laughing. I started laughing, too, and we stood there, this little boy and his mom, our arms and legs covered in blood and dirt, laughing together through the pain in the light of a petrol station on the side of the road in the middle of the night” (Noah 19). Trevor Noah’s depiction of apartheid is pretty interesting. It’s told from a naive childish perspective, which makes the subtle examples of oppression all the more intense. It's somewhat as if he became desensitized to violence and conflict, not only by the frequency, but the severity of his predicaments. In addition, his mother’s relationship with him seems borderline disturbing. Not only because their dynamic is authoritarian, but because in many ways his mother is another example of oppression. She is devoutly religious, and consigns her faith to Trevor, who albeit skeptical, seems to have partial faith. Almost the entirety of the chapter is narrated as a progressive development between Noah and his mother, emphasizing religion and how instead of hope, it divided them. Of course, it's unclear whether their relationship can be described as abusive, but it certainly wasn’t healthy. It seems Noah suffered from both apartheid and adolescence. - Jett

and regulations—I was born a crime”(Noah 23). 


Imagine from the moment you were born, the majority of society has already rejected you as a person. Plus it is illegal to just be yourself. That is what Trevor Noah had to go through. Anybody should be given the freedom to create life with whoever they wish and should not be bound in any sort of way by any law or government or person. This one quote has meaning to all of Trevor Noah's life. It made him feel isolated as a kid, alone. It kept with him forever. He wasn't able to lead a "normal" life due to him being a mixed child. He wasn't able to go outside and play with the other children. He wasn't allowed to just walk around with anybody. Everywhere he went, his family had to be careful and keep him hidden. Although he did not know of any other kind of life, it was still hard.-Lucas

A strategy that the apartheid attempted to accomplish was to separate and segregate people of different races. Trevor Noah, being a person of mixed race goes against everything the apartheid tried to accomplish. One of the main purposes of the apartheid was to separate people and race-mixing is a direct violation of that. Therefore, Noah shares it is even worse than treason since it’s such an offense to the system the apartheid represented. This quote stood out to me because it exemplifies the racist and controlling society that the apartheid attempted to maintain.  Like most authoritarian systems, apartheid responded to challenges to control by trying to crush them entirely. Yet even under the oppressive influence of apartheid, people of different races experienced love and desire and mixed-race people show that no system of laws can ever fully control or contain human impulses.

-Jasmin P

really set him off…  Zulu women were well-behaved and dutiful. Xhosa women were

promiscuous and unfaithful. And here was my mother, his tribal enemy, a Xhosa

woman alone with two small children… ‘Oh, you’re a Xhosa,’ he said.

‘That explains it. Climbing into strange men’s cars. Disgusting woman’”(Trevor 16). Trevor Noah’s personal recollection reveals the increasing ethnic conflict and division under apartheid. The situation described in the minibus is a microcosm for the distinct racial division between minorities in South Africa, specifically the ideological contention between the native Zulu and Xhosa cultures. South Africa’s title as the “rainbow nation” is certainly appropriate given its historical legacy as a figurative melting pot of racial, religious, and economic identities. The established strata of the region demonstrate diversity on a scale likely unique to history, many South Africans can trace their descent to Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Muslim, Hindu, European, Afrikaner, and Asian heritage. The apartheid succeeded in creating a brutal police state, institutionally normalizing racism, systematically oppressing civil outcries, and--most tragically--driving marginalized groups against each other. The conflict is an allegory for the divisive state of South Africa, the driver’s attitude is influenced by his internalizing of the environment around him. He embraces conflict and stereotypes, lashing out at the thought of another driver taking his passengers. While the white-Black racial power struggle is principal when examining the apartheid, the struggles between minorities--consequent to apartheid laws--is equally significant and despondent. The horizon following Mandela’s freedom is inconceivably wide, however, it is bleak with the discordant dregs of the past.