Born A Crime Quotes

Racism is a global issue that impacts everyone and has been seen in many different ways. Racism can be displayed in many different ways, in some cases people don’t even realize they’re being racist, which is one of the more prominent problems. In Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, Trevor is born into a village called Johannesburg in South Africa where people of color are minorities and are segregated from one another based on culture and race. He was born a mixed kid with a Xhosa mom and Swiss dad. Trevor faces many obstacles with his own identity due to his mixed backgrounds, which came in handy for him. Trevor shares his experiences with racism and being a mixed person during Apartheid, while still cracking a few jokes in between various parts of
Trevor has had many instances where someone has been racially prejudiced towards him based on his skin color, which is an example of interpersonal racism. Interpersonal racism refers to the discrimination, prejudice, or hate against a person, group, or culture based on their ethnic background. Interpersonal racism is mainly seen in personal interactions such as friends, relationships, or just person to person. When Trevor goes to school he finds himself puzzled with who he should be friends with, Trevor eventually becomes friends with the black kids at school after showing them that he can speak all of their languages despite being light skin which surprised them all. After he became friends with the black kids, he wanted to switch classes to class B where his friends are. His teacher was reluctant to switch Trevor to class B and said “You’re a smart kid”. You don’t want to be in that class.”(Noah 59). Trevor is confused by this and further questions her and says “Surely there must be some smart kids in class B?”(Noah 59) to which she replies “No there aren’t”(Noah
Whose car is this?”(Noah 229). This is another example of interpersonal racism because the cop had no reason to stop Trevor at all and was pulling him over because of his skin color. Trevor also experienced interpersonal racism while he went to the mulberry tree in Eden Park. Trevor says he met and encountered some people that would hate him for his blackness. When Trevor would speak Xhosa or Zulu, they would ask him”What are you a bushman? Why are you trying to be black? Why do you speak that click-click language?”(Noah 121) This is a perfect example of interpersonal racism because they discriminate against him for speaking an African language. Trevor Noah experiences plenty of racism throughout Born a Crime and meets quite a few people who are deliberately racist towards him, but in some cases the experience is brought by institutions and not always by a single individual. In Born a Crime, Apartheid was implemented to segregate people of color from one another and was racially motivated. Institutional racism is racism in institutions that have policies that discriminate against a certain group, individual, or culture while holding the upper hand due to more money, more power, and more