Kaarten: BORN A CRIME QUOTES | Quizlet

Suffering caused by Apartheid - extensive poverty

“Systematically classified into various groups and subgroups…given differing rights and privileges…to keep them at odds.” “Despite the fact that black people made up over 80 per cent of South Africa’s population, the territory allocated for the homelands was about 13 per cent of the country’s land.” “No running water. No electricity. People lived in huts.”

"the black lands were overpopulated and overgrazed, the soil depleted and eroding."

“One chicken to feed fourteen children” “She’d steal food from the pigs.” “she’d steal food from the dogs.” “Literally ate dirt” “She'd mix clay… with water… shed drink that to feel full.”

“Under my grandmother’s roof, she wasn’t allowed to keep her own wages.” “Insisted it all go back to the family.” “You lose everything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero” “The curse of being black and poor…follows you from generation to generation.” “The black tax.”

Suffering caused by Apartheid - lack of education and opportunities.

“The only way to make apartheid work was to cripple the black mind.” “Why teach someone Latin when his only purpose is to dig holes in the ground.”

“Bantu schools taught no science, no history, no civics… because he is primitive.” “Why educate a slave?” “Why give a book to a monkey?”

"Our parents and grandparents ... taught with...song lessons. The way you'd teach a preschooler...' two times two is four."

“If you were a black man you worked on a farm or in a factory or in a mine.” “If you were a black woman you worked in a factory or as a maid.” “By law, white-collared jobs and skilled-labour jobs were reserved for the whites.”

“For generations while his people were preparing to go to university, my people were crowded into thatched huts singing.”

Suffering caused by Apartheid - extreme violence

"When the colonial armies invaded...Zulu charged into battle with...spears and shields against men with guns." "Slaughtered by the thousand."

Violence to enforce Immorality Act "Police would kick down the door, drag people out, beat them, arrest them."

"The army came in and drove them out." "My grandparents were forcibly relocated to Soweto."

"Soweto was designed to be bombed." "Two roads in and out...so the military could quell any rebellion." "Bomb the shit out of everyone." "Only black people were permitted in Soweto."

"White areas you rarely saw police. In Soweto, the police were an occupying army." "Wore riot gear." "Hippos." "Playing in grandmother's house I'd hear gunshots, screams, tear gas being thrown into crowds." (First person narrative)

Impacted During & After Apartheid - Education -> divided education

“The only way to make apartheid work was to cripple the black mind.”

“Bantu schools taught no science, no history, no civics… because he is primitive.”

"Our parents and grandparents ...taught with...song lessons. The way you'd teach a preschooler...'two times two is four'."

“The smart classes, the A classes.” “Almost all of them were white.” The “school counsellor” acknowledged that being in the “B classes with all the black kids,” would “affect” Trevor’s “future” and would “impact the opportunities” he’d have “for the rest of his life.”

“Even after apartheid, most black people still lived in the townships and the areas formally designated as homelands, where the only available government schools were the broken remnants of the Bantu system.”

Impacted During & After Apartheid - segregation poor areas -> remain poverty

“Despite the fact that black people made up over 80 per cent of South Africa’s population, the territory allocated for the homelands was about 13 per cent of the country’s land.” “No running water. No electricity. People lived in huts.”

“One chicken to feed fourteen children”

“My family had been denied the things his family took for granted.” “People always lecture the poor…but with what raw materials are the poor to make something of themselves?” “Know that you will never leave the hood."

“They can’t afford university, and even little retail jobs can be hard to come by when you’re from the hood and you look and talk a certain way."

“Alex can’t get any bigger, because it's pinned in on all sides.” “Wealthy white suburbs grew around it.” “200,000 people living in a few square kilometres.” “Alex hasn’t changed. It can’t change. It's physically impossible to change. It can only be what it is.” you’re always working, working, working, and you feel like something's happening but really nothing’s happening at all.” “We’d end up back at zero.” “It’s a hamster wheel.” “The hood…provides a floor but also a ceiling.”

Impacted During & After Apartheid - used preexisting tensions -> tribal violence

“when the colonial armies invaded…Zulu charged into battle with…spears and shields against men with guns.” “Slaughtered by the thousand.”

