The Making of a Good White - E-thesis - Helsinki.fi

Passing for White
Racial segregation in the twentieth century South Africa created a group
of people called the ‘pass-whites’, or ‘play-whites’. They were by birth
or race classification coloured people. 84 They were of a light complexion,
and lived in the areas reserved only for whites, thus grasping an opportunity
to climb into a far more advantageous social position as a White.
Pass-white is an important notion in the discourses of whiteness in
South Africa. They existed in the remotest boundary of the white race,
in constant danger of being expelled from it. Conversely, it was dangerous
for a dubious-looking white to be seen as a pass-white. Therefore it
is important to examine how and on what grounds they were included or
excluded from the racial category White.
Turning into a White was a long and complicated process, called passing
for white. It often meant moving to another part of the country, where
the aspirant White was not known as a coloured person, or moving to
an area where it was possible to establish a ‘respectable’ way of life. In
South Africa, this was easiest to do in Cape Town, which was big enough
and coloured enough to hide the trail of this transformation.
In Cape Town, this meant settling in the areas such as Observatory,
Woodstock, Lansdowne, Claremont and Wynberg. A good education
and an ability to speak English (instead of coloured Afrikaans) were also
helpful. Quite often the pass-whites also adopted English as their home
language. (Watson 1970: 15-18.)
The next phase was to find White employment, preferably in some occupation
where one did not have to produce an identity card. Government
occupations, especially railways were not a good alternative, since they
were largely for Afrikaners, however, Tramways, 85 as an example, was
seen as a viable option. Then was the time to move into a real white area,
or close to one. After that the next steps were to make white friends, join
a white church or club and try to get one’s children into a white school.
Then, finally, it was time to get an identity card, but only when there was
a relatively high certainty that you would be classified White. (Watson
1970: 60.)
84 The apartheid regime was infamous for its methods of physically evaluating the racial
category of a person – a heritage from the era when similar measures were popular in
Europe. The tests included the measuring of the curliness of a person’s hair by slipping
a pencil through it, or looking at the pigmentation of several parts of body (including
mouth, eyelids or genitalia).
85 The company that managed the tram and bus traffic in Cape Town.
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