Outward Appearance Versus Ancestry in Determining Culture

I got the topic for this post totally by accident and I hope my thoughts on this do not seem too controversial. I apologise if anyone is offended and please tell me by commenting on this post if I am going wrong and I will make changes.

Yesterday I wrote a post in which I mentioned that someone was accorded honorary white status in South Africa during apartheid, I assume because she looked mostly white. This made me ponder the ramifications of outward appearance as opposed to ancestry in determining a person's culture, and how different countries have different cultural norms in effect. I wonder about the future dynamics of culture and where this will lead us. It strikes me that it is entirely possible that in future what you look like outwardly will no longer be important as to which cultural group you choose to belong to.

The funny thing about the culture in South Africa is that the outward appearance of a person is all important and is what really used to matter in determining whether one was white or not, especially during apartheid. I heard that residents of previously apartheid South Africa used to be given the so-called pencil test, to see if their hair was curly enough to hold a pencil, and other physical features were looked at to see if someone looked white or not. Sometimes people who were white were told they were not, even if they were part of the same family as others classified as white (as in the heart wrenching story of Sandra Laing!), because they had some features that were deemed to be non-white, like too curly hair! This is because many people tried to pass as white to fit in with largely white society, and these people were given privileges over others. In some other countries, for example, in Australia, I have heard that ancestry is used to determine one's ethnic status: if one has any Aboriginal ancestors then the children are considered Aboriginal, even if no-one can tell by outward appearance, but in South Africa if you look white then you are white, irrespective of any of your ancestry.

In South Africa there is a unique cultural group in South Africa, who are now called coloured, made up of people of previously mixed ethnic ancestry. Most coloured people who form part of this cultural group live in the Cape and speak Afrikaans as a first language, though of course not all of them. Many coloured people especially previously wanted to be classified as white, so they could get jobs reserved for white people during apartheid. Nowadays some of the same people who took white status may have decided to change their status back to coloured, so that they can get jobs now! But all of this is down to outward appearance alone. I have known two people who sounded like they were coloured (many coloured people have a distinct accent based on their cultural use of Afrikaans) yet who looked like white people, and one was married into a white family and the other married into a coloured family. It is personal choice as to which culture such a person chooses as their own! Much of this choice may be made due to outward appearance alone. How interesting that in South Africa during apartheid if authorities said you were white, then you were deemed to be accepted into society, otherwise you were not, irrespective of your ancestry. This shows how important it is for leaders to set good examples, as society adopts the framework set by leaders.

I hope to see a future world where we are free of norms bound by outward appearance and where someone is free to choose the cultural group to which the person feels he or she belongs best, irrespective of looks.  For me this translates into having a country made up of people where the culture of the country dominates as an inclusive society, irrespective of what each person looks like. If you live in Australia, then you are Australian, and if you live in South Africa then you are South African; you are all part of one people, irrespective of ethnic looks. You may of course choose to practise a specific culture personally, but I hope to see all people part of and embracing the culture of the country where they live. Let us not be divided based on outward appearance and have to worry about things like the pencil test, even if this is now done on paper only!

This is a video that contains a story of Sandra Laing: a coloured baby born to white Afrikaner parents in apartheid South Africa (ironically, many Afrikaners in South Africa have a percentage of non-white blood (I have Afrikaner ancestry too), but look white, and this probably explains where Sandra's looks came from): Video: Sandra Laing: A Spiritual Journey - South Africa