“The futility of battle against a better armed foe”

“Soweto was designed to be bombed.” “Two roads in and out…so the military could quell any rebellion.” “Bomb the shit out of everyone.” “Only black people were permitted in Soweto.”

“What I do remember and what I will never forget is the violence that followed.” “Proxy war between Zulu and Xhosa.” “Committing unbelievable acts of savagery” “massive riots broke out” “thousands of people were killed.” “Necklacing was common”

“That’s the problem with you Xhosa women. You’re all sluts, and tonight you’re going to learn your lesson.” “Death was never far away from anybody back then.” “My mother could be raped.” “We could be killed” “I just knew what to do it was an animal instinct learned in a world where violence was always lurking and waiting to erupt.”

Rebellion & Defiance - Defies law and apartheid

“If you were a black woman you worked in a factory or as a maid.” “By law, white-collared jobs and skilled-labour jobs were reserved for the whites.”

“She took a secretarial course, a typing class.” “My mum…was a rebel.”

“Ran away to Johannesburg” “It was illegal for black people to live there.” “Had to carry a pass with your ID number.” “Curfew.” “Was caught and arrested many times.” “She would scrape together the money, pay the fine, and go right back about her business.”

“I want to have a kid.” “Was prevented by law from having a family with him, was part of the attraction.”

“I was born a crime.” “I was proof of their criminality.”

Rebellion & Defiance - tradition family expectations

“As a secretary my mum was earning more money than anyone else.” “Under my grandmother’s roof she wasn’t allowed to keep her own wages.” “Insisted it all go back to the family.” “The curse of being black and poor…follows you from generation to generation.” “The black tax.”

“She ran away” so “she could make her own way in the world.”

“We were always out doing something, going somewhere.” “My mother took me places black people never went.”

My mum raised me as if there were no limitations on where I could go or what I could do.” “Raised me like a white kid… in the sense of believing that the world was my oyster, that I should speak up for myself and that my ideas and thoughts and decisions mattered.”

Rebellion & Defiance - expectation of wife and female role in society

“Abel wanted a traditional marriage with a traditional wife.” “She was the opposite of that in every way.” “The whole tradition of women bowing to the men, my mum found that absurd…She made a mockery of it.” “My mum would go down and cower, grovelling in the dirt like she was worshipping a deity.” “Don’t fight the system. Mock the system.” “Men were not even allowed in the kitchen…at home my mum was forever making me do chores.” “Patricia Noah didn’t stay in anyone’s kitchen.”

“The men had been working all year in the city support the family…but my mum had been working all year in the city too.” “When my mother started making more money and getting her independence back."

Importance of Humour - to address and discuss significant issues within S.A

Mini bus address violence

"So I should have left you there for them to kill you?" "At least they would've woken me up before they killed me." "My mother had saved our life." "At least we're safe thank god." “Look, Mom. I know you love Jesus, but maybe next week you could ask him to meet us at our house because this really wasn’t a fun night.”

“Our arms and legs covered in dirt, laughing together through the pain.”

Hitler address lack of education.

“The colonial powers carved up Africa, put the black man to work, and did not properly educate him.” “My own grandfather thought “a Hitler” was a kind of army tank.” “We weren’t taught to think about how Hitler related to the world we live in.” “The King David school. A Jewish school.” “Go Hitler!” “Get out of here! You people are disgusting!” “And there it was. You people…this lady was racist."

Importance of Humour - in social situations to gain acceptance

“I learned that even though I didn’t belong to one group, I could be part of any group that was laughing.” “I’d drop in…tell a few jokes…and then leave.”

“Dating girls might have been out of the question for me, but talking to them was not, because I could make them laugh.” “My status as the funny non-threatening guy.”

Importance of Humour - through mother who teaches him resilience

“Go away you stupid bushie! Bushman!” “All of these kids started pelting me with berries.” “She burst out laughing.” “There was no subject too dark or too painful for her to tackle with humour.” “Look on the bright side… now you really are half black and half white.”

