empire promised the population was living there as soon as they won the war things would be better for them as we all know that took much longer than anyone would have hoped. so of course, there is still a presence but obviously that was a huge breaking point and things have changed quite a bit. .. >> thank you, thank you. well, welcome to the 33rd miami book fair. [cheers and applause] some of us have been involved from the gunning, some of us gray beards realize we've been doing this more than half our lives. [laughter] it's pretty astonishing when i

think about it. but, and what a fair we have for you this year. we have everyone from james carville to dana perino to we're doing a new we >> and after tonight and avi evening we have authors coming in which happens on friday with over 500 authors coming with the spanish and english and creole. to do all you can do to find out to create your own schedule is also

exaggerations with up the work of hundreds of volunteers but it was a wonderful educational institution done the bottom of my heart everybody atat miami dade college. [applause] this is ben quite a week. [laughter] the l to say the least and after this very emotional weekt like all as we went to our little cocoon to listen to music.

>> but my thoughts turn to 35 years ago when the were called down to the then vice president of this very campus in very much of smaller miami dade college in miami was very much in turmoil. if you can remember them hundreds of new immigrants came here with a non-racialts strifes riots nobody was scheerer of the future of downtown many of you may remember "time" magazine said tough miami is paradise lost with the big question mark at the time it was really straining at the seams but under the doctor's leadership to help heal the

wounds of our community.c tent to have everybody under oneor gigantic tent to begin a conversation together that has not stopped over 33 book fares and is no one the largest college in the country with eight campuses to never wavered from that mission and this year you will hear from the best writers of poetry and fiction and history from t every color of the us spectrum we now need the

more than ever with the commitment to help all of us to celebrate all of the haven in common we need the book for of -- the book fair now more than ever, many agree with me. [applause] we have some remarkable sponsors year as well. also to launch the unpublished novella. it is the only one in the country and now they are here with us to say a few words to introduce this session.rked in and the working in finance

which was listed on the new york stock exchange. o with those non-profit organizations of international business school's. told of a doctrine of psychology of narrow psychology of organizational development in extension -- the behavioral science of family medicine of residency training program the international consulting business they are tears of the degree foundation literary art projects they divide their time between paris and miami on a personal note there couldn't be to nicer people in the entire world please welcome them. [applause]

>> when been fully started the foundation one of the first projects that we initiated was up prize for the unpublished novella because it is small and fast-paced and translates very well. for the last two cycles we have partnered with the english bookstore in paris and with the alaska competition we have approximately 600 entrants from all round of world that now we are very excited to be partnering with miami dade college and the miami book fair because we feel they can create a solid palm

>> in relapse of the league m thrilled to be working with kaplan and a wonderful team that organizes this wonderful book fair all year long. surprised like this servesmp an important purpose to keep discovering new voices and also to keep supporting and encouraging anyone who writes ended is a wonderful for a mitt is in the lead grew up learning about great authors we are excited about this endeavor here with us.

[cheers and applause] as most the few know born and raised in south africa where he honed his skills as an actor and a comedian and then move to to the u.s. in 2011 and in 2015 he received grs the greatest acknowledgement the vinny betty in his industry john stuart selected anti-takeover "the daily show". [applause]

i was telling my thought that was a great honor he said anybody takes over the job after john stewart is an idiot and i was that a deal. [laughter] we he is a delightful man afford to being out here than the greatest heroes are his mother and all single mothers who then he willl talk more about that in his book. and he said the model that he lives by is everything is hell we knew then that is good to remember in these turbulent times.conversa so to be in conversation after president obama was elected to be hired from the

equal opportunity employment workission receiving prohibiting workplace discrimination throughout florida, puerto rico in the u.s. virgin islands. prior to joining the eeoc had a private civil-rights law practice representing victims of workplace discrimination and other types of civil-rights violations. [cheers and applause] >> hello.

