African American

Trevor Noah is a South African comedian who came to America and shows his views on race and stereotypes not only in America but in the world. Trevor Noah had a mother who was black from South Africa and a dad who was white from Sweden. In South Africa during the time of Apartheid it was forbidden for whites and blacks in Africa to even speak to each other so having a baby together was extremely illegal. However, his mother and father managed to raise Noah in secrecy during the time of Apartheid in South Africa. Often thought of as an outcast or an unwanted toy Noah managed to make it this far into his career. Noah’s show African American does a hilariously good job of teaching how to not over complicate stereotypes and to know the difference between a stereotype and the truth. He breaks stereotypes as well accepting and giving sides on why to promote them as well. 

In america people often see stereotypes as taboo or not to be used jokingly as so no one offends or hurts another person or races feelings. Those who do are usually seen as unkind and cruel people who do not care about any other individual but themselves. That is not the case when you have an outside eye looking in on what is considered to be the normal here in America. Not only in South Africa but all over the world it is seen as different and strange the weird tasks that American’s do to label the people of America. 

The biggest thing that Noah expresses in his show is that because he was considered a “mutt” he never really had a specific race he could claim as his own. However, as a kid he always said that he wanted to be black. One day a man came to his town and told him that if he goes to America there are a lot of “those” like him there. Those meaning people who are usually of more than one race, or mixed, and have a lighter skin tone than African Americans who have a darker skin tone. Noah wastes no time and gets on the next flight he could to come to America. He spends 18 hours on a plane practicing what he calls “How to be black” and watching as many black movies as he can. Despite all his efforts though, when he lands in America he is not black but in fact Puerto Rican because of his lighter skin tone. This causes him to laugh a bit and take it in as something comical and not something infuriating as some might take it. This lets him realize that not all light skin or mixed people are black, but in fact could be an entirely different race. He continues with his show talking about other controversial and interesting topics that people don’t usually think about. For instance he brings up the question “ How can someone be native to the land they’re originally from?”. Which makes complete sense when you think about it because someone who is native means a person born in a specific place or associated with a place by birth. However, if someone still lives in the place they were born how can they be a native to the place they never really left. It’s a double negative and shouldn’t be considered the normal here in America. Noah continues on and on talking about other racial and controversial topics in his show. According to Noah if we continue to treat these things as social norms we will continue to mistake stereotypes with the truth and never truly realize the differences between each other, not just here in america, but all over the world.