“My child you must look on the bright side.” “Now you’re officially the best-looking person in the family.” “She broke out in a huge smile and started laughing. Through my tears, I started laughing, too.” “I was bawling my eyes out and laughing hysterically at the same time. We cracked each other up the way we always did, mother and son, laughing together through the pain.”

Sense of Belonging/Outsider - within family

When going for a “walk” “he would walk a good bit away from us” “he panicked and ran away.” “I couldn’t walk with my mother either.” “She would have to drop me and act like I wasn’t hers, like I was a bag of weed.”

Didn't know “how to beat a white child.” “My grandmother treated my like I was white.” “So many perks to being “white” in a black family.” “I was given more lenient treatment then the black kids.” Temperance would call him "Masta" meaning "master."

"Trevor can't go outside...Trevor can't walk without supervision." "“My cousins” and “the neighbourhood kids” could “roam free[ly].” “I’d beg my grandmother to go outside.”

"I was good at being alone."

Sense of Belonging/Outsider - at school/among coloured individuals

“White kids I’d met in the morning went in one direction, the black kids went in another direction, and I was left standing in the middle, totally confused.”

“I’m black…like you.” “you’re not black” “have you not seen yourself.” “They were confused at first, Because of my skin colour.”

“Eden Park was a coloured neighbourhood… half coloured and half black, she figured, like us.” “It didn’t work out that way, we never fit in at all.”

“Coloured people hated me because of my blackness.” “I was proud of my afro. I spoke African languages, and loved speaking them.” “What are you a bushman?” “Coloured people hated me because of my whiteness.” “I could speak perfect English, and I could barely speak Afrikaans.” “Coloured people thought that I thought that I was better than them.”

Sense of Belonging/Outsider - uses language

-on occasions find group to belong

“Sizwe was one of those people who brought out the best in everybody…that friend who believed in you and saw the potential in you that nobody else did.” “Why I gravitated towards him as well.”

“Teddy and I got along like a house on fire.” “Both naughty as shit.” “I finally met someone who made me feel normal.” “Teddy and Trevor…thick as thieves.”

“I chose to have you because I wanted something to love and something that would love me unconditionally.” “I was a product of her search for belonging.”

“I was like her best friend.” “There was this sense of the two of us embarking on a grand adventure.” “Its you and me against the world.” “We weren’t just mother and son. We were a team.”

Is S.A Patriarchal - the societal/cultural expectation of relationships.

“As a nation, we recognised the power of women, but in the home, they were expected to submit and obey.”

"If you don't hit you woman you don't love her."

“Tsonga culture is extremely patriarchal.” “A world where women must bow to greet a man.”

“Men were not even allowed in the kitchen." “The men had been working all year in the city support the family."

Is S.A Patriarchal - police/courts

“To this day I’ll never forget the patronizing, condescending way they spoke to her.” “Your husband? What did you do? Did you make him angry?” “They refused to write up a charge sheet.” "The station turned into a boys’ club. Like they were a bunch of old pals.” “Hey guys…you...know how women can be. I just got a little angry and that’s all.” "Flabbergasted, horrified that these cops wouldn’t help her. "The police was not who I thought they were. They were men first and police second.” “The charge was only attempted murder.” “And because no domestic violence charges had ever been filed in the many times my mother had called the police to report him, Abel had no criminal record.” “He’s walking around Johannesburg today, completely free.”

Is S.A Patriarchal - individuals within family

Abel

Temperance/Dinky(uncle)/Abel

Dinky." "He was abusive but not really." "Was trying to be abusive, but he wasn't very good at it." "He was trying to live up to this image of what he thought a husband should be, dominant, controlling." "If you don't hit your women, you don't love her."

"Crack! He smacked her across the face." "He'd hit her with a bicycle."

"Mom's been shot." "He shot her in the leg...and then he shot her in the head."

"My grandmother convinced my mom that she should give Abel a second chance." "Her argument was basically, "All men do it." My grandfather, Temperance, had hit her."

Is S.A Patriarchal - not all people

"Abel wanted a...traditional wife." "She was the opposite of that in every way." "Tradition of women bowing to the men, my mum found that absurd...She made a mockery of it." "Men were not even allowed in the kitchen ... Patricia Noah didn't stay in anyone's kitchen."

