#Born a crime

[escapeintothepages]

“People love to say, 'Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.' What they don’t say is, 'And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod.' That’s the part of the analogy that’s missing.”

Born A Crime, Trevor Noah

[100-great-books]

[spacenightwing]

Guys… I just have to… okay listen

I picked up the Lighting Thief while in was at a Target with my mom while I was in 8th grade. I hated reading. I hated it. I’d rather do a multiplication table test then partake in popcorn reading (if you know you know, and if you know how much I HATE math that means something).

I’m sitting here right now post-episode 8 (yes I did cry like a baby thank you for asking) watching the behind the scenes documentary A Hero’s Journey.

8th grade me could have NEVER imagined the journey PJO would take. Or the journey I would take in the years of The Lightning Thief to the Sun and the Star, all the way to a freaking faithful series adaptation.

PJO introduced me to fandom. I remember seeking out PJO fan fiction because The Lost Hero came out, there was no Percy, and it was going to be a year long wait to figure out where this “other camp” was. I remember finding every Viria fan art I could find. It’s not even funny how many times over I’ve watched the Viria “How Far We’ve Come” music art video since the drop of episode 1

PJO taught me to love reading. PJO lead me to Hunger Games, Legend and The Young Elites, Rot & Ruin, The Hate U Give, An Ember in the Ashes, Born A Crime, Island of Sea Women, Alex Rider, A Woman of No Importance, Skyhunter, Eragon, Barrackkn: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”, The Sun is Also A Star, Revolution for Dummies, and so so so so many more. It’s because of PJO that I have flown on the backs of dragons, won and lost revolutions, been to the ends of Tartarus and Isihogo (Twice!), saw the world through a spy’s eyes, been the villain, been the hero, and lived more lives than one is allowed to live in one life.

That 8th grader in Target had no idea what she was getting herself into. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Thank you Uncle Rick. Thank you to the whole Disney+ Team that made this season reality.

Uncle Rick. Thank you for a million of your stories, and a million more that you opened up to me.

(Every title and author is tagged below if you want to see more 🩵)

[fleetsofsnow]

"People love to say, "Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime." What they don't say is, "And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod." That's the part of the analogy that's missing." - Born A Crime by Trevor Noah

He's really so good at these because he even prefaces and ends this with an excellent example of how he got his little CD and DJ business starting because "Talent alone would have gotten me nowhere without Andrew giving me the CD writer. People say, "Oh, that's a handout." No. I still have to work to profit by it. But I don't stand a chance without it."

[lilidawnonthemoon]

Born a Crime- Trevor Noah

[girlzoot]

So many black people had internalized the logic of apartheid and made it their own. Why teach a black child white things? Neighbors and relatives used to pester my mom. “Why do all this? Why show him the world when he’s never going to leave the ghetto?” “Because,” she would say, “even if he never leaves the ghetto, he will know that the ghetto is not the world. If that is all I accomplish, I’ve done enough.” —Trevor Noah/Born a Crime

[thecolorsinouruniverse]

love is a creative act. when you love someone you create a new world for them.

trevor noah, born a crime

[quibliography]

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah 🎣

Synopsis:  This novel is a memoir about the life of Trevor Noah growing up in a post-apartheid South Africa. He was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother during a time when it was forbidden for these two people to so much as interact with each other. But even with the end of apartheid, Trevor Noah still had to learn how to live in a fractured world, navigating the differences between being white, being black, being colored, being many of these things, and being none of them.

My Quibs: I already adore Trevor Noah, as a comedian and a storyteller. Seriously, even a short clip of an episode of his run as host of the Daily Show or his podcast What Now, it's so clear how well spoken he is. So obviously, a whole book of it? Sign me up! But I would also recommend listening to it (even maybe reading along as you listen) because 1) the presentation of his words makes the story so much more impactful but 2) I couldn't even imagine how to pronounce the various African languages and names he uses. I think I've learned how to pronounce Xhosa by now though🤞. So just to preface, I came into this memoir with a hint of what to expect and an undying love for the author.

