Sandra Laing born 26 November is a South African woman who was classified as coloured by authorities during the apartheid era, due to her skin colour and hair texture, although she was the child of at least three generations of ancestors who had been regarded as white.
At the age of 10, she was expelled from her all-white school, and the authorities' decisions based on her appearance disrupted her family and adult life. Laing was the subject of the biographical dramatic film Skin , directed by Anthony Fabian, which won numerous awards. Sandra Laing was born in to Sannie and Abraham Laing, Afrikaners in Piet Retief , a small conservative town in South Africa during the apartheid era, when laws governed officially established social castes of racial classification.
She had darker skin than other members of her family, which seemed to become more obvious as she grew older. Her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were all white, but Sandra displayed the physiognomy of African ancestors of earlier generations, perhaps from the 18th century or more recent.
When Laing was 10 years old and at an all-white boarding school, the school authorities expelled her [4] because of complaints from the parents of other students, based on her appearance: primarily her skin colour and the texture of her hair. They believed she was "coloured", a term for mixed-race people. Sandra's parents fought several legal battles to have her classified as white, based on her documented ancestry through them.
Her father underwent a blood-typing test for paternity in the s, as DNA tests were not yet available. The results were compatible with his being her biological father, though such tests are extremely imprecise due to the small number of blood types that most people have. After the publicity, Laing found herself shunned by the white community, although she was re-classified as white again in when the law was changed to allow a person to be classified as white if both parents are classified as white.
