Last year I read Judith Stone’s book titled, When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race. This text is a true story about Sandra Laing, a light brown skinned woman who visibly appears to be “mixed-race” or “colored” according to South Africa’s former apartheid caste system was born in Piet Retief, a small conservative town in South Africa. According to visible racial legibility standards of the time, Sandra’s parents, siblings and her grandparents were all considered “white”. Due to her dark skin complexion and her tightly curled hair, Sandra sparked a national controversy.

Sandra’s parents, members of the racist National Party adamantly supported the apartheid system and the unearned privileges it afforded them at the expense of non-whites. Since both of Laings parents were officially classified as “white”, she enrolled in an all-white boarding school. At boarding school as Sandra aged and her skin became darker and her hair became curlier, she was ostracized by other students, their parents, and school administrators. As a result, Laing was forcibly expelled from her school by police. Outraged, her parents fought a public legal battle to publically classify her as white because of their white status. Her parents also took blood tests to confirm that indeed she was their biological child.
Throughout childhood Laing’s only friends were the children of her father’s black employees. Her friendships with them led her to meet the man she would later elope with and move to Swaziland in exile. As a result, her father threatened to end her and her partner’s life and disowned her. For the rest of the life she was estranged from her parents, however she met her mother who also sent her gifts and some financial support secretly. Last night I found a short documentary online about Laing. It is a sad yet powerful piece that is worth taking the time to view. I also discovered some articles about Mirimax possibly producing a film about her story titled Skin.

Laing’s story points to the absurdity of grouping people based on their phenotypical traits. It leads me to think about the truths brought forth in one of my favorite songs “Africa’s Inside Me” from the musical group Arrested Development:
“Why in the world can’t everybody
Recognize that Africa’s in everybody?
We all ask why can’t we be sista’s and brothers
But first we gotta accept who is our mother”.