welcome to miami to the miami book fair. >> guest: thanks for having me thanks for coming. [cheers and applause] >> ellen to congratulate you on right teeing a phenomenal book the last couple of weeks i have found a poignant, scary, and i learned a lot about south africa i would not have otherwise. thanks for being so truthful in. [laughter]u in i recognize many of you is this room and your family members are interested to

hear his take on what happened and to wish her use that with our conversation there is an opportunity to have a question and answer period you can ask trevor all about that. so the title of your book "born a crime" what do you mean by that? >> was born at a time in south africa were to be in any shape or form or contact with one another with the laws of misogyny shin. when that was forbidden and mixing of races was forbidden so essentially to

be born i was essentials leave borne a crime. from something that was against the law. they were breaking belloc and because of that and then to live under those laws. >> host: you were born 1984. how did you interact with your black mother and your white father? >> 24 mi like a child. [laughter] i was very lucky my parentss did agree job to shield me from the realities that was going on the was only surrounded by people so

ignorance was plus i just knew he was my father i didmo not know he was white but race meant nothing to me because at the time that was the only way that i knew it to me. that is hell the world worked. in shielded from the stress of all was happening at the time. and then restarted to relay's i was on the cusp of the country's achieving democracy before i became a fully one functioning human being. and could they play like other kids?

so were we allowed to? we could not be in public together my mother broke many lives - - was she illegally rented apartments in the area that was considered a white area but she would masquerade as man-made that is how she would walk around with me to dress in overalls and that is how we would get around to circumvent the system and found ways to get around those rules. for me so lot of people assume and my father could not be with us at all in public because then that

would give the game away so there was that limitation but one story in is when i was very young i would go with my mom and dad and if we were in public in a park together i just could not get to close to hammer be seen as his son so i would chase him as any child would and he would run away. [laughter] to protect us. within i would say the game is on i would chase him and my mother would chase me so like many other children i have great memories of running in the park with myse parents but they see that from a slightly different perspective. [laughter] >> talk about how frightenedin s

they were but that is on a the moments that i learned ire only realized that lie was writing the book i try to write to everything from memory to have pieces missing data asked my grandmother and one that fascinated me is my entire life i grew up as a child basically locked indoors. i love to stay indoors and my own world. i grandmother read not allow me to go outside because she was afraid they would still be. that is all she would say. they would steal you. they will steal you i thought she meant the neighbors or kidnappers and i assumed it was people only when it went back to talk about the book i learned she

was afraid the police would take me away because then they would no immediate did not belong and they would have every right to take megh to send me to the orphanage in my family would never see me again. even le and as agronomy and i know how dire that situation was. >> don't get me where chronic battle was protecting the world. >> the bookie make repeated references to recognizingthe gei the ingenious of apartheid how they built the most advanced system of racial oppression known to man.

women should describe it in now way? in this san insane amount of hard work apartheid was perfect racism to suppress a majority because in terms ofof our racial history or reckoning with the racial history one place where it is different in south africa black people have the majority that is extremely difficult had to make them unable to stand up that was committed to go from all over the world?e them i

and then to find the perfect racism.parate peo to separate people into the minutia of the group's. and that we will divide you into your tribes or shades of your darkness that is where colored came from you are categorized as black but in south africa they did not do that. this skill was dividing by their language, culture, i try and smaller groups you could pick tickets to each other to have dominion within the regime so it was scary sometimes evander they

are committed to making the world the better place. [applause] so to talk about to keep people separate how did that play out into the apartheid design? >> everything in which children were taught in languages that were not theirs link which was one of the biggest barriers in reals of giving the way to realize the power of language i have a quotation in the book that if you deaf

re man in a language she understands if you speak in his language to will speak to his heart. it is one of the biggest things in this is those people having. >> when i learned very quickly that lane courage was a tool you could use to divide your bring them together. but i gained in probably one of the biggest gas bed try to learn as many as i can is a constant humility because when you learn and a new

language you have to be a child and except you will be stupid and you cannot be superior again because you run a what that is in that language. [laughter] but that is why advocate forle that for every one just learn a new language. other p so it will activate people. >> the as this colored person would be speakings languages quick. >> definitely in terms of ranking english which is a subset of dutch that is what was spoken and what you needed everything else was

considered riffraff nothing to be aspired to say you have all these tribes and you still do. >> one of the quickest ways to connect was to learn their language. and how he was separated that language was of great tool separating people because fundamentally to as understand the person and iti was one of the most amazing acings even for myself. and teetwenty access to world lead never would have had access to.li

