An Analysis of John Howard Griffin's 'Black Like Me'

It took bravery and courage for John Howard Griffin to literally step into the shoes of not only another man’s life, but an entirely different race’s life. John Howard Griffin, a white middle-aged man with a wife and three children, put his entire life on hold to pursue the truth about racial indifferences. In 1962, Black Like Me won the Anisfield-Wolf Award (Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards). The Anisfield-Wolf Award is an award that honors American literary works that recognize racial and cultural differences. John Howard Griffin’s documentation of his personal experience crossing the color line is a story that will give perspective every man and woman regardless of the color of their skin.

During the book, Black like Me, John Howard Griffin turned himself into a black man to experience the true discrimination of the south. His experiment is six weeks long. During these six weeks he experienced many different kinds of people in the south and how the treated black people. After he had finished his six week experiment he stopped taking the medication that turned his skin darker, which then turned him back into a white man. After all, some people dispute the fact that he actually experienced true treatment of a black man. I disagree with that that statement, because although he was only a black man for six weeks he still experienced the hardship that the black man faces every day of his life.

Cross’ book Shades of black: diversity in African-American identity (1991) depicts a perceived metamorphous of black identity through five stages of development—his ideologies are now termed as the Nigrescence theory. In simple terms, this philosophy refers to the process of becoming Black. It also demonstrates daily struggles that the black community may have in developing a healthy personal identity. Over the years, many authors attempt to define what the word black means. Eventually, many came to begin using the politically acceptable term widely applied today to regard black people; that word is known as Negroes. As different historical events occurred, one being the black power revolution on the 1970’s the experience called for a fresh definition of the term negro. Blacks or Africans in America began to be more conscious of their identity and more aware of the differences separating them. This is the experience that Cross (1971) illustrates and is primarily referenced in his five-stage progress including: pre-encounter, encounter, immersion/emersion, internalization, and internalization-commitment. This book highlights some very vital topics relating to mental health, which has been carefully disregarded by other researchers. Nonetheless, it has strong affiliations to the black experience and can positively explain a more normal psychological behavior through logical and very thought provoking

The novel Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin, tells the story of a white novelist from the south who seeks to write about the relationships between blacks and whites. He embarked on a personal mission in the late 1950's to experience the hatred and intolerance toward blacks that was widespread in the South. In order to see what life was truly like as a black man in the south, he proceeded to undergo medical treatments to alter his skin to a black pigment temporarily. No longer seen as a human being for other targets, he discovered how oppressed blacks were to a point of no hope. He walked the streets one night as a black man, despised and feared by whites but was respected by his black peers. When Griffin received news that a white jury denied a case of a black lynching, Griffin decided to go to the heart of south Mississippi to check it out. At the bus station, he acquired looks of hatred from the white passengers on the bench. Once on the bus, he and the other black passengers were forced to stay back while the whites departed at a rest stop. The discrimination from the bus driver forced the rest of the passengers to hold their bladders and knew that if an accident were to happen on the bus, it would just be another reason for white people to hold against them. In another incident, a racist teenager shoved him against a wall and mugged him while shouting out the N-word. He recalls that he was once hungry and the clerk refused to sell food to him based on the color of his

In reading through and examing John Howard Griffin book Black Like Me about a man who goes to great lengths to make himself a black man in order to study black culture at that time and the racism in the south is a strong and harrowing book that hits a raw nerve and exposes southern racism for what it was in that time in history, and the plight of African-Americans life in the late 1950's, and how they all intertwine with one another to create the racism and segregation that made up the south at that time.

John Howard Griffin, a well renowned author from Dallas, Texas, develops a reflective story on racial segregation in the deep American South in his novel, Black Like Me. In 1959, Griffin set off on a six-week personal journey in states including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia in order to reveal how it felt to be treated as an African American. He darkens his skin by taking prescribed medications he requested and by spending up to fifteen hours a day under an ultraviolet lamp. Throughout his journey, Griffin keeps a journal of his experiences which display various examples of stereotypes, double standards, disenfranchisement, and the “Pyramid of Hate.” Through these examples, Griffin exposes the racial tensions that still exist in the deep American South.

