图书作者与内容简介

Trevor Noah,  a South African comedian, writer, political commentator and actor. Born a Crime was a memoir based on his childhood in South Africa, it tells a remarkable story starting from his birth on how he navigates in a society where his plain existence was considered a crime. It also gives insight into the culture, system, and criminal activity in South Africa.

我的观点

Trevor Noah’s birth was a crime. Being a colored person, with his mother black and his father white, his birth meant that apartheid wasn’t perfect, and segregation was neither coherent nor sustainable. He represents a direct challenge against the system, against the white government. Hence, in the time of apartheid, he and his mother were always trying to avoid being arrested. In Noah’s childhood, threats not only came from the government and its associates. Society itself was full of peril, criminal activities were common, and a single mother and her harmless child just seemed to be the perfect target. 

Noah mentioned a time they got kidnapped, how his mother didn’t panic at all, threw him out of the car without hesitation and saved their lives. I was fascinated by his mother’s courage yet disturbed at the same time. Knowing about crimes from the victim in such detail was indeed unnerving. What’s more, it didn’t seem to be an uncommon incident. Most of us only learn to view a place as a crime-ridden society, but we never take the time to contemplate the cause. In South Africa's case, crime was part of their life while in apartheid, but it didn’t subside when segregation fell as one might have thought. In fact, instead of uniting for peace, native blacks quarreled for the power of being in command among themselves. Massive riots broke out. Thousands of people were killed brutally. It was chaos, but that was the norm in Trevor Noah’s childhood.

It could trace all the way back to its governing strategy: apartheid. The mechanism of apartheid was forced reservations, segregation, and slavery. These strategies can be seen around the world and throughout history: The Atlantic slave trade, Indian reservations, and segregation of Jews were only some of the best recognized. While each of them was horrifying enough, apartheid was the combination of the three, and it was not out of coincidence. In fact, it was done purposely. 「They set up a formal commission to go out and study institutional racism all over the world.」(p19) Then the white government, the Afrikaners, built the greatest racial oppression system — apartheid, with the knowledge they acquired. I think it’s rather ironic because we were always taught to learn from history, 「let us not make the same mistakes」, and indeed, the Afrikaners did learn from history, they took the expeditions very seriously. But instead of regarding them as a negative example, the white authorities did the contrary. They learned directly from the mistake. 

So what does all this have to do with criminal activities in South Africa? Noah says, 「The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other. You separate people into groups and make them hate one another so you can run them all.」(p3) The traditional African tribes made distinct approaches toward the advance of whites, and this difference was taken advantage by whites in stabilizing their governing. Which later led to the conflict among black tribes over problems which they had not created. 

While the instability of racial structure in society made it hard for people to trust others, poverty is what triggered the final act. Noah wasn’t struggling with food, but he did not have money to attend university either. Therefore, after graduating from high school he went to live by the 「hood」 with his friends in the hope of saving some money. Hood is a complicated place. You sell and buy and party, things pass by so rapidly. One moment, everyone was having fun. The next thing they knew, a gun was being fired. 「What just happened?」 」The hood happened.」 The hood has a gravitational pull. You never fall behind, because there will always be a person worse than you inside, but you were never allowed to leave either. Once you are starting to have a better life, it will drag you back into the mud, no exceptions. 

Similar things happened to his mother when she was young. She called it the 「black tax.」 His mother was talented, ambitious, and determined to live a better life. She earned more than anyone else in the family, but then her family insisted she hand in the money. It is a curse, a curse that will pass on generation after generation. While others moved forward, they lingered behind, trying to fix the problems of the past, yet they found themselves losing everything they owned. The youths who bore the greatest potential soon fell behind, and the same thing started all over again with their children, and their grandchildren. It was a vicious cycle, and the only way to break it was to leave, just like what Noah’s mother did. She decided to live in urban areas and learn from prostitutes on how to navigate the city, rather than being held back by her family. In some ways, it’s a reflection of the hood, a reflection of South Africa’s society, and a reflection of all the poor in the world. 

His mother, Patricia, is probably the most influential person in his life. It was his mother who taught him how to think independently; it was his mother who imposed discipline into him; and it was his mother who showed him how to dream. While others accept racial inequality, his mother took him to ice rinks and suburbs, places where only wealthy people could afford. Other people couldn’t understand, 「Why do all this? Why show him the world when he’s never going to leave the ghetto?」 Patricia replied, 「Because, even if he never leaves the ghetto, he will know that the ghetto is not the world.」(p74) Racial segregation was something that not only restricted one's opportunity, but it also ensured that everyone was ignorant of how other people lived, it made sure that none of them are able to surpass the boundaries imposed on them, not even in their dreams, because most people can only dream what they can imagine.

I was extremely touched by what he wrote. Even though we do not suffer from segregation in Taiwan, I couldn’t stop thinking that maybe the same concept still influences us today. For example, is it possible that children in rural areas don't have issues with resource shortage. On the contrary, is it their imagination that has limited them? Or is it possible that some of them are being held back by the 「black tax,」 trying to pay the debt of their parents?

There were some of the greatest challenges for Noah to overcome in South Africa, yet the most significant one was perhaps the shooting. Everyone has their own way of coping with hardships, but unfortunately, Patricia’s husband, who’s name was Abel’s, has an extreme survival mechanism — violence. He was complicated. Most of the time, he was charming and compassive, but sometimes, he tended to be cruel and aggressive. He had an excessive dose of self-esteem, refusing to accept the mere idea of being disrespected. He shot Patricia in the head, but miraculously, she survived, and there was simply no explanation of how she could live after a bullet went through her head.

In Born a Crime, Noah gave his exclusive account of his life in South Africa. It mentioned the method of surviving challenges, as well as revealing the dark side of society. I learned a great deal from this book through Noah’s humorous narrative. I saw a world I had never known before, and I believe neither could I imagine it before reading the piece. There are borders and gaps between people, and there are distresses and sufferings in life. We choose how to live our lives, we could either accept what we already have or pursue our desires. I learned that no matter what our choice is, don’t let bitterness take over the soul, enlighten ourselves, and we will see beyond the shadows.