Born a crime (2016), Trevor Noah
So many black families spend all of their time trying to fix the problems of the past. That is the curse of being black and poor, and it is a curse that follows you from generation to generation. My mother calls it ‘the black tax.’
It’s easy to be judgmental about crime when you live in a world wealthy enough to be removed from it.
The tricky thing about the hood is that you’re always working, working, working, and you feel like something’s happening, but really nothing’s happening at all.
People don’t want to be rich. They want to be able to choose.
Relationships are built in the silences. You spend time with people, you observe them and interact with them, and you come to know them—and that is what apartheid stole from us: time.
Comfort can be dangerous. Comfort provides a floor but also a ceiling.
Language brings with it an identity and a culture, or at least the perception of it.
Apartheid maintained its status by systemically forcing the people in each race to hate one another. This idea of racial hatred prevailed in South Africa during Apartheid is explored throughout ‘Born A Crime’, a memoir written by Trevor Noah, especially in this chosen passage where Noah describes how Abel beated a colored kid who made fun of him. Using simple sentences and metaphor, Trevor Noah delivers the message that apartheid systematically forces the kids in South Africa to hate each other using simple sentences and metaphors.
Noah employs simple sentences to emphasize the shared humanity between himself and the colored kid, highlighting the absurdity of racial divisions under apartheid. In the line “He was a kid. I was a kid. He was crying. I was crying,” Noah uses a minimalist structure to draw attention to the parallels between their experiences. By stripping the narrative down to these basic elements, he underscores that both he and the other boy are simply children, vulnerable and emotional. The repetition of “He was” and “I was” erases any real distinction between them, forcing the reader to question why apartheid imposed such rigid and violent separations. This stylistic choice not only underscores the innocence of the children but also critiques the way apartheid taught them to view one another as enemies, despite their similarities.
Noah utilizes alliteration in his memoir to underscores the shared humanity between the two boys, despite the racial divisions that apartheid imposed. This is demonstrated in the line “(...) how much he and I had in common.” In this line, the alliteration of unvoiced h sound shows the unspoken and overlooked humanity shared between the two boys. This sound also evokes a sense of breathlessness or hesitation, symbolizing the difficulty in acknowledging their common ground in a system designed to divide them.
Ultimately Noah conveys the message that apartheid systematically compelled children in South Africa to develop hatred toward one another. Through his use of simple sentences and metaphors, he highlights the significance of recognizing the shared humanity among individuals, regardless of race.