Wednesday, Nov 10, Day 2 Born a Crime: Immorality Act of 1927

 

Important takeaways from the act that impacted Trevor Noah's life?

What are miscegenation laws?

The following information has been excerpted from Teen Vogue magazine

Starting in the late 1600s, miscegenation laws — which banned black people and, in some cases, other non-white groups from marrying or having sex with white people — were put into effect.

To understand these laws, it is critical to understand the ways in which people of color in the U.S. have been dehumanized, tortured, and exploited for centuries. Like Jim Crow laws, which were established in the late 19th century, miscegenation laws aimed to uphold the false sanctity of whiteness while simultaneously disenfranchising an entire group of people. Although slavery had been abolished, the belief that black people are inherently inferior to whites was still deeply embedded into American society.

It wasn’t until 1967 that the Supreme Court ruled that state miscegenation laws were unconstitutional in the landmark case Loving v. Virginia. "The freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual," wrote Chief Justice Earl Warren, "and cannot be infringed by the State." However, decades passed before every state in the U.S. adopted the law of the land: only in 2000, the last hold out, Alabama, eliminated the (non-enforceable) rule.

1. Trevor Noah's father was Swiss. 

2. He was liable for up to five years imprisonment for "illicit (illegal by law) carnal intercourse with Trevor's mother.

3. Trevor Noah's mother was a Xhosi. 

4. Trevor Noah's mother "permited" a Swiss (European) male to have "illicit (forbidden by law)" carnal intercourse with his father, so she was liable for up to four years in prison.

VOCABULARY ROOTS

miscegenation laws

gen- people

mis- not

gyn-female

anthro- human

ologist- study of

1. misanthrope

2. misogynist

3. anthropologist

4. anthropomorphism

5. gynocologist

The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other. Apart hate, is what it was. You separate people into groups and make them hate

one another so you can run them all.

At the time, black South Africans outnumbered white South Africans nearly five to one, yet we were divided into different tribes with different languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Sotho,Venda, Ndebele, Tsonga, Pedi, and more. Long before apartheid existed these tribal factions clashed and warred with one another. 

Then white rule used that animosity to divide andconquer. All nonwhites were  systematically classified into various groups and subgroups. Then these groups were given differing levels of rights and privileges in order to keep them at odds.

Perhaps the starkest of these divisions was between South Africa’s two dominant groups, the Zulu and the Xhosa. The Zulu man is known as the warrior. He is proud. He puts his head down and fights. When the colonial armies invaded, the Zulu charged into battle with nothing but spears and shields against men with guns. The Zulu were slaughtered by the thousands, but they never stopped fighting. The Xhosa, on the other hand, pride themselves on being the thinkers.

 My mother is Xhosa. Nelson Mandela was Xhosa. The Xhosa waged a long war against the white man as well, but after experiencing the futility of battle against a better armed foe, many Xhosa chiefs took a more nimble approach. “These white people are here whether we like it or not,” they said. “Let’s see what tools they possess that can be useful to us.

Instead of being resistant to English, let’s learn English. We’ll understand what the white man is saying, and we can force him to negotiate with us.”

The Zulu went to war with the white man. The Xhosa played chess with the white man. For a long time neither was particularly successful, and each blamed the other for a problem

neither had created. Bitterness festered. For decades those feelings were held in check by acommon enemy. Then apartheid fell, Mandela walked free, and black South Africa went to war

with itself.

Choose one of the following and respond in a complete sentence on the back of your 3 x 5 card.

1. Why might it be a politcally wise move to set people up against each other?

2. Why under apartheid were groups systematically classified?

3. How did the Zulu people handle the Europeans, in constrast to the Xhosa people?

4. Noah states that with the fall of apartheid,"South Africa went to war with itself?" What does he mean?