I really believe everyone should read this book. There are so many points that initially is about apartheid and South African history/culture, but actually has a larger message about race relations and how we connect to each other as humans. He tells a story about how his school playground was divided in groups by white/black/colored/other. And how even among the black kids, because Africa of course has its own diversity, there was division by spoken language. And it's not an uncommon experience, considering how America can do that as well. I mean, just as a stupid example, the Mean Girls cafeteria scene when the "cliques" are explained to her. In reality we also divide social lines by what we see and what we hear. It's a universal experience. But his message was how to cross those lines. Trevor Noah is good with languages and uses communication as a means to connect across these divides. He quotes Nelson Mandela saying "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."

But because Trevor Noah is also a comedian, he balances out the seriousness with outrageous stories of the hijinks he got up to. From having to covertly poop in front of his blind grandmother to his "Long, Awkward, Occasionally Tragic, and Frequently Humiliating Education in Affairs of the Heart" (in three parts). Everything he writes is so endearing and feels so relatable despite it being an entirely different life experience than I know. And I've heard many people say now that it's a gateway to wanting to learn more about that part of the world. Americans, at least, have so little education about international history and Trevor Noah provides a great sample of a world that we should be more aware of.

Should you read it? Yes. No conditionals. Just yes. Can't read? Listen to it. Actually, if you can read, listen to it too.

Similar reads? I don't read many memoirs so it's hard to compare. Any one that I have read is distinct in their voice and personality. But if you already like watching him on the Daily Show or on his podcast What Now, I guarantee you'll like this book.

(Spoiler Alert!) He's alluded to his mother being shot in the head when he talks to the audience or his guest on the Daily Show, off air. So I was aware this was not only an event in his life, but obviously a very significant one. So the entire time I was waiting for the full story. To those who didn't know what was coming, apparently it was such an intense ending. (Someone literally had to pause it while they were driving because they wanted to devote their whole attention to this last chapter.) For me whom it was a long time coming, it was still pretty gripping. And dammit, it made me want to keep reading. I need a sequel, Trevor!! Please! Or can his mother write a book about what it was like raising Trevor? I'll take that too, thank you!

What did you think of Born A Crime?

[twinbirdie]

[watchingsunsetsandnetflix]

“He chose to have me in his life. He chose to answer my letter. I was wanted. Being chosen is the greatest gift you can give to another human being.”

—Born A Crime, Trevor Noah

[escapeintothepages]

“The first thing I learned about having money was that it gives you choices. People don’t want to be rich. They want to be able to choose. The richer you are, the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money.”

Born A Crime, Trevor Noah

[quo-usque-tandem]

[eatpraiselove]

That, and so many other smaller incidents in my life, made me realize that language, even more than color, defines who you are to people. - Trevor Noah

[kiryuing]

[fleetsofsnow]

"There is also this to consider: The name Hitler does not offend a black South African because Hitler is not the worst thing a black South African can imagine. Every country thinks their history is the most important, and that's especially true in the West. But if black South Africans could go back in time and kill one person, Cecil Rhodes would come up before Hitler. If people in the Congo could go back in time and kill one person, Belgium's King Leopold would come way before Hitler. If Native Americans could go back in time and kill one person, it would probably be Christopher Colombus or Andrew Jackson.

I often meet people in the West who insist that the Holocaust was the worst atrocity in human history, without question. Yes, it was horrific. But I often wonder, with African atrocities like in the Congo, how horrific were they? The thing Africans don't have that Jewish people do have is documentation. The Nazis kept meticulous records, took pictures, made films. And that's really what it comes down to. Holocaust victims count because Hitler counted them. Six million people killed. We can all look at that number and rightly be horrified. But when you read through the history of atrocities against Africans, there are no numbers, only guesses. It's harder to be horrified by a guess. When Portugal and Belgium were plundering Angola and the Congo, they weren't counting the black people they slaughtered. How many black people died harvesting rubber in the Congo? In the gold and diamond mines of the Transvaal?

So in Europe and America, yes, Hitler is the Greatest Madman in History. In Africa he's just another strongman from the history books." - Born A Crime by Trevor Noah

[chrysanthemumthoughts]

“Growing up in a home of abuse, you struggle with the notion that you can love a person you hate, or hate a person you love. It’s a strange feeling. You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad, where either you hate them or love them, but that’s not how people are.”

-Trevor Noah