Essay on Black Like Me Book Review

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

With his new identity, Griffin travels to New Orleans, Alabama and Mississippi, where a black man was just murdered by a mob. He immerses himself within the black community and finds a sense of hopelessness. The black community is feeling hopeless because no one will hire them and they can only use the bathroom, eat and shop in designated “black” areas because of their race. Even though his skin color is the only thing about him that has changed, he is mistreated everywhere he goes.

The book Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin, is a great book about Mr. Griffin’s hard journey as he transforms himself, a white man, into a black man and how different the life is as a Negro. Griffin soon finds out that the Negros don’t have very many of the Civil Rights that the white men have. Not being to eat at the same places or not even being able to get a cup of water were white men are served are just a couple examples Griffin finds out through his experiment.

The experiment starts in the 1950’s and continues through the 1960’s. Griffin was a journalist seeking an opportunity to truly get to know what life was like for a Black person, especially in the South. At the time he was a middle-aged white man and grew up in Texas, where he

Shalese Lopez Title “Black like me” was written by John Howard Griffin. This book is basically a journal about his experience of being African American. John is a white journalist who specializes in “race relations” and decides to change the color of his skin to see what it’s like to live as a “negro.”

Griffin was running low on money, so he decided to cash a traveler’s check at the dime store where he would make most of his purchases as a white man. However he came in as “Negro” to cash a check but the white girl said no to him because of the color of his skin. He was not disappointed of the fact that the store didn’t want to cash his check, but he was disappointed of how these stores carried bad manners. “It was not their refusal- I could understand that; it was the bad manners they displayed” (49). This statement of being rejected at various stores to cash a traveler’s check made me upset because clerk assumed his checks were bad because of the color of his skin. This reminded me of a time during football season, when we had to sell discount cards for a fundraiser. Anyway I had the hardest time selling the discount cards, probably because I’m Mexican, and my friend that is white sold all of his so decided to help me. The thing that got me more mad was that my friend was selling my cards to people I had already asked.

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.

Black Like Me is the story of a man named John Howard Griffin, who underwent a series of medical treatments to change his skin color

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.

While sitting in his barn one night, he read an article about increasing suicide rate within the negro community. This had really upset Griffin. He began to think about how blacks and whites are now supposed to live together in harmony, but neither one of the races knows anything about the other. In fact, they really do not care to know an absolute thing. This upset him so much

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.