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writes of the collusion among members of coloured families being torn apart at the same time they collaborated to help some members pass for white: |
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There are in South Africa many thousands of people who cannot be classified according to a rigid system of racial identification . . . The lightest coloured members of these ["borderline"] families often "passed" as whites and went to live in separate homes. Their darker relatives have been referred to as "Venster-Kykers" ["window lookers"] because, in order not to embarrass those who had ''passed,'' they made a practice of looking studiously into shop windows in order to avoid greetings should they happen to meet on the streets. (1958, 4) |
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Someone's racial classification could be challenged at any time. This was particularly important to the apartheid government in the case of people trying to pass for white, and a crucial location for the operation of the system of informers. Doman notes: |
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Soon after the introduction of the legislation many people asked for reclassification, with the result that there are today many families split down the middle. The offspring of the 'across-the-line' marriages are not always as white as their parents, and many families have emigrated rather than risk exposure. Today, there is no concerted effort to unearth the skeleton in the family cupboard. Coloured mothers avoid embarrassing their "White" daughters and do not see them even though they live in the same town. Yet the legislation also lends itself to spiteaggrieved people can get their own back on enemies or people they dislike by exposing a "mixed" marriage, or informing the police about a couple having an immoral (in terms of law) relationship. (1975, 151) |
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In an extraordinary study of a school in the suburbs of Cape Town, Graham Watson (1970) wrote of the complex negotiations, subterfuge, and balancing acts performed by parents, students, school principals, and the local Race Classification Board in managing "pass whites." Cape Town is the area in South Africa with the largest population of coloured people. Over the years, thousands chose to pass for white (or tried to). To do so, they changed their primary language from Afrikaans (used at the time by most coloured people in Cape Town) to English. They changed their social affiliations, as noted by Horrell above. Some passed for white during working hours, and returned to live with their coloured families in the evening. |
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In Passing for White: A Study of Racial Assimilation in a South African School, Watson drew a vivid picture of Colander High School based on his ethnographic participation. The high school was one of many buffer schools, which meant that "they admitted as pupils children |
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