>> so i don't want to give these stories away but with the ability to speak language he otherwise he might not ever have been able. >> exactly. >> currently south africa has "born a crime" national languages but what i think that happened is we came from a place where some languages were put above the others so to achieve democracy the question is what becomes our officalwe languages when we come from world knew everyone's to put anything below or above so we do is make more offical languages so now is four or five languages in the national anthem as well which is extremely difficult

but i guess everyone's hearts were in the right place. >> host: you spend a lot of time with your grandmother and for americans you agree with those uprisings against apartheid and to describe that in interesting ways of poverty but there's something magical yes it is up to and a prison design but our oppressors also gave a self-determination what did you mean by that quick. >> and that was a string of

the human being. to overcome situations and that was one of those examples where the black people relocated forcefully fro those that were taken away and then forced to live in a new place with almost nothing but yet from that nothing came so many amazing stories ended debt ideas because essentially the one thing is they created a

home-based a space where they could exist birthplace of the identity and the politics that emerge bag people were forced for themselves live people found a way the weather this stores that were resellers of food or if they set up their own auto shops to fix the cars even public transportation are provided by the government they found ways to formalize and create that the seoul say and i think essentially that is what happened in trying to

keep the group of people separated helpless and hopeless what happened unintentional they became hopeful powerful and more determined than ever in they saw the fruits of their labor that couldn't be distinguished by a hopeful government. [applause] >> there wasn't running water, multiple family households would share one and toilet. police other then the police forcee asw it was like the s.w.a.t. team. >> a heavy militarized force .

that is one of the funny things that i know some people disagree but otherslk to agree but that is what they talk about the universe essentials they got was the one thing that came out we live in a world war i share the toilet with four different families one tap to get our water and essentially that became the string of the community wrngh where we were not talking to the people round us to have experienced by ourselves but what happened is because of the way it was set up the enable the people to find each other it was not a great way to live but theay unintended consequences was

the community. >> it think i told you rummage i have learned fromne your book was fifth only to learn it is the acronym. >> is this something that we proudly claim.think fr then there were no elections until 1994 so the

description is the end of apartheid so what was your life like? of your sick shares sold then then to do the mantle. and i'm extremely lucky that a few years earlier wouldn have been subjected to so much more when i was born years later i may never appreciate that hard chippedat i to one negative hard ship at the time my was born a result an ftc the transition those old enough to see

democracy take called the young enough to recover from the effects of people not afforded that democracy. and then to say okay. there's still a lot of convincing pedestals one of the greatest challenges as i have come to realize thatve did it is frustrating the special for those who have been oppressed when you come to realize their freedom is just the beginning it is just a the beginning of the journey we think of it as the end but it is notender, abiding racial barriers th

would ever they are a thing when you break that barrier down if they achieve equality when that happens to be allowed access the you have to climb the mountain before you it was a wonderful moment that was amazing and now we say this is hard work with complex. >> which black men? but which will rule dryexx. >> were everything was

geared toward seeking outd o those same leaders that could move forward and that is what we see all over the world as they become the oppressors they takeover and free the people the once free done is achieve there is nothing to fight over. th and they're starting to fill their own pockets in the same cycle and the label had shifted but it doesn't feel like anything has moved. >> where did you as a colored person fit in as to -- apartheid was dismantled? >> i was extremely luckyder

that my father always lived as an outsider. so whites are the most superior with a few liberties they are afforded to the education or your jobs or how you were treated their prison return meals. skin so because of my skin color i was considered a superior race to my own mother but inferior to my father.ans in that is what colored means it doesn't mean anything the way it does in america. so i grew up in a world where i grew up living ofan black experience but what happened was the country

wanted to define me as something else because of how well looked but my mother on the other hand had a child from a white man t that tells you rethink. so list in ms based -- i was a and a space we did not match any family around me. so that was something that that, i don't think was allowed. >> with your ability to speak different languages toer identify with different

groups that different times. the. >> ag group as an outsider. so one of the greatest gifts it is hard to be an outsider most of the time the issue feel like an outsider with that you never belonged but the most amazing gift enforces perspective you thnnot exist in a bubble most of the time you were in their world so language was one of those. and then to live in a different community but because of that is shaped to me in different ways they never would have had.

