Trevor Noah Chameleon Essay

Elana Selman

A Block

10/6/17

Born A Crime by Trevor Noah describes stories and experiences from the comedians

childhood in South Africa. At the time that Noah was growing up in South Africa, the Apartheid

was in place. This meant that the different racial groups of the country were systematically

segregated by the government and were subjected to policies that discriminated against non-

whites. The different racial groups were further separated by language barriers which created a

large gap between the different races and tribes. According to the Chameleon, first chapter of

the book, the quickest way to bridge the race gap is through (shared) language because it

provides a perceived shared identity or culture, creates trust, and it cannot be used as a tool to

bring other races down.

The first reason that the race gap can be best closed through language because it

brings with it an identity and a culture, or at least the perception of it (Noah, 49). In the book,

Trever Noah explains that this is because a shared language says Were the same [but,] a

language barrier says Were different. (Noah, 49). One of the many instances in this chapter

(and Noahs life) in which it became clear to him that you could use language to create a bridge

between the gap between the assumed identities of different races was when he first attended a

government school and was quickly accepted by the black kids after demonstrating that he

could speak their languages. In this chapter, Noah says he came to realize that language, even

more than color, defines who you are to people (Noah, 56). He was able to be accepted into

the black kids tribe at school because the language he used projected an identity to them that

they felt they shared. He explained simply that maybe I didnt look like you, but if I spoke like

you, I was you (Noah, 65).

 Another reason why language is the quickest way to bridge the race gap is because it

creates more trust between races. Contrastly, when there is a language barrier between races,

it doesnt create trust. For instance, if youre racist and you meet someone who doesnt look

like you, the fact that he cant speak like you reinforces your racist preconceptions: hes

different, less intelligent (Noah, 49). In the introduction, Trever Noah gave an example of a

situation in which the lack of a shared language can create distrust. He talked about how if a

Mexican scientist who spoke broken English came to live in America, there would be people

who would immediately not trust his skills as a scientist based only off the language he speaks.

But, as Noah grew up he saw in his own life how shared language can be used to build trust

between people of different races. For example, because he is mixed and used to live Soweto

(an almost entirely black town), he would get suspicious looks from people just looking down

the street. Where are you from? theyd ask. [Hed] reply in whatever language theyd

addressed [him] in, using the same accent that they used. There would be a brief moment of

confusion, and then the suspicious look would disappear (Noah, 55). The original suspicion

they had towards him due to his different skin color would completely disappear when he used

the same language as them and created trust. Other methods of creating trust between races

could take large amounts of times while it only took a moment of confusion for Noah to use

language to do so.

The use of shared language between different races quickly creates equality between

them. According to Born A Crime, the architects of the apartheid understood that language

was the key to bridging the race gap so in their effort to divide black people, they made sure

that they were separated not just physically, but by language as well (Noah, 49). In this way,

they were able to get black South Africans to fall into the trap the government had set up for

[them] and fight among [themselves], believing that [they] were different and use language as a

tool to create extreme levels of inequality between the different racial groups. But, by eliminating

the barrier created by the use of different languages by different racial groups, the ability to use
language as a tool to bring other races down is eliminated too. An example of this from Trevor

Noahs life that is described in the chapter, Chameleon was when a group of Zulu guys

surrounded him and spoke to each other in Zulu (a language they presumed he didnt speak

because of his skin color) about how they were going to mug him. But, because Noah spoke

their language, their plan fell apart because he was prepared so he spun around real quick and

said,... Yo, guys, why dont we just mug someone together? Im ready, Lets do it. They

couldnt use their ability to speak Zulu as an advantage in stealing from from him because they

spoke the same language. Equality was created between them because the gap between their

races from language being used as an advantage to prevent Trever Noah from understanding

them didnt exist.

In conclusion, the quickest way to bridge the race gap is through language. From Trevor

Noahs experiences in the chapter, Chameleon it can be learned that this is because through

shared language, unity from a shared sense of identity, trust, and equality is formed.