Thursday, Jan 27, chapter 6 Born a Crime - two questions with text to respond to
In chapter 6, Trevor Noah spoke of the unifying force of language. The following is from an interview in which he shares his language. Note the language's unique sounds.
Assignment for chapter 6: after having read independently the prologue / foreward, respond to the following questions. (copy below)
1. What was absurd about the classification system of Asians under apartheid?
2. Why was the system set up this way? Weave in text to support your response.
Due by midnight tonight.
In class: please read along with the text, as we listen. If your screen is small, enlarge it by pressing control and plus
Born a Crime chapter 6 pages 57 to 68 entitled Loopholes TEXT
In class we are listening to chapter 6,
Chapter 6 part 1 begin at 1:40 this ends with "I never understood why."
VOCABULARY:
voracious (adjective)- wanting or devouring great quantities of food
Guy Fawkes Day- "Remember, remember the 5th of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot
I knew no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
annual English celebration with fireworks and bonfires to commorate the failed attempt to blow up the English Parliament (like the US capital building) in 1605.
relentless (noun)-oppresively constant or oppressive
cunning (noun/ adjective)-having or showing skill in achieving one's ends by deceit or evasion. (previous word to connet to- furtive. The cunning fox furtively crawled into the chicken coop. (What part of speech is this?)
sociopath (noun)-a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.
bursary (noun)-a scholarship to attend a college or university.
Under apartheid
Apartheid, for all its power, had fatal flaws baked in, starting with the fact that it never made any sense. Racism is not logical. Consider this: Chinese people were classified as black in South Africa. I don’t mean they were running around acting black. They were still Chinese. But, unlike Indians, there weren’t enough Chinese people to warrant devising a whole separate classification. Apartheid, despite its intricacies and precision, didn’t know what to do with them, so the government said, “Eh, we’ll just call ’em black. It’s simpler that way.”
Interestingly, at the same time, Japanese people were labeled as white. The reason for this was that the South African government wanted to establish good relations with the Japanese in order to import their fancy cars and electronics. So Japanese people were given honorary white status while Chinese people stayed black. I always like to imagine being a South African policeman who likely couldn’t tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese but whose job was to make sure that people of the wrong color weren’t doing the wrong thing. If he saw an Asian person sitting on a whites-only bench, what would he say?
“Hey, get off that bench, you Chinaman!”
“Excuse me. I’m Japanese.”
“Oh, I apologize, sir. I didn’t mean to be racist. Have a lovely afternoon.”
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