"My mum had been working all year in the city too." "My mother started making more money and getting her independence back."

"I grew up in a world run by women."

"Respect my rules so that I may respect you." "Learn to respect the women in your life." "I grew up in a world full of violence but I myself was never violent at all." "My mother had exposed me to a different world than the one she grew up in." "books" "I saw...that relationships are not sustained by violence but by love."

How Apartheid Flawed - people wanted to and did mix

“Race-mixing…challenges the system as unjust…unsustainable and incoherent.” “Proves that races can mix and in a lot of cases, want to mix.”

“I want to have a kid.” “I was born a crime.” “I was proof of their criminality.”

“Hill brow…was a thriving scene, cosmopolitan and liberal.” “Dared to speak up and criticise the government in front of integrated crowds.” “Black people who hated the status quo and white people who simply thought it was ridiculous.”

“He opened one of the first integrated restaurants in Johannesburg.” “The white people would sit and watch the black people eat, and the black people would sit and eat and watch the white people watching them eat.”

How Apartheid Flawed - can't truly enforce its rules can always be defied

"It was illegal for black people to live there." "She stayed in town hiding and sleeping in public restrooms." "Prostitutes...showed her how to survive." "Dress up in a pair of maids overalls."

"Under apartheid the government labeled everything on your birth certificate: race, tribe, nationality." "Birth certificate...it just says that I'm from another country."

"my mom found the cracks in the system." "Coloured woman...Queen would walk next to me and act like she was my mother."

How Apartheid Flawed - defining categories of race was not consistent

Noah believes the apartheid "had fatal flaws" and that "racism is not logical." Utilising a scenario to present how "racism is not logical depicting a police officer mistaking a "Japanese" man to be a "Chinaman" and apologising for being "racist". "Japanese man had honorary white privilege" "Chinaman treated as black."

"Hotels and restaurants needed them to serve black travellers and diplomats from other countries, who in theory weren't subject to the same restrictions as black South Africans"

Significance of Violence - race and tribal conflict

"Zulu man" "proud" "warrior" "when the colonial armies invaded...Zulu charged into battle with...spears and shields against men with guns." "Slaughtered by the thousand."

"The futility of battle against a better armed foe"

"Forced removal of the natives onto reservations coupled with slavery followed by segregation."

"Called the Bloodless Revolution...as very little white blood was spilt." "Black blood ran in the streets."

"Proxy war between Zulu and Xhosa." "Committing unbelievable acts of savagery" "massive riots broke out" "thousands of people were killed." "Necklacing was common"

"I saw one of those charred bodies on the side of the road one day on my way to school."

Significance of Violence - prevalance of violence in black segregated areas

"Soweto was designed to be bombed." "Two roads in and out...so the military could quell any rebellion." "Bomb the shit out of everyone." "Only black people were permitted in Soweto."

"White areas you rarely saw police. In Soweto the police were an occupying army." "Wore riot gear." "Hippos." "Playing in grandmother's house I'd hear gunshots, screams, tear gas being thrown into crowds." (First person narrative)

"Alexandra" "The parties don't end until someone gets shot or a bottle gets broken on someone face." "The hood." "A cop car chasing gangsters... a gun battle going off." "That's where the serious gangsters were. You only ever went there if you needed to buy an AK-47." "One night I was DJ'ing a party...the police were called about the noise. They came busting in wearing riot gear and pointing machine guns." "What Americans call SWAT is just our regular police." "Pulled this massive assault rifle on me." "The cops started firing tear gas into the crowd." "Tear gas is just what the police use to shut down parties in black neighbourhoods, like the club turning on the lights to tell everyone to go home."

Significance of Violence - domestic violence

"Dinky." "He was abusive but not really." "Was trying to be abusive, but he wasn't very good at it." "He was trying to live up to this image of what he thought a husband should be, dominant, controlling." "If you don't hit your women, you don't love her."

"Crack! He smacked her across the face." "He'd hit her with a bicycle."

"I felt terror." "An undercurrent of terror that ran through the house."

"My grandmother convinced my mom that she should give Abel a second chance." "Her argument was basically, "All men do it." My grandfather, Temperance, had hit her."

