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publicly humiliated them. "These officials question the people at the head of the queues and fill in formsthere is no privacy as those behind can hear the questions and answers. On average, the investigation of one case appears to take about twelve minutes" (Horrell 1958, 66). |
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Technologies of Classifying |
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How impracticable it is to try to classify human beings, for all time, into definite categories, and how much suffering has resulted from the efforts made to do this.
(Horrell 1958, 77) |
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Apart from the categories themselves, the technology associated with the reclassification process was crude. Combs were sometimes used to test how curly a person's hair was. Horrell (1968) notes that barbers were sometimes called as witnesses to testify about the texture of the person's hair. One source mentioned expert testimony from the South African Trichological Institute (presumably an organization for the scientific study of hair). Affidavits were taken from employers, clergy, neighbors, and others to establish general acceptance or repute. "The official may summon any living relative, including grandparents, and question them in a similar way" (Horrell 1958, 32). Complexion, eyes, hair, features, and bone structure were examined by board officials, and they could summon any relative and examine them in this way as well (see figure 6.3). Horrell (1958) notes, "It is reported that some were even asked 'Do you eat porridge? Do you sleep on the floor or in a bed?' Some Coloured people said that they had been told to turn sideways so that the officials could study their profiles" (62). Folk theories about race abounded; differences in cheekbones, even the notion that blacks have softer earlobes than whites, were taken seriously. A newspaper account notes that some coloured people had reported that "the officials fingered the lobes of their earsthe theory is that Natives have soft lobes" (Sunday Times 1955). The same article reported that a coloured man was stopped by the police in the street and asked to which soccer club he belonged. He named a coloured team, and then was told, ''only natives play soccer, not coloureds." |
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The "pencil test" was recounted by many who had undergone the reclassification ordeal. Sowden gives us the following passage, quoting at first from an old black woman describing apartheid to him: |
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