 Hey guys it's Leana and I'm here today to talk about Born to Crime by Trevor Noah. I know it's non-fiction and uh it's really not the kind of thing that I normally read or talk about on this channel. That being said if you know me like personally it's entirely unsurprising that I read this book because I'm a big big fan of Trevor Noah and I have been a big fan of his since. I mean this sounds like such a hipster but since before he was famous that yeah that's obviously not true. But um he I first saw him because I watch a lot I'm on Anglophiles. I watch a lot of British panel shows and British comedy and stuff like that and I first saw him on a British panel show where he kind of just was a British commie or was a comedian from South Africa who was being featured on British television and he mentioned his upbringing and he he spoke some tasa which I can't even the name of the language has a click in it so I can't say it right but he spoke some of that and was utterly charming and so well spoken and then when he joined The Daily Show as like one of the cast I was like oh that's Trevor Noah and then he became the host of The Daily Show now everybody knows who Trevor Noah is. So obviously I listened like his friend in high school. I obviously only came to know who he was when he was at least somewhat famous because he was on British television. All that to say I've been a fan of his for a while and when I heard he was publishing this book I pre-ordered it. I got it immediately and I have had the physical book and the audiobook for a long time because the book came out in like 2017 I want to say. 2016 maybe? 2016. This is the first edition. Anyway all that to say this is a memoir of his childhood and growing up during apartheid in South Africa and some of it I was like a little bit familiar with because he talks a lot about his background, his childhood, his upbringing in his stand-up comedy and he weaves it in when he's discussing politics and whatever that's his experience so it's obviously relevant to the way he perceives what's going on presently in America or all this kind of thing. He's always come across as very well-spoken very uh even keeled I want to say that's one of the things I like about his comedy and his personality on The Daily Show. He's not one of those like in-your-face type people that's like really aggressive all the time and really you know what I mean like he's not he just he comes across very calm and collected and well-spoken and like he's put a lot of thought into what he's saying and so I imagined that his book would also reflect that and it does and the audiobook is read by Trevor so if you like audiobooks I recommend audiobook because for one he reads it's a memoir so he's telling his own story so who better to tell his own story than himself but also there's so many instances where people are speaking like a various uh African languages which I would have no idea how they're supposed to sound or how to read them and he he speaks them all so fluently so it just I mean it's not like you couldn't read this book not knowing those languages and like you couldn't read this book it's not like it's written in those languages but hearing him speak those languages I've very much enjoyed and I think added to the experience and it's not something that I'd be able to understand or experience reading it myself because I don't know um he doesn't just also he doesn't just speak African languages he speaks German he speaks Spanish he speaks a bunch of different languages so he's um not just well spoken but he's internationally well spoken this book was too short that's my only complaint about it but that said brevity is its own art and that's one of the top things I praise Neil Gaiman for is his brevity and so Trevor Noah this isn't filled with like a bunch of fluff and unnecessary filler it's really to the point and he tells the stories that he wants to tell and they all kind of connect in some of it it's not entirely chronological it's largely chronological from young very young childhood to young adulthood but he just jump around a bit because he kind of organizes things by theme or where their appropriate or brings in anecdotes that later become relevant or he organizes it in a way that makes sense according to theme as well as his age and this is just such a good book I expected to like it I thought it would be good because I really like Trevor Noah knowing what I know about his life I figured it'd be interesting to hear about how he grew up knowing that being half black if you don't know are partied it was illegal for for black people and white people to marry and to have children or anything like that and his mother is black and his father is white so his existence his very existence is illegal that's why it's called born a crime so I knew that about him and I knew that about his sort of origins so to speak because I'd heard him I don't think that joke but he had referred to himself as being born as having been born a crime before someone I heard that what's what he named his book I was like I don't make sense that's really appropriate but there was just so much more to his I mean I imagine a story about somebody living in impoverished circumstances and having to hide from the law and that's all I really anticipated going into this but there's just so much to what South Africa was like and I don't know anything about it this is pretty much my first experience learning about it which I mean brief aside America's school education system is is so inadequate because I don't know anything about South Africa because it wasn't taught in school it wasn't even taught in university I'm ashamed that I don't know about it but also it's not my fault and I think more people should know about it be taught about it and the things that I was taught in school I just I that's a whole other conversation for another day basically there's just so much to his experience that is just so informative and educational because I know nothing about South Africa I know apartheid was a thing that existed but that's it I didn't really even know when it started how it started when exactly it ended how it ended I just kind of vaguely I'm aware that apartheid is a thing and kind of vaguely what apartheid was about but that's it and now I wouldn't say I'm an expert on it but so much of this was so illuminating and there's a part in the book where you put this down he talks about a friend of his whose name was Hitler and he's a black guy in South Africa his name was Hitler and he is going to be telling a story he's about to tell a story that has Hitler in it but it's important to note that his name is Hitler so he takes a moment before he tells the anecdote to discuss one yeah his name is Hitler and two that's not at all uncommon in South Africa that there's a lot of guys named Hitler and why that is fine or it's actually a great it's really indicative of your western view of things that you would you would gasp at that and if you think of it from their perspective it isn't actually strange that that's occurred and they are not Nazis there and then they can't be white supremacists they're black so he talks about how the the way that people would be naming their children how they would choose their names and how the government's role and how people would choose their names and how they would often revere and want