Crime Does Not Always Mean Criminal - Patricia

"One of the worst crimes you could commit was having sexual relations with a person of another race." "My parents committed that crime."

"I was born a crime." "I was proof of their criminality." "Ran away to Johannesburg" "It was illegal for black people to live there." "Had to carry a pass with your ID number." "Curfew."

"My mother didn't care." "She stayed in town hiding and sleeping in public restrooms." "Prostitutes...showed her how to survive." "Dress up in a pair of maids overalls." "Was caught and arrested many times." "She would scrape together the money, pay the fine, and go right back about her business."

Crime Does Not Always Mean Criminal - Noah

"Reach in grab a chocolate, drink the rum. Reach in, grab a chocolate, drink the brandy." "A mall cop came." "A black and a white person...it was me." "So f***ed by their own construct of race that they could not see the white person they were looking for was sitting right in front of them." "My life of crime started off small, selling pirated CD's on the corner." "At the time it never occurred to any of us that we were doing anything wrong...why would they make CD writers?"

"The hustle is about trying to be in the middle of that whole thing. None of it was legal."

Crime Does Not Always Mean Criminal - Some commit crime out of necessity and survival

"The mum buying some food that fell off the back of a truck to feed her family."

"They can't afford university, and even little retail jobs can be hard to come by when you're from the hood and you look and talk a certain way." "Crime offers internship programs and summer jobs and opportunities for advancement. Crime gets involved in the community. Crime doesn't discriminate."

"The Hulk." "Shoplifted PlayStation games." "He was out of work and needed money to send to his family back home." "Grows up under Apartheid, working on a farm...essentially slave labour." "He's paid a pittance." "Looking for work trying to feed his children back at home. But he's lost. He has no education. He has no skills...The world has been taught to be scared of him, but the reality is that he is scared of the world because he has none of the tools necessary to cope with." "He becomes a petty thief."

Crime Does Not Always Mean Criminal - some individuals commit crime and should be considered criminals but are not.

"Crack! He smacked her across the face. She ricocheted off the wall and collapsed like a ton of bricks." "Crack! He hit her again."

"I'm here to lay a charge against the man who hit me." Do you really want your husband going to jail?" "They refused to write up a charge sheet."

"He'd hit her with a bicycle." "Again, she called the police, and the cops who showed up this time actually knew Abel...They were pals. No charges were filed. Nothing happened."

"He'd made bail." "So, Abel was out...everything went against us." "The charge was only attempted murder." "And because no domestic violence charges had ever been filed in the many times my mother had called the police to report him, Abel had no criminal record." "He's walking around Johannesburg today, completely free."

Colour vs Ethnicity - laws of apartheid colour more important

"Immorality Act." "Laws prohibiting sex between whites and all non-whites." "Had to register their race with the government." "Millions of people were uprooted and relocated" "Indian areas were segregated from coloured areas, which were segregated from black areas-all of them segregated from white areas."

"Under apartheid if you were a black man you worked on a farm or in a factory or in a mine." "If you were a black woman you worked in a factory or as a maid." "By law, white-collared jobs and skilled-labour jobs were reserved for the whites."

"Bantu schools (for black people) taught no science, no history, no civics... because he is primitive." "White kids went to British private schools."

Colour vs Ethnicity - colour more important as determines social identification

"I'm black...like you." "you're not black" "have you not seen yourself." "They were confused at first, Because of my skin colour."

"My grandmother treated my like I was white." "So many perks to being "white" in a black family." "I was given more lenient treatment then the black kids." Temperance would call him "Masta" meaning "master."

"Agroup of Zulu guys were walking behind me... and were going to mug me." "Why don't we just mug someone together?" "Oh sorry man. We were trying to steal from white people."

Colour vs Ethnicity - ethnicity more important in specific instances

"Called the Bloodless Revolution...as very little white blood was spilt." "Black blood ran in the streets."

"Proxy war between Zulu and Xhosa." "Committing unbelievable acts of savagery" "massive riots broke out" "thousands of people were killed."

