Learning Resources Division: Freshman Book Series (Common Read): 2020-2021: Born a Crime

Born a Crime

The Freshman book selected for the Class of 2024 is Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.

Summary

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.

** From Amazon

Themes

The book looks at the following themes:

Code-Switching, Dueling Identities, and Double-Consciousness
Identity and Blackness
Institutional and Structural Racism
Family, Community, and Belonging
The Power of Language
The Cycle of Poverty and Racism
Injustice and Social Action
Struggle and Perseverance
Love and Personal Growth
Hustle, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship
Religion and Community
Humor
Education

Author Information

Trevor Noah is the most successful comedian in Africa and is the host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Daily Show on Comedy Central.

Born in South Africa to a black South African mother and a white European father, Noah has hosted numerous television shows including South Africa’s music, television and film awards, and two seasons of his own late-night talk show, Tonight with Trevor Noah.

In November 2016, Trevor released his first book Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, which was an instant New York Times bestseller. It was nominated for two NAACP Image Awards, one for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author and another for Outstanding Literary Work in the Biography/Auto-Biography category.

The book is a collection of personal stories about growing up in South Africa during the last gasps of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that came with its demise. Already known for his incisive social and political commentary, here Noah turns his focus inward, giving readers an intimate look at the world that shaped him. These are true stories, sometimes dark, occasionally bizarre, frequently tender, and always hilarious. Whether subsisting on caterpillars during months of extreme poverty or making comically hapless attempts at teenage romance, from the time he was thrown in jail to the time he was thrown from a speeding car driven by murderous gangsters, the experiences covered in this book will shock and amaze, even as they leave you rolling on the floor with laughter.

From TrevorNoah.com

Read-Alikes

If you enjoyed Born a Crime you might enjoy these books as well:

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Zami: A New Spelling of My Name ZAMI is a fast-moving chronicle. From the author’s vivid childhood memories in Harlem to her coming of age in the late 1950s, the nature of Audre Lorde’s work is cyclical. It especially relates the linkage of women who have shaped her . . . Lorde brings into play her craft of lush description and characterization. It keeps unfolding page after page.

Book Discussion

Discussion Questions

Born a Crime is a gripping memoir that provokes a lot of discussion about institutional racism, family, and perseverance among other topics. Here are a few discussion questions to get you started talking about the book.

What role does religion play in Trevor's life? How does Trevor view the importance of religion versus his mother's views?
Why do you think Patricia, Trevor's mother, used "tough love" when parenting Trevor? What impact does a parenting style have on a person's life?
Trevor often discusses swapping languages to fit in. What impact does this code-switching have on his life? How does his code-switching differ or is similar to code-switching in your life?
Trevor has two different father figures in his life. How are they different? What impact does that have on Trevor?
Trevor prefaces each chapter with history or insights on apartheid and living in South Africa, how does this structure impact your understanding of his life?
How does your previous awareness of Trevor and his life story impact your reading of the book?
How does apartheid in South Africa compare to institutional racism in the United States and elsewhere?
What role does domestic abuse and violence play in Trevor's narrative?
What is the difference between discipline and abuse throughout the book? Is there a difference?
What moment in the book had you laughing out loud? Why?
What is your opinion on the way Trevor balanced humor and serious topics throughout the book?
Trevor spends a lot of time with his family. What role does family play in his upbringing?
Trevor often refers to his skin color and how he doesn't fit into any group. What color does skin color variation play throughout the book? How is that mirrored in your experiences?
Trevor often hustles throughout the book to make money? Why? What role does hustle play in your experience? How is hustling the same or different as being an entrepreneur?
Why do you think Trevor's mom chose to stay in South Africa? What would you have done?
Trevor often talks about being an outsider or "the only." What role do you think that played in his life? How have you experienced that?
The book discusses how groups are divided to fight against each other to serve an in power minority. How is that still replicated today?
Trevor’s mom adapted to live her life in a city that didn’t want her to live there. Is this a type of code switching? What are other ways people have adapted to live in areas that are determined to keep them out?
What were you most shocked to read or learn? Why?