>> after apartheid was coming down did some colored persons tend to relate more to the white community? as opposed to the black community? >> definitely.to spo not to spoil everything from the book but the idea that you could convince people they are convinced the reasons they're not achieving and what is holding them back and now is a white voice spreading the message.olored p

and then they reach out you but almost there. but unfortunately you have that little bit of black in new. said you breed correctly or mary right to could descend to the place to be white and its sounds ridiculous but here in south africa people could be reclassified racially so if you were a colored person if you're care became street to your face became whitey could be reclassified white and adversely if you were seeming to be getting too dark or too much time in the sun you could be diclassified in they did notot care by your genealogy. it was on appearance because it is ridiculous so to echo the ideas but there were

people who resented any partan of themselves so that they came from a place mat it was holding them back to rise up . but rather to where they belong in society. and to aspire to get to the place that we can get to. >> unmistakably the hero of the book, it speaks loud and clear i balmy day passage

that release struck me as to how special she is my mom raised me as if there were no limitations on where i could go or what i can do when i look back every life she raised me like the old white kid not culturally bed in the sense of believing the world was my oyster a should speak up for myself for my ideas and thoughts and decisions mattered. she showed me what was possible would always amazed me is that no one showed order she did it on her on she found her way through sheer force of will. was nearly six when mandela was released for democracy, finally coming issue is preparing me to live life of freedom long before we knew freedom would exist. [applause]

>> can you comment? [laughter] >> one thing we could not deny living in a police state and one of the biggest things my grandmother and grandfather growing up with a black child you had to be twice as good because you were not afforded the same liberties or could make the same mistakes because theret is a system waiting to imprison or kill you to be twice as good or twice as polite just twice as a human being. into a certain extent my mom bucked the trend she brought me up as if i was free to

express myself or i would live in a world where i anuld not be oppressed. it is an extremely risky gamble she had no idea in the and but to live as if it would would she said speak up. voice your concerns becauseyo of my mom of a still on the end of many spankings but i was told in challenging her we were both learn to say i s am proud to say i don't know . what is great about not you ing is a joy to fill the 48 or even knowing that you can learn new things. and then we become adultsre don

but we don't there's zoe's the idea that we cannot change. [applause] my mom always encouraged us.ha >> host: before we go to questions i have a final question for you and again this is something that looks at different things for our discussion today that struck me, when you were announced to be the new post of the "daily show" the guardian newspaper noted in reference to your selection, this is a big achievement not only for south africa and before the continent. but then i looked up kugel with a 85 million people there is 1.2 billion people in africa. day uc yourself as a trailblazer for as others

from south africa by a set j. prominent important but once i was afforded the ability to travel i graciously cross that with both hands and embraced that i always tell people to travel to one of my favorite quotations it is the answer to ignorance and they truly believe that. [applause]m a soleil really proud to come from a country where we achieved the odds and it isn't a perfect country but

we managed to shift power from the minority running a dictatorship moving that to the majority running the country and still is. it is not over night to because freedom is a lot of hard work but i feel like a came from an exceptional place and a country that is a trailblazer so i wanted to beat the child of south africa and they celebrate that i still have some much to learn again it is not a country that is a surprise to some people but i do consider myself an african as much as south african because and it's these have been forged together or

someone who is rising to heights every generation should be further forward than the one that came before. [applause] >> is there questions? [laughter] we do have some time for questions. please come up to the microphone as all of you know, he does have the day job so when shall we take a