"Stereotypes of Zulu and Xhosa women" "Xhosa women were promiscuous and unfaithful" "That's the problem with you Xhosa women. You're all sluts, and tonight you're going to learn your lesson." "My mother could be raped." "We could be killed"

"Racism is not logical depicting a police officer mistaking a Japanese man to be a Chinaman and apologising for being racist."

Overcoming Obstacles - violence -> running

"Minibus driver." "Death was never far away from anybody back then." "My mother could be raped." "We could be killed"

"I ran" "I just knew what to do it was an animal instinct learned in a world where violence was always lurking and waiting to erupt." "Like the gazelle runs from the lion."

"She was always chasing me to kick my ass and I was always running to not get my ass kicked." "A very Tom and Jerry relationship."

"The first time Abel hit me I felt something I had never felt before. I felt terror." "The first blow hit me in the ribs."

"wriggle my way around him." "I ran and I ran and I ran."

Overcoming Obstacles - social obstacles -> language

"The fact that I did speak African Languages immediately endeared me to the black kids." "Speaking the same languages meant that I belonged to their tribe."

"Follow those blacks in case they steal something." "My mother turned around and said in beautiful, fluent Afrikaans." "Why don't you follow these two blacks around so you can help them find what they are looking for?" "Oh sorry, I thought you were like the other blacks."

"The cop started asking him a bunch of questions, but the guy kept shaking his head and saying he didn't understand." "The cop was speaking Zulu." "The hulk was speaking Tsonga." "The second I spoke to him, this face that seemed so threatening and mean, lit up with gratitude."

Overcoming Obstacles - financial obstacles -> tuck shop / hustling

"As a secretary my mum was earning more money than anyone else." "Under my grandmother's roof she wasn't allowed to keep her own wages." "Insisted it all go back to the family." "You lose everything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero" "The curse of being black and poor...follows you from generation to generation." "The black tax."

"She ran away" so "she could make her own way in the world."

As the "black kids" "rode minibuses to school from way out in the townships," and he didn't "have money for petrol," he was on his "own."

"I became the tuckshop guy." "I was an overnight success." "I could afford to catch a bus home instead of walking or save up to buy whatever."

Way Patricia Raise Trevor Admirable or not - to speak multiple languages

"South Africa has eleven official languages." "I learned several languages because I grew up in a house where there was no option but to learn them." "My mum made sure English was the first language I spoke." English "gave you a leg up" ...was the language of money... is the difference between getting the job or staying unemployed...is the difference between getting off with a fine or going to prison."

"The fact that I did speak African Languages immediately endeared me to the black kids." "Speaking the same languages meant that I belonged to their tribe."

"A group of Zulu guys were walking behind me... and were going to mug me." "Why don't we just mug someone together?" "We were trying to steal from white people." "Language even more than colour, defines who you are to people."

"The cop was speaking Zulu." "The hulk was speaking Tsonga." "The second I spoke to him, this face that seemed so threatening and mean, lit up with gratitude."

Way Patricia Raise Trevor Admirable or not - teach how to respect/value women

"I grew up in a world run by women."

"My mom spent a lot of time trying to teach me about women." "Being more of a man doesn't mean your woman has to be less than you."

"Respect my rules so that I may respect you." "Learn to respect the women in your life." "I grew up in a world full of violence but I myself was never violent at all." "My mother had exposed me to a different world than the one she grew up in." "books" "I saw...that relationships are not sustained by violence but by love."

Way Patricia Raise Trevor Admirable or not - broaden her sons perspective on life/world around him

"She chose Trevor, a name with no meaning whatsoever in South Africa." "Beholden to no fate." "Be free to go anywhere, do anything, be anyone."

"One goal free my mind." "Spoke to me like an adult...unlike in South Africa where kids play with kids and adults speak with adults." "My mum did what school didn't. She taught me how to think."

"We were always out doing something, going somewhere." "My mother took me places black people never went." "She refused to be bound by ridiculous ideas of what black people couldn't or shouldn't do."

"Raised me like a white kid... in the sense of believing that the world was my oyster, that I should speak up for myself and that my ideas and thoughts and decisions mattered."

