Biographies where a person beats all odds, rises above, breaks the chains, and lives a successful adult life opposite from their upbringing, are among my favorites. Trevor Noah has one of these inspiring stories.
This memoir on Trevor’s childhood and young adult life growing up post-apartheid in South Africa had me cackling at parts, and brooding at others.
One of my favorite stories of his, was as a young child surreptitiously defecating on his living room floor to avoid trekking to the outhouse while it was pouring outside. He swiftly put it in the trash before anyone saw, and didn’t say a word. But there was a flaw in 6 yr old Trevor’s operation, he neglected to consider the smell. Inevitably, everyone smelt it and exposed the cause. His family concluded a demon had visited their house and left a present. Or a warning? Everyone created a huge fuss, called over the entire family and neighborhood to pray away the demon, and even had Trevor lead this prayer.
I was peeing my pants laughing at this story, and hats off to Trevor for having the courage to tell this embarrassing story.
Trevor had a number of good points worthy of discussion throughout his book. Domestic abuse and his mother’s struggles had a strong pull on me and was where I found myself brooding.
However, I’m going to focus on a story during his DJ career as a teen.
For those who have not read the book yet - the comedian, writer, actor, The Daily Show host we know today, started his professional career as a DJ. He became locally established entertaining at block parties and made a small fortune doing it, to a teenager.
One particular day, he was invited to DJ a cultural mixing party. Looking out at the crowd, he hastily noticed the majority of his audience was Jewish, didn't much of it and began his set. Part of his group’s act was throwing in dancers mid-song where the best dancer in his group was named Hitler. I’m sure you can see where this is going…
As part of his routine, he introduced Hitler and began cheering and chanting his buddies name - "Go Hitler! Go Hitler!"
Flabbergasted and appalled, the coordinator promptly kicked them off stage and out of the party. As an uneducated teenager, Trevor did not understand why and thought it was because they were black. He and the coordinator began shouting at each other, both making completely different arguments, and probably not hearing a word the other was saying.
Noah’s crime - guilty for ignorance.
Trevor explains South Africa’s public school system does an inadequate job teaching children worldly history and facts, and how to critically think. He also explains that during apartheid, black people were required to have an English or European name.
“Westerners are shocked and confused by that [someone’s name being Hitler], but really it’s a case of the West reaping what it has sown. The Colonial powers carved up Africa, put the black man to work, and did not properly educate him.”
“Because of that, many black people in South Africa don’t really know who Hitler was. My own grandfather thought “a hitler” was a kind of army tank that was helping the Germans win the war. Because that’s what he took from what he heard on the news.”
This was a learning moment for me. I assumed the world knew who Hitler was and the egregious story he carved in human history.
Aren't we all guilty for ignorance?
How much of this incident was the result of ignorance and misunderstanding? –100%
I started to contemplate how often similar conflicts occur - failure to communicate, education and understanding gaps between parties. In my personal life and throughout the world, everyday.
What if during clashes such as this scene, we did our best to slow down, control our reactionary emotions, and asked each other questions instead.
What if we ALL practiced this? What if...
How often do you feel misunderstood? How often do you think you misunderstand someone else?
Noah’s story is a prime example that things are not always what they seem. Hardly. We all develop from different experiences, educations, backgrounds, etc. When disputes arise, most of the time, there is critical information being missed on both sides in order to make proper judgements. To analyze the reality of any situation.
We Don't Know Everything - KNOW that
This is a lesson that can be applied in our everyday lives.
With our spouses, family members, with strangers on the other side of the counter, on that Facebook or Twitter post. Something happens that triggers emotions – take a breath, remember that we don't know everything, and ask a few more questions.
On a larger scale - if we all took more time to get to know different cultures and histories, how different this world could be. Across the globe, we could be more connected, feel more heard, supported, and be more empathetic towards each other - I see nothing but positives. World peace!? Am I just dreaming now?
It begins with us and our everyday life.
If you love history or auto/biographies, I absolutely recommend this read.
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Written while overheating in a tiny office space but refusing to take off my cool new sweater.
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