****This student also added research to the paper, which is not
required for our class, but you can see how additional layers give more heft to
the overall argument. This was from last
quarter.
Born a Crime: Unraveling Racism in Society
As the political
and ideological divide swells in modern day America, it is easy to see why the
populace would be driven to associate this dissension with another significant
element of controversy: racism. According to a recent poll reported by the NBC news
channel, 66 percent of Americans regard race relations in the United States to
be a critical problem. Furthermore, it is also believed that the prospect of
real progress on this issue remains muddy, as differing ideas and perspectives
aggressively clash. Despite the data, the problematic nature of the underlying
issue goes beyond numbers.With race being a topic of great complexity, getting
lost in a sea of impersonal statistics, aimless bickering, and a plethora of
questionable internet commentary eventually becomes an obstacle. To build a
more concrete understanding of the intricacies of racism in society, it is
important to broaden the scope and seek a more personal and genuine insight
into the matter. One great resource that can contextualize the true gravity of
racism can be found in the authentic story of South African comedian, producer,
and actor Trevor Noah.
In the memoir Born a Crime, author Trevor Noah
recounts his passage through life in South Africa in the wake of Apartheid – a
brutal era under a system built from the roots of racial oppression. Beginning
from childhood, Noah details the hardships of his youth as he is subjected to
adversity derived from his biracial identity. He is effectively “born a crime” under the senseless, iron-fisted
laws of South African Apartheid in which he is a product of the illegal
marriage between his Xhosa mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah and his reclusive
Swiss/German expat father, Robert. Trevor spends his early days under Apartheid
in a habitual form of hiding, which his young mind processes as a confusing
notion. With the family constantly under the threat of the government, he grows
up closely with a significant religious influence from his devout Christian
mother, Patricia, who is a stubborn, resilient, and nonconformist woman, taking
great responsibility in raising him with both discipline and love despite her
and mischievous Trevor’s “cat and mouse” relationship. Moving forward, Trevor
is eventually forced to confront societal isolation in Eden Park and Soweto as
his colored racial status takes the forefront, even after the abolition of
Apartheid. The hold of systematic and internalized racism begins to compound
and become more prevalent in his mind. He endures ostracization from his school
peers and while able to cleverly manipulate his biracial identity and language
skills to his advantage, he always remains an outcast. As Trevor reaches
adolescence and beyond, he begins to fully utilize his wits and resourcefulness
and creates a pseudo-business involving music piracy and small bouts of petty
crime in the ghetto of Alexandra. However, through hustling, he quickly finds
himself trapped in the perpetual cycle of poverty, which becomes a difficult
force to escape. Noah closes with one of his last bitter experiences in which
his abusive, traditional Tsongan step father Abel eventually crosses the line
and manifests his violent tendancies into the unsuccessful attempted murder of
his mother Patricia. THESIS: Throughout Born a Crime, Trevor Noah exposes many of the gritty, palpable
aspects of racism. It is cemented in the culture/society, setting, and personal
aspects of his life. What can be learned from Noah is that through his
first-hand experiences of isolation, the nature of life under Apartheid, and
the influences of good people, it is crucial to acknowledge and expand the
understanding of racism in society in order to potentially overcome it.
Thematically,
race and isolation play a huge role in Trevor Noah’s development. Noah’s
identity as an outsider and his sense of isolation spans the majority of his
life and is closely intertwined with many of his major life experiences. It can
almost be considered a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it makes him very
resourceful and forces him to grow as a person, but on the flip side, it locks
him into a state of loneliness. When exploring the positive aspects of Noah’s
social segregation, it is important to note that a large part of it comes from
his ability to adapt and stay positive, which is a trait he adopts from his
mother. In one particular instance in his childhood, he is tailed by several
Zulu kids who discuss their plan to assault him, thinking he is white and
unable to understand them. Trevor utilizes his language skill to communicate
with them, which instantly defuses the situation. Noah explains, “I became a
chameleon. My color didn’t change, but I could change your perception of my
color” and “Maybe I didn’t look like you, but if I spoke like you, I was you”
(56). Appropriately likening himself to a
chameleon, Noah was able to spin what would otherwise be a disadvantage into a
tool and it would become one that he relied on often. Later on in life, as he
enters a diverse high school at Sandringham, he uses his position to stay
neutral and gain favor with a variety of groups and find his niche. With this
happening, the other side of the coin begins to show. Noah reveals, “I’d drop
in, pass out the snacks, tell a few jokes. I’d perform for them. I’d catch a
bit of their conversation, learn more about their group, and then leave. I
never overstayed my welcome” and “I was everywhere with everybody, and at the
same time I was all by myself” (141). Within these few thoughts, it is shown
that although Trevor was able to make the best of being an interloper. However, isolation is still isolation. The main
significance of being an outsider comes from how destructive it can be in
somebody’s life and how complex the issue of race can be.
