Born A Crime By Trevor Noah

Born February 20, 1984, Trevor was evidence of a crime, a crime that went against the rulings of apartheid in South Africa. In the 1990s, apartheid was a system enforced to perform racial segregation within the country. Apartheid was created by Afrikaner– dutch settlers, who encrypted laws that ruled it was illegal to have interracial sex, let alone children. However, in Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime,” Robert– a white male, and Patrica– a black female, conceive and give birth to a mixed baby– Trevor Noah. Thus throughout his book, Noah depicts how the setting and time of apartheid in South Africa– Soweto, brought hardship to Noah and his family. Moreover, through Noah’s work, I realized that segregation can be prevalent no matter where you live,

As a citizen of the United States, I have had first-hand experience observing cultural divides. Though they are less drastic than in South Africa, there are similar correlating factors in which communities are segregated. Fortunately, interracial mixing is not illegal or a factor; however, California is home to many cultures, races, and languages. However, in Santa Barbara, we are divided by wealth and language. Our local community has several areas where low-income families are forced to live due to the increasingly high living prices. This fluctuation in the cost of living has led our communities to be divided by wealth. Noah states, “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” (Noah 188). . -and more likely, these families tend to be of Mexican descent. Though wealth is a drastic factor causing aid in the divide, language is another significant factor. According to Trevor, “Language brings with it an identity and a culture, or at least the perception of it. A shared language says ‘We’re the same.’ A language barrier says ‘We’re different” (Noah 49). From a very young age, our schools implemented classes to educate and teach us about Spanish heritage and the language. Though we did not understand the significance at the time, as we grew older, the language divide became more drastic. Furthermore, though South Africa and the United States are 8,941 miles apart, our communities are divided by similar