You can find even more discussion questions in the links below.

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ISBN: 1776140575
Publication Date: 2017-09-01
The Dutch Reformed Church, it was said in apartheid South Africa, was the National Party at prayer, and indeed, given that the Bible was so fundamental to much of the legislation that governed the apartheid state, that apparently satirical description had the ring of truth. 'Religion in South Africa's past', writes Dhammamegha Annie Leatt has been 'saturated by politics' and politics 'saturated by religion'. So how, she asks, was it possible for a new state to found itself without religious authority? Why did the churches give up so much of their political role in the transition? How can we think about tradition and the customary in relation to secularism? How can we not? In The State of Secularism Leatt guides the reader from a history of global political secularism through an exploration of the roles played by religion and traditional authority in apartheid South Africa to the position of religion in the post-apartheid state. She analyses the negotiations relating to religion in the constitution-making process, arguing, that South Africa is both secular in its Constitution and judicial foundations and increasingly non-secular in its embrace of traditional authorities and customary law. In the final chapter Leatt turns her attention to post-apartheid South Africa, examining changing relationships between churches and the ruling African National Congress and the increasing influence of traditional leaders and evangelical Christians in an anti-liberal alliance. This book makes a tremendous contribution to the literature on postcolonial politics on the African continent. It has wonderful insights into the founding of a constitutional democracy in South African and will appeal to students in history, politics, sociology and anthropology and constitutional law.
Wild Religion by David Chidester
ISBN: 0520951573
Publication Date: 2012-04-23
Wild Religion is a wild ride through recent South African history from the advent of democracy in 1994 to the euphoria of the football World Cup in 2010. In the context of South Africa's political journey and religious diversity, David Chidester explores African indigenous religious heritage with a difference. As the spiritual dimension of an African Renaissance, indigenous religion has been recovered in South Africa as a national resource. Wild Religion analyzes indigenous rituals of purification on Robben Island, rituals of healing and reconciliation at the new national shrine, Freedom Park, and rituals of animal sacrifice at the World Cup. Not always in the national interest, indigenous religion also appears in the wild religious creativity of prison gangs, the global spirituality of neo-shamans, the ceremonial display of Zulu virgins, the ancient Egyptian theosophy in South Africa's Parliament, and the new traditionalism of South Africa's President Jacob Zuma. Arguing that the sacred is produced through the religious work of intensive interpretation, formal ritualization, and intense contestation, Chidester develops innovative insights for understanding the meaning and power of religion in a changing society. For anyone interested in religion, Wild Religion uncovers surprising dynamics of sacred space, violence, fundamentalism, heritage, media, sex, sovereignty, and the political economy of the sacred.
Winning Our Freedoms Together by Nicholas Grant
ISBN: 1469635291
Publication Date: 2017-10-18
In this transnational account of black protest, Nicholas Grant examines how African Americans engaged with, supported, and were inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement. Bringing black activism into conversation with the foreign policy of both the U.S. and South African governments, this study questions the dominant perception that U.S.-centered anticommunism decimated black international activism. Instead, by tracing the considerable amount of time, money, and effort the state invested into responding to black international criticism, Grant outlines the extent to which the U.S. and South African governments were forced to reshape and occasionally reconsider their racial policies in the Cold War world. This study shows how African Americans and black South Africans navigated transnationally organized state repression in ways that challenged white supremacy on both sides of the Atlantic. The political and cultural ties that they forged during the 1940s and 1950s are testament to the insistence of black activists in both countries that the struggle against apartheid and Jim Crow were intimately interconnected.

Research Resources

You can further explore the events, themes, and ideas in Born a Crime in these recommended library databases.