few questions some direct is dishonored taking back. >> we will do the daily show tomorrow from this spot. [cheers and applause] >> hq i enjoy so much. my name is shaman and thee children of the school in st. to us in and dance but what was interesting in that jury guide to help us and surprised me that there were

better times during the apartheid because now most of us are unemployed and fired from our jobs but they have to give us fair wages. to provide extra of but to escape from but if you want to go back to slavery. >> saliva like your comments. i heard that more than once from black south africans they had better times before >> i cannot speak for everyone in south africa after a combination that my parents lack on my part to and hard work i am in a position of privilege for everyone who may not have the same thing that i do but i do know that freedom is

hard work. just because you achieve that does not leave everything is good and what a time the fault philosophy to of those who deliver thee promises of liberation looking across the board the promises that are made by the politicians of those of a better life that will instantaneously become beneficial for all. and that is what they promised free housing entry everything and now that you have defeated the oppressor everything is open to you and you can enjoy the spoils but the truth is you have achieved to work for the spoils of that is tough and those liberated know how to locate providing those opportunities.

we had a country designed for a minority that didn't even make up to% of the population housing, plumbingleca , electrical grid, highway, everything grid, highway, everything, s chools, for a tiny piece of the population. once the country is now free and it means you cannot gett everybody to the same level and immediately and that means there will be a lot of capital that needs to be injected or redistributionbu of wealth and there will be a lot of systems that need to change in order for that to take effect. but when people say to me it was better and struggle to grapple is better to be enslaved. [applause] i think the closest parallel

is when i read a story is of prisoners who tell the story because of how of hard remaking into society's some would rather stay in prison i get food, a bed, i know of my life is and go to a library and i am part of thean community. when you set me free ac the world as a prison. so the question we shouldng ask ourselves is how to recreate more opportunities. >> and nt to how to fish.

>> we have limited time. so please just make it a question. about would be great. [laughter] i was [applause] born and raised m. porter rico are was here in rarely 20s i did not know the difference between black and white and telling move to this country i did not see racism and telling moved here but i so i did a different way have you ever encountered racism in this country and what have you done about it at that moment been ids. i have been countered racism but i come from a place we have some of the finest racism in the world. wiaughter]

cities struggle to shape me with what you have here but i find oftentimes racism in my experience comes from of place of fear strangely enough. i think we treat racism as a cause but yet i see it as the symptom in the stems from many different things but it comes from a fear to seamy the black man as a threat to their livelihood to t to the promise to said this was their land and they're future and that to idea of giving it all away. so often times i am lucky

none of those have been difficult and i am a firmn believer of the choices that we make but the way be responding is an emotional choice i don't believe that you can spoil my day because of something that you say. [applause] >> i know you will hate me but i have time for only two more questions. but he does have a book and there is an e-mail address i am sure if you send an e-mail it will get to him and he will answer your question. [laughter] >> promises from politicians ane

and with then we wonder why there is a revolution laugh laugh spinnaker father was white then why did he leave? they went to go plan how they wooded, and to start a revolution others would escape by ask my mom that i didn't know that we could leave i didn't know that was an option one day i asked why it didn't the hell we leave? once they saw that i said i you kidding me? and my mom said one of the most powerful things and said king go where? this is my country i am not quite as somebody chased me out of my country. [cheers and applause]

i will stay here to claim what is mine so with is as simple as that i believe i did not know we could leave knoc the she would not allow somebody to take what was her's in exchange for the easier life. [applause] >> last question.ad >> i grew up in an america of biracial and i experience of lot of racism within the up black community because i was not fully black or vice for some of the white side. did you experience those same colors and in south africa growing up? did the blacks ever making feel different or look at a certain way retreat you differently because you not as dark as they were correct. >> no.

the was lucky did not experience that.. i think part the because of the other at hierarchy that was created so i found it was welcome to because in essence even when traveling the world with those committees that have a tougher time or anan experience that is the prize -- pleasant and those outsiders use that experience we don't judge you, in. so when i never experienced that. him but an colored communities that is strange we do that in life all the time. many times it is easier to be the insider as the outsider than it is to be the outsider that is the insider and what i mean by that