Way Patricia Raise Trevor Admirable or not - not admirable as uses violence discipline but out of love

"She was always chasing me to kick my ass and I was always running to not get my ass kicked." "A very Tom and Jerry relationship." "She was the strict disciplinarian, and I was naughty as shit."

"She never left me in any doubt as to why I was receiving the hiding." "It was discipline from a place of love."

"The reason i ride you so hard and give you so much shit is because I love you." "The world doesn't love you." "When I beat you, I'm trying to save you. When they beat you, they're trying to kill you."

Importance of Strength/Integrity - strength through his mother -> function in society

"She had a level of fearlessness that you have to possess to take on something like she did" "Crazy reckless thing to do." "Didn't stop to consider the ramifications."

"Our neighbours would hole up... behind closed doors." "But not my mom." "She was unwavering in the face of danger." "It always amazed me" (first person narrative) "it didn't matter that there was a war on our doorstep... five hundred rioters with a blockade of burning tires"

"I'm not alone...I've got all of Heaven's angles behind me." "If God is with me, who can be against me?"

"My mother told me these things so that I would never take for granted how we got where we were." Frequently teaching Trevor to "learn from you past but don't cry about your past." "Let the pain sharpen you, but don't hold onto it."

"I was blessed with another trait I inherited it from my mother: her ability to forget the pain in life." "Spend some time crying then wake up the next day and move on."

Importance of Strength/Integrity - the lack thereof in police and courts -> injustice

"Some cops pulled our minibus over." "You're all going to jail." "This cop was shaking us down for a bribe. "Spot fine."" "Do you know why I pulled you over" "Because you're a policeman and I'm a black person?" "That's correct. License and registration please." "Hey, I know you guys are racially profiling me!"

"The more time I spent in jail the more I realised the law isn't rational at all. It's a lottery." "What colour is your skin? How much money do you have? Who's your lawyer? Who's the judge?"

"Abel hit my mom for the second time." "Police were called. They came out." "Hey guys. These women you know how they are. No report was made. No charges were filed."

"Because no domestic violence charges had ever been filed in the many times my mother had called the police to report him, Abel had no criminal record." "He's walking around Johannesburg today, completely free."

Importance of Strength/Integrity - black communities were the epitome of strength and integrity

"There were no paved roads, minimal electricity, inadequate." "But when you put one million people together in one place, they find a way to make a life for themselves." "There is something magical about Soweto...gave us a sense of self-determination and control." "The dream was to transform the ghetto." "Businesses being run out of someone's house." "no one... had cars" "yet almost everyone had a driveway." "Its a hopeful place."

"Alex can't get any bigger, because its pinned in on all sides." "Wealthy white suburbs grew around it."

Despite Hardships was Happy - poverty -> experiences

Show how poverty was a hardship

Car drive

Freedom went places.

"We had so little money for petrol, that I would have to push the car." "Some of the most embarrassing shit in my life." "Pushing the car to school like the f**king Flintstones." "Other kids were coming in on the same road."

"I'll never forget the worst month of my life." "We were so broke...we ate nothing but bowls...of wild spinach, cooked with caterpillars." "The cheapest thing that only the poorest of the poor people would eat." "Wait I'm eating worms."

"I never felt poor because our lives were so rich with experience." "We were always out doing something, going somewhere."

"We were flying."

Despite Hardships was Happy - loneliness -> select friends

"White kids I'd met in the morning went in one direction, the black kids went in another direction, and I was left standing in the middle, totally confused."

"Eden Park was a coloured neighbourhood... half coloured and half black, she figured, like us." "It didn't work out that way, we never fit in at all."

"Sizwe was one of those people who brought out the best in everybody...that friend who believed in you and saw the potential in you that nobody else did." "Why I gravitated towards him as well."

"Teddy and I got along like a house on fire." "Both naughty as shit." "I finally met someone who made me feel normal." "Teddy and Trevor...thick as thieves."

"The hood doesn't judge." "Because I didn't live in the hood I was technically an outsider in the hood, but for the first time in my life I didn't feel like one."

Despite Hardships was Happy - violence -> humour

"That's the problem with you Xhosa women. You're all sluts, and tonight you're going to learn your lesson."

