Negroes In Black Like Me

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin is a true story that tells about his six week journey traveling on Greyhound buses. Griffin was a white man from Dallas, Texas who darkened his skin in order to pose as a black man. His goal was to show the public the hatred the blacks endured. As he traveled through racially segregated states he faced very harsh treatment. He studied the way blacks and whites acted towards each other, and he also studied how African Americans treated each other.

I bet you have never walked in someone’s shows as much as John Howard Griffin did. In the book Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin writes his story day by day on how he stepped in the African Americans skin. In my opinion, I agree with what Griffin did because it showed a sense of true feelings. To emphasize why I agree you have to try and put yourself in Griffins shoes. John Howard Griffin didn’t just want to observe racism to make people mad, but to make a statement, so therefore he got really into it.

Black Like Me is an incredible journey into what life was like in the Deep South during the late 1950s. John Griffin performed a social experiment to see what was life really like for blacks in the Southern States. John Griffin transformed himself into a black man and recorded his experiences into a book, Black Like Me. I was fascinated that 1950s science and medicine had advanced enough to allow someone to change the pigment of their skin. The procedure that Griffin underwent was simply taking pills and exposing himself to ultra violet rays (6).

Within this book tells of love, hate, confusion, and perseverance. John Howard Griffin argues that negroes suffered treatment and racial inequality. There are indications in this story to believe it to be true. To name a few, Griffin stated that an important part of his daily life in the south “was spent searching for a place to eat, somewhere to find a drink of water, a rest room, or somewhere to wash his hands” (99). Also, when “stopping at the dime store where he had made most of his purchases, the white girl at the counter refused to cash his travelers check” (49).

Like going to the back of the movie theater with a sign saying colored people only. They had to walk up the back off to the highest section of the theater .They were so confused, you can see the look on their faces. This is all taking place in 1963. As we know, 1963 wasn 't a very good year for African American’s

The crowd cheered and roared when these words were delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. during his iconic Washington march speech in 1969. This was the time when America found itself torn apart in the racial conflicts. During the Civil Rights Movement, it was evident that not only black Americans but also many white Americans opposed the African American oppression. One such personality was John Howard Griffin, a Texan Journalist who documented his experiment of experiencing life as a ‘negro’ by deliberately turning his skin black through pigmentation and other medical procedures. The product that emerged out of his experiment is a book called Black Like Me.

Racism had affected all African Americans and Griffin had seen it at its worst. As soon as he begins his new life as a black man, Griffin is quickly judged upon and hated. Even though he is a well-educated man who wants to find a decent job, his skin color changes everything that people think about him. They do not care how smart he is or what his personality may be like, they completely dislike him because he is black. Griffin talks about his thoughts of people using racial slurs explaining that “the word ‘nigger’ leaps out with electric clarity.

On page 52, in the journal of November 14th, Griffin experiences another “hate stare”. Then a Negro porter comes over to him, “his glance met mine and communicated the sorrow, the understanding” (Griffin 52). This was a moment that Griffin could share with the black community, it is proven by the look of understanding he is given by the fellow black man. After Griffin gets on the bus, he and all the other negroes on the bus are told they can’t get off to use the bathroom. “The whites rose and ambled off.

This made me very upset because skin color shouldn’t affect how you treat someone. The curiosity was me asking myself why whites were so cruel to blacks just because of their skin color. While I first started this book about Griffin’s project I thought that he was going to die his first day. I thought this, because in the south whites were known as cruel and harsh.

By writing Black Like Me, John Griffin was trying to write down everything he felt was important on his journey as a black man. One of the major things wrote down was the idea of white racism. Which is the belief that white people are superior to other races and because of that should run society. So, the main topic of the novel was social divide of whites and African Americans. As a black man John saw the contempt white people had towards African Americans, and just the overall condescending attitude emanated from these people.

In How It Feels To Be Colored Me by Zora Neal Hurston well as in The Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr both authors convey what it feels like to be face with race issues. The two essays shed light on the social issues in different ways. The essays show the struggles of life when those around the two authors do not fully grasp the concept. Both Hertz and King use tone, their audience, and point of view to get their point across with the goal of bringing a better understanding to their audience.

The blacks did not receive the same luxuries as the whites did. For instance, the colored received less than stellar entertainment where as the whites were able to get anything they wanted, “There, instead of houses and trees, there were fishing wharves, boat docks, nightclubs, and restaurants for whites. There were one or two nightclubs for colored, but they were not very good” (Gaines 25). It was unjust to the blacks that they could not enjoy themselves as much as the whites because of their skin color.

Discrimination was a huge factor during this time. It went both for African Americans and women. We can see this throughout the book. “Well, you keep you place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.

His experiences with stereotyping and prejudices are eye opening and help create a sense of sympathy for him, as well as other African Americans facing such biases. Modifying the way you go about your daily activities, trying to ease tension in others, and attempting to avoid conflict whenever possible is not a comforting way to live. We Americans need to look outside of our comfort zone and welcome what we may fear. This may not be as perplexing of a task as some may think, and it will initiate change in how we view people different from

That is why he is an important figure in history. He ended racial discrimination. He ended poverty. He ended segregation. Whatever you call it, it’s bad.