Even after Apartheid, the lasting effects could still be
felt. In Noah’s life, it wasn’t as simple as one race vs. another, and with him
being mixed, he found himself at odds with everyone. In some instances, he even
exposes the concept of internalized racism within his own mind, which is a form
of oppression through conscious and unconscious conditioning to accept racism
as the norm. In African Affairs, by
Cornel Verwey and Michael Quayle, it is stated that, “Whiteness is historically
linked to privilege. Whiteness is almost universally a racial or ethnic
category that also offers the opportunity to maintain this privilege. In South
Africa, this privilege manifested itself in terms of both political power and
economic advantage, which was reserved for white South Africans” (556). Having
been exposed to this his entire life, it is easy to see why Noah would have
been so disenfranchised by his situation. To further complicate the matter, his
mixed race status was something that was often detrimental regardless of a part
of him being “white”. However, despite the nature of the system weighing
against him, Noah refused to let racism consume his life in the way it had
victimized so many others. By understanding the absurdity of racism, he was
able to show that identity was something more than surface level perceptions
like color and language.
Shifting to the poverty stricken, geographically boxed-in
locale of Alexandra, where Trevor Noah spends many of his post high school
days, a real perspective can also be gained on the nuances of institutionalized
racism reflected in the disparities of wealth, housing, power, and justice.
Aptly compared to a modern day Gomorrah, Alexandra becomes symbolic to the
failures of the post-Apartheid world. It is there where Noah becomes closer
with some further ramifications of Apartheid and serves as an important vicarious
window into the reasons that racism and poverty are a self-sustaining cycle.
Noah states, “[We] were in a uniquely fucked situation when apartheid ended. He
has been given more potential, but he has not been given more opportunity. He
has been given an awareness of the world that is out there, but he has not been
given the means to reach it” (208). What Trevor realized was that in some
areas, they had become worse off than during the period of Apartheid. The lack
of opportunity and possibility forced the birth of a subculture of crime and
unemployment. Noah explains, “The hood made me realize that crime succeeds
because crime does the one thing the government doesn’t do: crime cares, crime
doesn’t discriminate” (209). Due to the nature of poverty in Alex, what would
normally be considered unconscionable crime to some, became the baseline
because things became so bad that it actually became a preferable, valid choice
compared to reliance on the government for help. This effectively demonstrates
that racism was systematic, deeply entrenched, and for many, unbeatable.
Along with his close friend Bogani, a natural entrepreneur,
Trevor soon found himself in the business of crime as well, albeit one that
didn’t pose any real threat to people. In the role of CD salesmen, loan
scheming, and item trading, the duo soon found themselves entwined in the
“hustler’s lifestyle” -- a deceiving way of life that could entrap a person
into that lifestyle. What this showed to Trevor was that the hustler’s way of life was
financially unsustainable despite his frugality. It put on the facade of some
sort of progress, but ultimately ended with no actual result. He had been
putting in maximal effort for minimal gain and all things considered, he soon
recognizes that he is an outsider once again. Noah realizes, “I chose to live
in that world, but I wasn’t from that world. The difference was that in the
back of my mind I knew I had other options. I could leave. They couldn’t”
(224). The fact of the matter is that the cycle of poverty is one that is
almost inescapable for the ones born into those circumstances.
What Noah
experienced in Alexandra is also an observation that can almost be used in
direct parallel to some of the social issues in the United states today.
Similarly, many people argue that the concept of institutional and systematic
racism looms over modern day America for many people of color, as the same
cycle of poverty and segregation is evidently an unfortunate reality. In the
academic journal, White Flight and the Endless
Cycle of Poverty for Urban People of Color in America, by Oscar Syed Wade,
it is explained using the example of large urban centers that, “Los Angeles has
the the fourth largest economy in the United States and 16th globally just
behind Mexico. Nonetheless, within this wealth and global opulence, the black
and brown people of the five county regions continue to struggle in urban
centers as resources and support are drained from those communities” (141). In
a similar fashion, the South African government that Noah lives under is also
shown to hold Alexandra in a constant cycle of poverty. Noah describes the path
to Alexandra through several cordons that separate the wealthy neighborhoods of
Johannesburg and the industrial town of Wynberg from Alex. The people within
the community are then subject to nefarious means of creating a living for
themselves, which only exacerbates the issue of ever being able to leave.
By exploring this
aspect of racial inequality directly, Noah provides awareness to the grasp of
institutionalized racism and how a government can perpetuate a self-fulfilled
cycle of poverty, racism, violence, and animosity towards one another in a
community. With this in mind, even in the shadow of these complex issues,
Alexandra still stood as a close-knit community of shared responsibility and
ironically, it provided Noah with some semblance of purpose and belonging that
he had not previously experienced.
