Almost all of us experience prejudice in one form or another. People make assumptions about us on the basis of our age, ethnicity, race or sex, and we often find ourselves automatically making the same sorts of assumptions about others. Herein lies a paradox: prejudice is socially undesirable; however, it is widespread in society. Even in societies where prejudice is institutionalised, sophisticated justifications are often used to excuse or deny its presence. For example, the system of apartheid in South Africa, where black people were forced to live away from white people, was a classic case of such prejudice, as it was defended publicly as being recognition of and respect for cultural differences.