Life under Apartheid
Born a Crime is a story of a young boy growing up in South Africa and his experiences throughout his childhood.The memoir is written with a unique blend of humour, history and personal insight and Trevor Noah discusses the central ideas of suffering injustice and repression under apartheid and the relationship he had with his mother.
Through the first part of the memoir, Trevor talks about discrimination that the South Africans face due to Apartheid. For example, he mentions that “Under apartheid the government provided no public transportation for blacks, but white people still needed us to show up to mop their floors and clean their bathrooms.” (p.4) In the quote, the irony is explicitly shown when they expect black …show more content…
Both white people and black people would discriminate him. In the memoir, he talks about how he tried to find a place for himself at school and in life. He was too white for black kids and too black for the white kids. However, his skin colour granted him the privilege. He got away with a lot of stuff. For instance, Trevor and his black friend were caught shoplifting on surveillance cameras, his friend was arrested, but Trevor got away because the contrast showed him up as whiter than he was and authorities just assumed he was a Caucasian. His grandmother also said, “I’m scared I’m going to break him. I don’t want to kill a white person. I’m so afraid. I’m not going to touch him.” (p.52) His grandmother refused to hit him the way she hit her black grandchildren because bruises would show up on his light-skin but Trevor’s mother is the opposite of his grandmother. Although she grew up in a place where apartheid was part of their life, she does not glamourise it. She believes in equality and racial justice. Trevor’s mother had a huge impact on his critical thinking. When Trevor tried to get away after causing some troubles, she would shout “Stop! Thief!” (p.11) and ask others to catch him on her behalf. Despite the fact that Trevor was raised during the profound apartheid, he turned out the way he did because of his strong, independent, clever, and loving
Born a Crime is a story of a young boy growing up in South Africa and his experiences throughout his childhood.The memoir is written with a unique blend of humour, history and personal insight and Trevor Noah discusses the central ideas of suffering injustice and repression under apartheid and the relationship he had with his mother.
Through the first part of the memoir, Trevor talks about discrimination that the South Africans face due to Apartheid. For example, he mentions that “Under apartheid the government provided no public transportation for blacks, but white people still needed us to show up to mop their floors and clean their bathrooms.” (p.4) In the quote, the irony is explicitly shown when they expect black …show more content…
Both white people and black people would discriminate him. In the memoir, he talks about how he tried to find a place for himself at school and in life. He was too white for black kids and too black for the white kids. However, his skin colour granted him the privilege. He got away with a lot of stuff. For instance, Trevor and his black friend were caught shoplifting on surveillance cameras, his friend was arrested, but Trevor got away because the contrast showed him up as whiter than he was and authorities just assumed he was a Caucasian. His grandmother also said, “I’m scared I’m going to break him. I don’t want to kill a white person. I’m so afraid. I’m not going to touch him.” (p.52) His grandmother refused to hit him the way she hit her black grandchildren because bruises would show up on his light-skin but Trevor’s mother is the opposite of his grandmother. Although she grew up in a place where apartheid was part of their life, she does not glamourise it. She believes in equality and racial justice. Trevor’s mother had a huge impact on his critical thinking. When Trevor tried to get away after causing some troubles, she would shout “Stop! Thief!” (p.11) and ask others to catch him on her behalf. Despite the fact that Trevor was raised during the profound apartheid, he turned out the way he did because of his strong, independent, clever, and loving