Trevor Noah’s mother Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, meaning
“She Who Gives Back”, can be considered one of the most important driving
forces in his life that allows him to overstep the shackles of racial issues in
society. Independent, rebellious, and unstoppable, she represents optimism and
hope. In contrast with Trevor, Patricia lives most of her adult life under the
rule of Apartheid at its apex. Undeterred by the obstacles placed for her at
the time, she lives up to her name and lays the foundation for Trevor. She
harshly punishes him, but only as a method of deterrence and as a teaching
point. They share both a “partner in crime” and “cop and robber” relationship.
More importantly, she exposes racism, violence, and poverty as something that
is able to be fought. Noah explains, “I never felt poor because our lives were
so rich with experience” (72) and “My mother took me places black people never
went. She refused to be bound by ridiculous ideas of what black people couldn’t
or shouldn’t do. My mom raised me as if there were no limitations on where I
could go or what I could do” (73). By taking the steps to expose Trevor to
freedom, she is able to convey the fallacies of a government based on racism
and segregation and that the state manufactured prison of oppression could be
broken out of. She outlines, “even if he never leaves the ghetto, he will know
that the ghetto is not the world” (74). By knowing this, Trevor could be
mentally liberated from the confining beliefs that so many people were forcibly
subscribed to. Even the mere fact of Trevor’s existence was proof that racism
is not as powerful as it was implemented to be. Noah clarifies, “In any society
built on institutionalized racism, race-mixing doesn’t merely challenge the
system as unjust, it reveals the system as unsustainable and incoherent.
Race-mixing proves that races can mix - and in a lot of cases, want to mix” (21). Simply put, Trevor realizes through his parent’s
marriage that racism is not natural, it is acquired.
In addition to
broadening Trevor’s sense of understanding, Patricia also puts an emphasis on
education. In another act of defiance against racism, she breaks the mold and
becomes successful in her career. Under Apartheid, black men either worked in a
factory, farm, or mine, while women would have similarly insignificant jobs
such as factory work or maid work. Noah reveals that “true to her nature, she found an option that
was not among the ones presented to her: She took a secretarial course, a
typing class. At the time, a black woman learning how to type was like a blind
person learning how to drive” (23). With this skill, Patricia is able to
educate Trevor, speaking to him like an adult on occasion and teaching him some
specifics about business correspondence through a letter writing exchange. Patricia’s
teachings can be seen as a force that frees Trevor from the oppression of both
the government and society. Oppression, according to the article, Internalized Racism: A Systematic Review of
the Psychological Literature on Racism’s Most Insidious Consequence, by E.
J. R. David, is defined as “both a state and a process, with the state of
oppression being an unequal group access to power and privilege, and the
process of oppression being the ways in which inequality between groups is
maintained” (1058). Furthermore, “In addition to understanding that oppression
is both a state and a process, it is important to clarify two key and necessary
components of oppression—power and privilege. By its very definition,
oppression does not exist if there are no power and privilege inequalities
between people” (1058). By becoming an example of somebody who is not
restrained by the societal rules that have been imposed, Patricia is showing
Trevor that by going against the current, they are able to diminish the power
that the system has over them and in turn, cannot be oppressed.
All in all, the
understanding and acknowledgement of racism in society is what will contribute
to overpowering it just as Trevor Noah had done in his own life. Whether it be
Noah’s life of isolation, his entanglement into poverty and social unrest, or
his mother’s influences in his life, Born
a Crime and its
implications lend a valuable interpersonal look into how racism, at its worst,
can destroy a nation and its people and leave a lasting impression. When
drawing parallels to modern day issues, Noah’s accounts also leave a message of
optimism and confidence that can be used as guidance into the future.
Work Cited
David, E. J. R., et al. “Internalized Racism: A Systematic Review
of the Psychological Literature on
Racism’s Most Insidious Consequence.” Journal of Social Issues, vol. 75, no. 4,
Dec. 2019, pp. 1057–1086. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/josi.12350.
Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime Stories from a South African Childhood.
Spiegel & Grau, 2016.
Verwey, Cornel, and Michael Quayle. “Whiteness, Racism, and Afrikaner
Identity in Post- Apartheid South
Africa.” African Affairs, vol. 111, no. 445, Oct. 2012, pp. 551–575. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1093/afraf/ads056.
Wade, Oscar Syed. “White Flight and the Endless Cycle of Poverty
for Urban People of Color in America.”
Online Submission, vol. 4, no. 4, 1 Jan. 2017, pp. 141–145. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED575025&site=ehost-live.