Access World News
Newsbank Access World News provides a combination of global, regional, and local news, including a unique merging of news formats (PDF image editions, web-only, full-text), this resource supports a diverse range of research needs across an array of academic disciplines for students and faculty.
AfricaBib Africana Periodical Literature Database
Incorporating the Quarterly Index of African Periodical Literature, the Africana Periodical Literature database provides metadata of articles on Africa covering a wide range of topics, from geography, history and anthropology to agriculture, women's studies, medicine and health. It currently contains more than 177,000 records from over 800 journals.
Archive of African Journals
The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals.
Arts & Humanities Database
This database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theater, and Cultural Studies.
Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League
Booker T. Washington, founder of the National Negro Business League, believed that solutions to the problem of racial discrimination were primarily economic, and that bringing African Americans into the middle class was the key. In 1900, he established the League "to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro," and headed it until his death.
Credo Reference
Credo is a vast, online reference library, providing access to the full text of hundreds of highly regarded and popular titles. Credo Reference contains dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopaedias, quotations and atlases, plus a wide range of subject-specific titles.
Ebony Magazine Archive
Covers civil rights, education, entrepreneurship, and other social topics with an African-American focus. It includes more than 800 issues providing a broad view of African-American culture from its first issue in 1945 through 2014.
Electronic Journals and Newspapers on Africa
Since 1997, Columbia University's collection of African Studies Internet Resources has served as the official WWW-Virtual Library guide for African Studies. This list includes only "free" publications on the Internet.
JSTOR
Digitized back issues of scholarly journals with a rolling date of five years ago. Covers a wide variety of disciplines. Includes JSTOR Arts and Sciences I-XIII, Life Sciences, Business IV, Hebrew Journals, Ireland, Lives of Literature, Public Health, Security Studies, Sustainability, Global Plants, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, World Heritage Sites: Africa. Also includes e-books and digital repositories with primary source materials.
Opposing Viewpoints In Context
The premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. Opposing Viewpoints in Context helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.

Instructor Resources

The ideas in the tabs above act as prompts to help you develop discussions, projects, or assignments related to Born a Crime. They offer suggestions for ideas to include in your class or on your syllabus.

Here are some tips for leading a successful book discussion:

Before the Discussion

Read the book completely and take notes about the themes, motifs, and topics. Write down important page numbers and highlight important passages.
Come up with eight to ten questions about the book. You can also see a list of discussion questions for this title here.

During the Discussion

Ask your question and let others answer first.
Make connections between comments.
Ask follow-up questions.
Bring the conversation back to the discussion if people go off on tangents.
Don't feel obligated to ask all your questions.
Don't end a conversation if people are on-topic and really enjoying what they are sharing.
Wrap up the discussion by highlighting key points.
Thank the participants.

You can find some sample discussion questions elsewhere in this guide.

The following may be used as project prompts for Born a Crime:

Create a vision board or collage of your different identities.
Write a comedy bit related to the themes of the book and your personal experience.
Have students discuss the meaning of their names and how they think that meaning shows in their personality.
Create a vocabulary list of words and definitions you use that are not common.
Create a work of art expressing Trevor's statement “Love is a creative act.” (page 262, paperback)
Write lyrics for a hip hop song about the book or that Trevor could have used during his DJing.
Write a business plan for one of Trevor's hustles (tuck shop runner, CD burner, DJ, etc.)

The following may be used as writing prompts for Born a Crime:

What is code-switching? What role does it play in the book and in your personal life?
What role does history have on how communities view institutional racism?
What role does religion play in the book and in your personal life?
Discuss your opinions on discipline and physical abuse as it relates to parenting and family.
What role does language play in the book and in your life?
Discuss institutional racism. What is it? What impacts does it have on your life?
Discuss "the pencil test." What is it and how did reading about that make you feel?
In what ways are you "the only?" How does the impact your life?
How do you define yourself versus how others see you or stereotype you?

Freshman Book Series (Common Read)