"Minibus." "Death was never far away from anybody back then." "My mother could be raped." "We could be killed"

"Look, Mom. I know you love Jesus, but maybe next week you could ask him to meet us at our house because this really wasn't a fun night."

"Our arms and legs covered in dirt, laughing together through the pain."

"Mom's been shot." "He shot her in the leg...and then he shot her in the head." "I cried tears like I had never cried before."

"My child you must look on the bright side." "Now you're officially the best-looking person in the family." "She broke out in a huge smile and started laughing. Through my tears, I started laughing, too." "Mother and son, laughing together through the pain."

Despite Conflict Ultimately Offers Positive View of Family - mother conflict -> uses her present family in pos light

"She was always chasing me to kick my ass and I was always running to not get my ass kicked." "A very Tom and Jerry relationship."

"I was like her best friend." "There was this sense of the two of us embarking on a grand adventure." "Its you and me against the world." "We weren't just mother and son. We were a team."

"beat the shit out of me" she never left me in any doubt as to why I was receiving the hiding." "It was discipline from a place of love."

When I beat you, I'm trying to save you. When they beat you, they're trying to kill you."

Despite Conflict Ultimately Offers Positive View of Family - familial conflict/misunderstanding -> pos view on fam

"Immorality Act"

"Prohibit illicit carnal intercourse between Europeans and natives"

"Circumstance had pulled us apart, but he was never not my father." "That is what apartheid stole from us - time."

"We'd sneak around and visit my dad when we could."

When going for a "walk" "he would walk a good bit away from us" "he panicked and ran away."

"A scrapbook of everything i had ever done."

"He chose to have me in his life...I was wanted

"I'd beg my grandmother to go outside."

"Trevor can't go outside...Trevor can't walk without supervision." "Fed up with being a prisoner." ""My cousins" and "the neighbourhood kids" could "roam free[ly]." "Children could be taken. Children were taken." "She had to make sure he wasn't watching when she smuggled me in and out of the house."

Despite Conflict Ultimately Offers Positive View of Family - critical view on abusive/violent family members

"The first blow hit me in the ribs." "Grabbed the skin on my arms...pinched...and twisted it hard." "The first time Abel hit me I felt something I had never felt before. I felt terror." "The first blow hit me in the ribs." "It was the most terrifying moment of my life. I had never been that scared before, ever."

"Mom's been shot." "He shot her in the leg...and then he shot her in the head."

"My mum had been shot by a man I despised." "I cried tears like I had never cried before." "An expression of raw pain." "I broke in two."

Importance of Language - enable acceptance and stronger connections.

"The black kids went in another direction, and I was left standing in the middle, totally confused." "The fact that I did speak African Languages immediately endeared me to the black kids." "Speaking the same languages meant that I belonged to their tribe."

"Your date she does not speak any English." "Babiki." "I tried talking to her in every language I knew. Nothing worked." "She only spoke Pedi." "We sat in total awkward silence the whole way."

(failure to develop intimate relationship)

Importance of Language - social harmony and bridge racial divisions.

"Apartheid...separated" people "not just physically through language." "In Bantu schools, children taught their home language ... to fight among ourselves... believing that we were different."

"The quickest way to bridge the race gap was through language." "It wasnt common to find a white person or a coloured person who spoke African languages; during apartheid white people were taught that those languages were beneath them."

"I spoke African languages, and loved speaking them." "What are you a bushman?"

"I could speak perfect English, and I could barely speak Afrikaans." "Coloured people thought that I thought that I was better than them."

Importance of Language - Evade trouble or danger, clarify misunderstanding.

"Follow those blacks in case they steal something." "My mother turned around and said in beautiful, fluent Afrikaans." "Why don't you follow these two blacks around so you can help them find what they are looking for?" "Oh sorry, I thought you were like the other blacks."

"A group of Zulu guys were walking behind me... and were going to mug me." In Zulu. "Why don't we just mug someone together?" "We were trying to steal from white people." "Language even more than colour, defines who you are to people."

"The cop was speaking Zulu." "The hulk was speaking Tsonga." "Black person to black person, and neither could understand the other."