Black Like Me Analysis

John Howard Griffin, the author and main character of “Black Like Me”, is a middle-aged white man who is living in Mansfield, Texas in 1959. Deeply devoted to the finding justice for racism and frustrated by his inability as a white man to understand the black experience, Griffin decides to take stand: he decides to change the color of his skin and temporarily become a black man. After securing the support of his wife and of George Levitan, the editor of a black-oriented magazine called Sepia which will fund Griffin 's experience in return for an article about it, Griffin sets out for New Orleans to begin his life as a black man. He finds a contact in the black community, a soft-spoken, articulate shoe-shiner named Sterling Williams, Eventually, Griffin looks in the mirror and sees a black man looking back. He briefly panics, feeling that he has lost his identity, and then he sets out to explore the black community.

In this spellbinding lecture, the author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son offers a unique, inside-out view of race and racism in America. Expertly overcoming the defensiveness that often surrounds these issues, Wise provides a non-confrontational explanation of white privilege and the damage it does not only to people of color, but to white people as well. This is an invaluable classroom resource: an ideal introduction to the social construction of racial identities, and a critical new tool for exploring the often invoked – but seldom explained – concept of white privilege.

If you stop and sit on the curb, a police officer will pass and probably ask you what you’re doing. I have heard none of the Negroes speak of police harassment, but have warned me that any time the police see a Negro idling, especially one they do not recognize, they will surely question him.(pg.43)

Black Like Me is the incredibly interesting story of John Griffin, a Caucasian man who decided to try being African American in the south during the 60s. In this analysis paper I will be addressing the ethics of this project, his potential self-deception, his ability to pass unnoticed as an imposter, along with his courage for attempting such a dangerous project in the Deep South. His project was a success and a remarkable accomplishment for such an individual.

Many of the statements on there were very thought provoking. One of the statements was “we can’t understand somebody unless we walk a mile in their shoes”. To me, this is a very true statement and in both of the works it shows that. In Black Like Me this is what the whole basis of the book is about. John Howard Griffin disguises himself as a African American to see what their life is really like. In the movie Crash every character has their own story but none of the other characters seem to understand one another, not even people of the same race. Another statement that was on this worksheet was “it is better to remain in ignorance than to learn something which may be more painful”. This statement is completely false and both of these works will show that. Griffin decided he wanted to know what being a black man in the south was really like and he found out the truth of how bad racism really was. In the movie, there are many instances of this but the one that stood out to me was when the guy went to sell that truck when he discovered it was full of slaves. He was glad he found out because instead of selling them into slavery and making a lot of money, he let them go.

Griffin wants to know what life is like for a Negro in the South. Griffin knows it would be difficult for a white man to truly experience and understand what life is like for a black man; so, Griffin darkens his skin in order to experience life in the South as a black man would.

In the original ending of Black Like Me, John  Howard Griffin reveals that he has conducted an experiment where he changed the color of his skin to see how African Americans lived in the deep South. After news reports got the news of the actions of John Howard Griffin, racists started to threaten his life. That is when he decided to go to Mexico, until the story died down. When he came back to his home, he hired “a Negro Youth” (Griffin 163) to clean up his parents home. This is when he reveals why racism existed.

“It was people and commercials trying to make him feel like he didn’t even matter, trying to make him feel like there was something wrong with being black”. Chapter 1 page 8

Have you ever wondered what life is like in someone else's shoes? John Howard Griffin is walking in his own shoes as a different person, or so everyone thinks. In his novel Black Like Me John Howard Griffin changed the pigmentation of his skin to discover what life is like for an African American in the deep south of the United States. Not all of his discoveries are pleasant about how whites would treat Blacks, but some are completely astonishing.

One strong aspect of this book was how Griffin described his emotions and how he felt while being a black man. When he looked at himself in the mirror immediately after the darkening of his skin, was one of the strongest quotes from this novel. “The face and shoulders of a stranger…a fierce, bald, very dark Negro...I had expected to see myself disguised, but this was something else” He was somewhat speechless on how the transformation changed his perception. Even though he had a different skin tone, he felt different. He

John Griffin, in the beginning of the story is a white man from a nice neighborhood with a wife and two kids. He is medium height but very large around the middle. However, Griffin wanted to experience firsthand the obstacles and hardships of being black in America so that he may understand what life is like for blacks. Griffin underwent a series of medical treatments to change his skin color temporarily to black. He went to his dermatologist for help. He took pills to darken his skin tone; he used a sun lamp to darken it more. The transformation was complete when Griffin shaved off his hair, looked in the mirror, and saw a bald, middle-aged black man. After he changed his skin tone he was ready to see how

Griffin was treated unfairly and unjust everywhere he went in the south. To get around the towns was a very difficult task. He had a very hard time with public transportation. Going to Claiborne John rang the bell to get off at his bus stop but had the door slammed in his face when trying to exit. The bus driver then kept going 8 more blocks to finally let him off, but he still had to walk 8 blocks the other direction

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.

So, Mr. Griffin had a multistage process done on his body so that the pigment of his skin would appear darker. After many treatments of ultraviolet light and tablet pills, Mr. Griffin had become a black man. After Mr. Griffin’s transformation was complete, he immersed himself into the black community. Mr. Griffin was not prepared for what would happen to him once in the black life. While Mr. Griffin traveled to different places in the south he met numerous people, both black and white. Some people were friendly while others were quite hostile.

John Howard Griffin was a writer who wanted to write about the truth. In dealing with the racial discrimination problems in the United States, Griffin wanted to write about the realities of the situation. However, he was a white man. He empathized with the black people and wanted equality for them as well however he lacked the experience and exposure to the truth. He decided that the best way to write about this was to be a part of the black community. He consulted with a doctor about making his skin darker so that he can be physically identified as a black man. His doctor was successful in providing him medicine that would make him dark-skinned.