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Born a Crime, Race: " If you were applying to be white, the pencil…

- - - - "So people started approaching me during assembly. Theyd say, "Hey, Ive got ten rand. If you buy my food for me Ill give you two." Thats when I learned: time is money." (Pg. 140)
  - - - "Oher colored people hated me because of my whiteness. Even though I identified as being black, I had a white father, I went to an English private school. Id learned to get along with white people at church. I could speak perfect Englich, and I barely spoke Afrikaans, the language colored people were supposed to speak. So colored people thought I thought I was better than them." (Pg. 121)
        
        As a mixed-race child, Trevor felt more animosity from the mixed-race community than from other racial groups. Trevor felt hated by white people because of his brown skin and curly hair, but he was also ridiculed by Balck people for having a perfect English.
  - - - "The colored kids would shit on me all the time for being too black. So I wasnt welcome there. As always, I was adept enough with white kids not to get bullied by them, but the white kids were always going shopping, going to the movies, going on trips-things that required money. We didnt have many money, so I was out of the mix there too ." (pg. 1389
        
        In the eight grade, Trevor began attending Sandringham High School. Trevors classmates were a mix of white, Black, mixed race, and township students. As in most social settings, Trevor had a hard time figuring out which group to join, since he felt disconnected from the social groups in his school.
  - - - "My mind was racing trying to figure out what she was talking about. Then it clicked. Hitler had a special dance move called o spans va. It means "where you work" and it was very sexual: His hips would gyrate and thrust, like he was fucking the air. That was the move he was doing at the moment the teacher ran out, so clearly the dance was the thing she found so disgusting. But this was a move that African people do all the time. Its a part of our culture. Here we were sharing our culture for a cultural day, and this women was calling us disgusting." (pg. 198)
        
        Trevors group was instantly shut down when they brought out their dancers and started shouting "Go Hitler! Go Hitler, Go Hitler!". Trevor did not understand her hostility, and he believed this white women was reacting in a racist manner to his Black friends.
- - - - "It was me. I was Teddys best friend. I was Teddys only friend. I was the single most likely accomplice. You had to at least suspect that it was me. They didnt. They grilled me for a good ten minutes, but only because they were so sure that I had to know who this white kid was." (pg. 159)
        
        Trevor and his friend Teddy regularly get into trouble together. One day, the two boya were caught stealing from a store and were chased by a mall cop. Trevor lost track during the chase, but he was able to evade de cops. The next day, Trevor was called into the principals office to identify the other boy caught on the security camera. Trevor gave no name and left Teddy taking all the blame for the shoplifting they both did.
  - - - In the hood, people felt like they didnt know who they were, such as a lack of identity. They believed they didnt have to work to achieve anything since they had no goals in life and their successes werent seen as much.
  - - - "I know you see me as some crazy old bitch nagging at you, but you forget the reason I ride you so hard and give you so much shit is because I love you. Everything I have ever done Ive done from a place of love. If I dont punish you, the world will punish you even worse. The world doesnt love you. If the police get you the police dont love you. When I beat you Im trying to save you. When they beat you, theyre trying to kill you". (Pg. 243)
        
        Patricia explained Trevor that she was so hard on him because she loved him and cared for him, and that the world would try to kill him.
  - - - Trevor didnt like when Patricia beat him but he understood It was to teach him lessons, however not necessarily because she loved him. Throughout his life he got used to this and now normal, although it still hurt him.
- - - - Values: "All you had to do was denounce your people, denounce your history, and leave your darker-skinned friends and family behind" In Apartheid people could submit application to the government to get promoted to be white. Out of desperation people were willing to trade their family for societies acceptance.
      - bullying: "Yes I thought, this is it. Big brother is going to get my revenge for me." abusive treatment can transform people. The anger of being chosen to be ridiculed makes people explode and act unconsiously. it makes monsters out of people, no compassion, and no mercy.
      - "husband who became the stepfather who became the man who tortured us for years and put a bullet in the back of my mothers head". Abel used to be recognized as a hard-worker and respectable man, when patricia married his true colors came to light