.

Ms. Oakley-Smith cites two incidents she believes demonstrate a double standard in racial sensitivity: The barring of Whites from a meeting of a Black journalists’ group, and an 18-year-old White man’s shooting spree in a Black squatter camp that killed four people including a mother and the baby on her back.

The barring of the Whites provoked greater outcry than the shooting, she said.

The offending video, made by students protesting plans to integrate residences at a college notorious for resisting integration, is being blown out of proportion, said Lawrence Schlemmer, vice president of the conservative Institute for Race Relations. He said the young men involved might be “infantile, juvenile punks,” but aren’t racist.

Mr. Schlemmer, who is White and grew up with institutionalized discrimination against Blacks, says the students probably were “traumatized” about integrating their dorms, and questions whether integrated dorms are appropriate in a country with South Africa’s diversity.

Still, Black analyst Aubrey Matshiqi of the Center for Policy Studies remains positive. Racial incidents are increasing, he said, but “the number of South Africans willing to work for a rainbow nation is also on the increase.”