Senior Thesis & Learning about the Apartheid Regime

Although I have only lived in this country for a little over a month, I already feel sickened by what I have learned about the Apartheid.  I am currently doing my senior thesis on the economical affects the Apartheid Regime had on South Africa's internal economy but also its affect on South Africa's ability to compete in the International economy.  That sounds really boring, I'm sure, but what interesting and what I wanted to share, is what I have learned about the Apartheid.
The Apartheid isnt just something a bunch of white Afrikaans people made up and decided to enforce.  It all began with the Dutch and English settlers who basically wanted to use the newly colonized land the same way they used the rest of Africa: cheap slave labor, improved shipping routes, new colonies to expand their nation and whatever resources they could strip from the land and profit off of.  Typical colonization.  Along the way, they basically instilled racism and segregation into the culture they were creating while colonizing South Africa and this is where the idea of the Apartheid comes from.  Interestingly enough, "Apartheid" literally means to separate based on race in Afrikaans..
Some of the laws that the Apartheid created here just literally make me cringe.  It reminds me a lot of the Civil Rights Era in America, but even more blatant.  For example, during the Apartheid Regime, social and racial classes were broken into three main groups and were enforced BY LAW.  Literally, citizens would have to go to a government building, where an official would do three things:  1)  hold color swatches up to your skin, and there were certain lines for where you were white (Dutch or English heritage), Black or Coloured (mix of black and white).  2) They would run a pencil through your hair.  If it got stuck, which could imply you had thinker, courser or curly hair, you were black or coloured.  3)  They looked at your family lineage and from this, decided what category you "belonged" in.
Once you were in a category, you were told where you could attend school, where you could work and where you could have a home.  There were countless laws that made it so the best jobs, homes and schools were urban and white, while making sure to push the Black and Coloured to the rural areas, where there were very poor housing, education and jobs.  Thus, creating townships.  It was also illegal to have interracial marriages or relationships.
The list of horrible legislation and laws goes on and on- I literally havent even gotten five pages into my senior thesis and already I am just lost for words at what a destructive government the Apartheid was.  What is also  so different, is that in the States we talk about the Civil Rights movement like it was so long ago, and so to me, things like equality were just a given, where as here the Apartheid Government ended in 1994! 1994!!  I cant even believe that.  Things are still so fresh here, there is so much progress to still be made and it is interesting and a little difficult to witness what needs to change.  Every day I feel like I learn something new about the history here and it is always so interesting because I get to hear it from people who come from all different walks of life.  Although my senior thesis is twenty pages long and sure to be a lot of work, I think it will be interesting because all of the information will all be so new and different!