after reading his book, Born a Crime
I.
I have been misusing the quote "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man how to fish, you feed him for a life time"
Trevor talks about how no matter how much you teach the man, if you don't give him a fishing rod aka TOOLS OF SUCCESS, he's still not going to be able to catch the fish and feed himself for a lifetime. This is so true when it comes to breaching the opportunity gap between socioeconomic classes.
It's not just about motivating people to work hard*
It's about combining their hard work ethics with tools such as academic/merit scholarships, internship opportunities, employment opportunities, small business loans for entrepreneurs, etc......
Without the fishing pole, there is no hope.
This is the problem with Africa at large...too many brilliant students who have spent years memorizing text books but no opportunities of employment for them to put to use what they have.
II.
The largely unbalanced way in which people talk about the Holocaust versus the atrocities that happened in other parts of the world like apartheid in south Africa and etc because of the lack of detailed documentation. The reason it's "easy" for us to empathize with the Jews is because their suffrage can be quantified through extensive well kept documentations, videos, images and etc.
Whereas most of the other mass massacres from slavery in Africa to the native Americans and etc where not extensively documented.
III.
On Love
"You cannot own the thing that you love"
Guys am still unpacking this one but basically what I so far understand it to mean is that, to love someone is to set them free.
On a mother's Love
He quotes her saying she beats him out of love to discipline him, to "save him" meanwhile the police will beat him to "kill him".
That analogy brought me to the present day excessive use of force by police on African Americans leading to their unfortunate deaths.
On being a non traditional African woman
How African men want to marry a traditional subservient woman but they are attracted to nontraditional independent women.
Guys this is the story of my life
" He is like an exotic bird collector....He only wants a woman who is free because his dream is to put her in his cage ...."
I was like....mic drop!!!!
You have to read the book to see how he unpacks this through his mother's relationships.
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