The book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin is a moving true story of how a white man manages to experience what it is like to be a “Negro” or black person in the 1950s. The author did this social experiment by taking medication and dying his skin a deep brown. He wanted to really experience the challenges and changes a black man in this time would go through. By traveling through the far south, Griffin got a taste of what real life was for a Negro.

Over the summer, I read a book called Black Like Me. The book is based off of the author, John Howard Griffin, a journalist and racial issues expert. He had been having an idea for a project for a few years, but he thought it would be too dangerous. On page one, it says, “If a white man became a black in the Deep South, what adjustments would he have to make?” Finally, to answer this question, John decided to go through this experience himself. He decided to turn himself into an African-American and travel through the Deep South, some of the most racially segregated states in the country at the time. To do this, John took an oral medication and was exposed to ultraviolet rays for up to 15 hours a day. He also had to scrub himself with a

In high school classrooms, the memoir, Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin, is being read and discussed by high school students. During class discussions concerning the book, there are many critiques that are talked about. At East Noble High school, freshmen are asked to write an essay forming their own stance on one critique. The critique that is handed out on the paper handout is , “ Although Griffin did observe racism firsthand, he can never fully empathize with the black race because he was only a temporary Negro for 6 weeks, knowing he would soon be returning to his white skin.” After reading the prompt, I believe that Griffin could fully empathize with African Americans. This can be evident by the many instances of racism he experienced viewed on his journey through the South.

What if we could walk in each other’s shoes? What if we could truly understand what our brothers and sisters are going through? These questions and more are what John Howard Griffin strived to answer when he surgically changed his complexion to resemble that of a black man in his book, Black Like Me. He set out to write a biting commentary about the state of race in the United States, but what he experienced changed his life forever. Griffin learned two very valuable lessons that dominated his experience; good can exist in the midst of suffocating evil and to bridge the gap between races there must be mutual understanding. To analyze such a powerful book, I will start with a summary and then explain my thoughts on the text.

The assigned book, Black Like Me is a gripping story. John Howard Griffin, the author and the main character of the book, made two decisions. 1) to become a “Negro” to find out if discrimination (the real problem) exists between the White and Black Americans and 2) to bridge the gap between the White and Black Americans. To me, his experience felt like an eternity in Hell. Because he was no longer white, I didn’t know what was going happen to John Howard Griffin. Like him, I too had questioned wether the “whites” would treat him nicely or treat him like a shadow, also known in the book as one of those “nameless Negro.” I didn’t expect the Griffins experience to go down the way it did. The whites knew the White, John Howard Griffin, so why did they hate the black, John Howard Griffin?

A well-educated white man from Texas, John Griffin shocked and awed friends, family, and colleagues alike, when he decided to take on the appearance of a black man, and immerse himself in African- American culture leaving behind what he knew as the real world. Submitting himself to medical treatments that included, medications, skin dyes, and ultraviolet light treatments, he transformed his physical appearance to that of a dark skinned man that would blend into the world of the average black man. A total change of life as he had known it forces him to look at himself, not only in the mirror, but also deep within himself as he struggles with his own remaining ideas of racism.

“If a White man became a Negro, what adjustments would he have to make?” (Griffin pg. 2) First published in 1961, Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin is moving yet troubling autobiography about a privileged white man in America who has taken on the role of a Black man, a much more deprived status. Griffin is narrator, author, protagonist and main character. From both a black and white perspective, the writer hopes to better understand and convey what life was like for the African-American’s at the time. The writer is passionately committed to the cause of racial injustice, and his concern and despair emanate through the well-written journal-type pages. His descriptive writing making the reader feel they are with him throughout.

The book Black Like Me is a nonfiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin. It is about a white journalist who used medication to darken the pigment of his skin to expose the harsh truth about the South and their discriminatory laws against blacks, in his case black men. Although I am not bold enough to go through such a transformation, this piece of literature has allowed me to see how far one has to go every so often in order to prove a point and uncover the truth while educating millions of people. Having been previously taught with the British curriculum and now the American I have come to the realization that the education of foreign countries ,other than the dominant ones, are lacking. Although there are world history classes they

Have you ever had to deal with racism in your life? If you're caucasian, like me then the answer is probably no. This is what makes stories like rosa park’s harder to relate to. The book “Black Like Me” By John Howard Griffin details the social experiment of a journalist dying his skin black and then moving to the Deep South.