BEATING THE SYSTEM

 

Beating The System

 

          Apartheid, as Trevor Noah describes, was similar to what happened in the US, “the forced removal of the native [people]” combined with “slavery followed by segregation” but all of it happened “to the same group of people at the same time” (20).  He also informs us it was “institutionalized racism,” systemic (19).  Apartheid and its menacing aftermath created a world where it was nearly impossible to come by hope or progress for Blacks and colored people because of the subjugation.  In Born a Crime, Trevor Noah, tells his story about being illegal as a baby because his mother, Patricia, was a black Xhosa woman and his father was a white Swiss-German man and they were not allowed to create a child, until apartheid ended when Trevor was young.  Patricia had a difficult life, part of which she lived on an impoverished farm away from her family for twelve years with 14 cousins, but her strength, determination and, at times, rebellious nature enabled her to attain one of the few secretarial jobs for black women.  His father, Robert, who didn’t agree with the idea of racism, wanted to be involved in Trevor’s childhood but the government prevented him because he was white.  Later, Trevor’s adolescence, Abel, Patricia’s abusive husband, and Robert living in a different city put further strain on their relationship for ten years. 

 

 

 

Noah experiences the hardships of being a mixed child.  At a really young age when visiting his Grandmother in Soweto, Trevor wasn’t allowed to leave the house because, if seen, the government could take him.  In one of many townships they live in, he attends a strict Catholic school and then a more diverse high school, but he is always the outsider, not having many friends.  As a colored kid who identifies as black, he experiences animosity and even bullying.  However, he develops impressive survival skills: speed, the ability to speak multiple languages, and chameleon-like tendencies.  Later, after high school, he starts to hustle in the neighborhood of Alex as his way of getting by as a minority.  In the end, his mother had an incident where Abel, a troubled man, shoots her, nearly ending her life. Throughout this memoir, Noah teaches us many valuable lessons about Apartheid, but what does his mother teach Noah and us?  Though he and his mother were put through extreme life tests, she did not become bitter and offered Noah a very full life.  Ultimately, through immense challenges, they support each other, something Patricia taught Noah, and something, together, they offer us.