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When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided By Race
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9781401309374
ISBN: 1401309372
Label: Miramax
Manufacturer: Miramax
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: April 08, 2008
Publisher: Miramax
Release Date: April 08, 2008
Studio: Miramax
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Editorial Review:
When I Was White is the mesmerizing story of a black woman born to white parents during the most unforgiving years of official racism in South Africa. Sandra Laing was officially registered and raised as a white child. But when she was sent to a conservative boarding school, she was mercilessly persecuted because of her dark skin and frizzy hair-the results, her parents said, of a genetic throwback. In 1966, when Sandra was ten, the police removed her from school and she was reclassified as 'colored.' In a bitter court battle followed closely by the press, Sandra's parents fought, and lost. Then, as a teenager, Sandra eloped with a black man, and her parents disowned her. She struggled with poverty, illness, and the injustice of race laws. With the end of apartheid in 1994, Sandra vowed to find her mother. Her long, troubling search and their ultimate reunion forms the book's surprising and deeply moving conclusion. Drawing on a wealth of research, including extensive interviews with Sandra Laing, her family and friends, as well as access to previously sealed government files, Judith Stone has written a close-up, compelling account of a remarkable woman whose life stands as a tribute to the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - The story of many families in South Africa
Firstly I have to admit that I haven't finished reading the book, I will edit my review when done. But I was curious about what other have said about it, so I paged to this review page.
I bought this book because I vaguely remember the story of Sandra Laing from newspapers etc. as a kid growing up in South Africa. She is quite a bit older than me, I was rather young when the incident happened, and I cannot remember much about all the controversy.
I mainly bought this book ... Read More
Rating:  - Great book
This was a great book! To see the struggle of this woman's life during aparteid in S. Africa rattled me to the core. And it brought to light some of our issues with race in this counrty. This is truly a book for the strong and I think we can all learn something from it.
Rating: - Race is skin deep, irresponsibility goes to the bone
I found Judith Stone's book on Sandra Laing wonderful as a chronicle of the history of race in South Africa. The book is a reminder, though, that people don't easily fit into categories. Sandra's white parents wanted her to be classified as white. I felt that the book presented convincing evidence that Sandra, despite her appearance, was the natural daughter of two white parents. Sandra herself felt more comfortable with blacks and wanted to fit in with them.
Judith Stone clearly ... Read More
Rating: - A Translated Life
I want to commend Judith Stone for the phenomenal work she has done in discussing a number of difficult subjects: Sandra Laing herself, the history of South Africa, and the nature of memory, family, and the examined life. Clearly, Sandra's lack (repression) of memory, and her inability to articulate her feelings, left Stone with an enormous challenge. She works through this brilliantly by marshaling the journalistic reports from the time and later, interviewing people who know Sandra, and sensitively ... Read More
Rating: - An emotionally charged, highly recommended pick.
When Sandra Laing was born in 1955 to a pro-apartheid Afrikaner couple in South Africa she was registered as a white child - but upon entering a white boarding school, was persecuted by students and teachers because of her brown skin. Her parents believed an interracial union back in their family history was to blame, but neighbors thought Mrs. Laing had committed adultery with a black man and the entire family was shunned. She was reclassified as 'coloured', her parents fought the South African courts ... Read More
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