Some of the lighter chapters follow Noah’s adventures in his late-teens and early twenties, where he was an entrepreneur selling pirated CDs, stolen goods and offering loans. In the fantastically self-narrated audiobook, Noah shares these darker moments with a casual and humorous delivery that will make you feel guilty for laughing out loud at memories so painful. Each school year was a challenge to fit in. Black relatives treated him differently, because they perceived him as white. He speaks often of not knowing where to belong and feeling largely isolated and disconnected from others. So, his mother found another Colored woman to walk with him while in public, while she trailed behind. That meant neither his mother, who is Black, nor his father, who is white, could be seen in public with him out of fear they would be arrested, and he would be taken away. There’s enough social and political history given to help fill in knowledge gaps, but he doesn’t belabor injustices, instead he shows how they manifested and impacted his family, mainly through the experiences of his mother and biggest champion, Patricia.įirst, as the title suggests, Noah was born a crime as it was illegal for white and Black people to date. Throughout the memoir, Noah seamlessly shifts the narrative from humorous coming-of-age memoir to the somber realities apartheid and post-apartheid politics had on his family and the Black and Colored (apartheid categorization for biracial individuals) communities. He understands misogyny from men in power, systemic racism, senseless violence and living at the poverty line because that was his daily life for more than 20 years in South Africa.įor elder Millennials, “Crime” offers a first-hand account of apartheid - from someone around our age - that those of us in sheltered white communities didn’t have the world knowledge to grasp in middle school current events discussions in the early 1990s. It’s easy to think of Noah as a comedian simply observing and reporting on the world’s happenings, but after finishing “Born a Crime,” you understand that he comes at this commentary from a lived experience. The man-on-the-street interviews at Trump rallies are cringe-worthy perfection and expertly expose the hypocrisy of his most ardent followers. I’m not a regular watcher of The Daily Show, but I’ve come to appreciate the pitch-perfect coverage of American politics under Trevor Noah’s tenure at the anchor desk.
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