to choose from names that were strong men from history and as far as they're concerned as far as their awareness Hitler is just another strong man from history I don't know I mean they kind of know but not really not and they're not taught about the Holocaust in schools just like we're not really taught about apartheid in schools so like they might kind of vaguely know that Hitler did some bad stuff but Hitler was a big powerful dude that scared the shit out of people and so like that's a strong name and so it's a good strong name to give your kid and that's really all there's to it they're not pro-Hitler they're not pro-nazi they're just choosing a name the way that you might choose you know a name like Thor it's just oh it's just a strong name so his name is Hitler and a lot of people's name is Hitler but then this duck did come up and I mean this became relevant because they don't think of the name as being anything out of the ordinary unusual and they he and Hitler were deejaying at a bar mitzvah and you can see where this ended up going stuff like that just the fact that yeah I of course hear someone's name is Hitler and I'm just like oh my god that's awful but that's because I am taught in school about extremely western events extremely western atrocities and of course the Holocaust is awful but again Trevor Noah makes the point of okay but think about how many black people were killed in Africa when Europeans came and went all the times that they came and went and is that I mean is the Holocaust worse than that I mean it's debatable but we don't talk about those atrocities the way that we talk about the Holocaust like it's the end all and be all have historical atrocities of course the Holocaust is an atrocity there are other atrocities out there and the Holocaust isn't regarded or hasn't affected people in other parts of the world and in their education in their memory in their personal experience so why should they think the Holocaust is worse than the atrocities that they experienced you know and it just that perspective shift I just yeah and I always bring up the fact that I studied anthropology but it did remind me of studying anthropology because part of anthropology is taking the familiar and making it other and taking the other and making it familiar so taking myself out of my own experience and trying to see the world through the eyes of somebody who was educated differently experienced life differently experienced a different part of the world where the things that I just take for granted as being relevant as being important as being facts that you just know the way you know that gravity works and turning them on their head we're like yeah why would they know why would they care that's it's really um arrogant to think that people in Africa would think that Hitler is the worst thing that happened to the world why should they so anyway um this book isn't just about a guy named Hitler there's a lot of I mean his the stories he tells about his childhood they'll have you laughing they will have you crying they will have you shocked and amazed they'll have you it'll warm your heart his oh I came away from this I knew his mother was you know quite a bold woman and quite a strong woman and I mean she raised a half white kid during apartheid like just knowing that about a person is enough to tell you that that person's probably pretty incredible the stories that Trevor tells about his mother she's an amazing woman he really owes a lot of who he is and his success in life to her and I don't think I mean he'd be the first to say that that's true so it was it was incredible I legitimately I was laughing and I was crying and it's an emotional roller coaster that's well worth it Trevor reads it so well because he's it feels like he's just like having a conversation with you he's just chatting with you about his life and it's kind of amazing that somebody how far he's come how high he's risen but also that he's never really forgotten his roots and he's he doesn't tell a story where he's going you should pity me and you should be impressed and you should be amazed at how I have pulled myself out of the misery he doesn't tell it like that he tells it like this all these experiences shaped him and I don't think well I wouldn't say he wouldn't change any of it because a lot of it is very tragic I'm sure he would have preferred not the girl that way but it's not a pity party I guess is what I'm saying he experienced things that that rival pretty much any sob story anybody could ever offer you his his childhood was it's not an easy one but he's not the book isn't trying to like make you feel guilty or or make you again pity him or or anything like that it doesn't feel like that at all it feels very honest and very raw and very it's just really good he tells it well he tells it briefly he tells it anecdotally he tells it in a way that has you laughing and crying and and it's just so good it's so freaking good I was so sad that it was over so quickly because it was so so amazing all right I guess that's all I have to say about it um if you have any interest in all in reading a book about an incredible person who's lived an incredible life then then read Born a Crime and again I'm sure reading it as a physical book would be fine I'm sure it would be enjoyable and great but it's just so much I think it just adds so much to it that he's reading it because they're his memories and because even if you've got a narrator that could speak all those African languages and could read it just as accurately as he does they're his memories so it's just adds something so much more personal to it when you know that the person who's reading it to you right now he lived it he's it's not a story that's his life so I highly highly recommend the audiobook because it feels like a privilege to hear him tell his own story and to share it with us let me know in the comments down below if you are a big fan of Trevor Noah like I am even if you're not a big fan of his comedy I think the book is is still worth picking up because it means stand-up comedy is something so different from an honest examination of one's own life so if his this isn't a humor book this isn't filled with his stand-up and jokes obviously there's some humor in it because some of the circumstances of his upbringing are just humorous in and of themselves in a dark way so there's naturally just as life naturally has comedy built into it but it's not it's not a comedian's book it's just a memoir so pick it up it's what I'm saying I just I can't imagine anyone not getting something out of this book whatever your feelings are about his politics or his comedy or anything like that I highly recommend it if for nothing else it will just open your eyes to a completely different perspective and make you question all the things that you just accepted and took for granted as as positions as knowledge as facts not that those facts aren't true but just their their importance their significance or where they are they're bearing on on your world view yeah okay let me know in the comments down below your feelings about Trevor Noah about memoirs in general about apartheid if you want to tackle that in the comments I guess go ahead let me know anything and everything I post videos on Saturdays sometimes Wednesdays so like and subscribe and I'll see you when I see you bye