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A review by kaylaramoutar
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
5.0
I have A LOT of feelings about Born a Crime and I don't think I can put them into words. I crave books about mixed children. Fiction, non-fiction, whatever. I look for them everywhere and they're so hard to find. I'm not mixed in the way same Noah is, but everything he said about being a mixed person resonated with me.
Here are two of my favourite quotes.
1. "My mom raised me as if there were no limitations on where I could go or what I could do. When I look back I realize she raised me as a white kid -- not white culturally, but in the sense of believing that the world was my oyster, that I should speak up for myself, that my ideas and thoughts and decisions mattered."
Me too, Trevor.
2. "The history of coloured [mixed] people in South Africa is, in this respect, worse than the history of black people in South Africa. For all that black people have suffered, they know who they are. Coloured people don't."
I felt my breath whoosh out of me when I read that. I've never really felt like I belonged no matter where I looked. I was "too white" for brown people and "too brown" for white people. This, of course, was all decided due to what I liked to do. What my hobbies were/are. What music I listened to. How I spoke. It was unreal - the way that I could feel out of place with people I was supposed to "belong" with. I was too white for some brown girls in high school - they weren't friendly to me because I wasn't Muslim - but I was too brown for the old white man in the train station who berated me, unprompted, for being "a Muslim". I couldn't win in high school and I couldn't win a few years ago. I still can't.
I read that Born a Crime is being turned into a movie starring Lupita Nyong'o as Noah's mother. This is SUPER exciting because 1) I'm so happy more people will be able to learn more about South Africa, 2) we get to watch Nyong'o act because the girl can act, and 3) more people might be able to understand the issues mixed people go through all over the world. (Yes, Noah's situation was worse than most because of apartheid but the point still stands.)
Anyway. Please read this book. Thanks.
Here are two of my favourite quotes.
1. "My mom raised me as if there were no limitations on where I could go or what I could do. When I look back I realize she raised me as a white kid -- not white culturally, but in the sense of believing that the world was my oyster, that I should speak up for myself, that my ideas and thoughts and decisions mattered."
Me too, Trevor.
2. "The history of coloured [mixed] people in South Africa is, in this respect, worse than the history of black people in South Africa. For all that black people have suffered, they know who they are. Coloured people don't."
I felt my breath whoosh out of me when I read that. I've never really felt like I belonged no matter where I looked. I was "too white" for brown people and "too brown" for white people. This, of course, was all decided due to what I liked to do. What my hobbies were/are. What music I listened to. How I spoke. It was unreal - the way that I could feel out of place with people I was supposed to "belong" with. I was too white for some brown girls in high school - they weren't friendly to me because I wasn't Muslim - but I was too brown for the old white man in the train station who berated me, unprompted, for being "a Muslim". I couldn't win in high school and I couldn't win a few years ago. I still can't.
I read that Born a Crime is being turned into a movie starring Lupita Nyong'o as Noah's mother. This is SUPER exciting because 1) I'm so happy more people will be able to learn more about South Africa, 2) we get to watch Nyong'o act because the girl can act, and 3) more people might be able to understand the issues mixed people go through all over the world. (Yes, Noah's situation was worse than most because of apartheid but the point still stands.)
Anyway. Please read this book. Thanks.