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How Is Discrimination Shown In Born A Crime

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Imagine being a child and it is illegal for you to be born. That's what Trevor Noah had to deal with in his life, and he tells it all in Born a Crime. Born a Crime is a New York Times Bestselling Novel written by a South African comedian named Trevor Noah. He was born on February 20, 1984, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Throughout the novel, Noah tells about the living conditions of South Africa during the reign of the apartheid government, which separated people into 3 groups: white, black, and colored. It was illegal for Trevor to be alive was because his parents were not of the same race, so it broke apartheid law. Even after Apartheid ended, it was described that the government's actions were ingrained into society. Two main themes presented …show more content…

It directly affects Trevor because of the color of his skin. "And there it was. You people. Now I saw what the deal was: This lady was racist" (Noah 198). Even though it was proved that the teacher wasn't actually a racist and just thought Trevor was a nazi, Trevor didn't know this. Therefore, he still suffered internally from the discrimination. He also had a hard time at H. A. Jack. "Lorenzo was everything I wasn't. He was popular. He was white. He'd upset the balance of everything by asking out the only colored girl in school" (Noah 133). When Trevor got rejected by Maylene on Valentine's Day, he understood. This correlates to discrimination because it presents how even though Maylene said ''yes,'' she eventually changed her mind. After all, Trevor wasn't white like Lorenzo. All in all, Trevor's bad experiences show how discrimination was an influential component in making him into what he is …show more content…

The main reason why the government was controlling others in apartheid was because of discrimination. "Why educate a slave? Why teach someone Latin when his only purpose is to dig holes in the ground" (Noah 61). Since the white government thought that black people's brains were smaller than theirs and thought they were better in every single way, they treated blacks horribly. They rarely gave them any opportunities, and they even made it so blacks couldn't learn as much as the whites in school. In addition to this, discrimination relates to controlling others in the novel because of Trevor's mom's actions. "My mom never gave me an inch. Anytime I got in trouble it was tough love, lectures, punishment, and hidings" (Noah 227). His mom controlled Trevor by never letting him go when he was in trouble. She did this because she knew that the world would never let him off easy because the world did not love her son, and that the world might hate him because of the color of his skin. In brief, these reasons conclude how discrimination and controlling others relate to each

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