Born a Crime

were out in the streets, hustling, trying to act as if we were in some way down with the gangs, but the truth was we were always ...

can’t leave the hood, so you survive by the rules of the hood. I chose to live in that world, but I wasn’t from that world. If a ...

Once, when I was ten years old, visiting my dad in Yeoville, I needed batteries for one of my toys. My mom had refused to buy me ...

needs to learn the consequences.” Then she hung up. The guard looked at me, confused. Eventually he let me go on the assumption ...

THE WORLD DOESN’T LOVE YOU My mom never gave me an inch. Anytime I got in trouble it was tough love, lectures, punishment, and h ...

discipline you before the system does. “I need to do this to you before the police do it to you.” Because that’s all black paren ...

“Friday night.” “Damn.” My mom hated the hood. She didn’t like my friends there. If I brought them back to the house, she didn’t ...

didn’t pressure me to become better. She wanted me to hang out with my cousin at his university. “What’s the difference if I’m a ...

when you do, don’t call me. I’ll tell the police to lock you up just to teach you a lesson.” Because there were some black paren ...

clearance sale on mobile phones, and they were selling them at such a ridiculous price I knew Bongani and I could flip them in t ...

mother’s wrath. But that had never stopped me from doing anything. Most of these junkers weren’t street legal. They didn’t have ...

discounted cell phones. I got pulled over in Hillbrow. Cops in South Africa don’t give you a reason when they pull you over. Cop ...

over?” “Because you’re a policeman and I’m a black person?” “That’s correct. License and registration, please.” When the cop pul ...

Being young, funnily enough, I was more worried about getting in trouble with my parents than with the law. I’d had run-ins with ...

have served as judge, jury, and executioner for your entire childhood, and it feels like they give you a life sentence for every ...

real trouble. I stepped out of the car, and he put the cuffs on me and told me I was being arrested on suspicion of driving a st ...

institutional, with fluorescent lights and cheap floor tile, like a hospital. My cop walked me in and sat me down at the front b ...

owner, the owner would have explained that the car had been dropped off for repairs, and the whole thing would have been sorted ...

“Sorry, Dave!” And the party would continue. And that’s if the person survived the carjacking. Often they didn’t. People were ge ...

when I shouldn’t have.” Done. At worst I’d get a slap on the wrist for driving a car that wasn’t registered. But what would I be ...