Essay on Ethics in Black Like Me by John Griffin

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

On his journey Griffin anticipates that he would experience prejudice, oppression, and hardship, but he what he wasn’t equipped to handle the magnitude of it: with every step he took, he experiences some form of racism. The word "nigger" seems to sprout out the mouth of the common man as water flows from a faucet left an echo on every street corner. In his travels to New Orleans he founded how hard it was to find a job, a nice place to eat, or even find a decent restroom for blacks. After numerous traumatic days in New Orleans, Griffin decides to continue his

One of Griffin’s first intellectual encounters was when he started discussing black topics. In Black like Me John Griffin stated that when black people were asked about problems in the community they wouldn’t complain, but would later “act out” and leave white people confused and puzzled in the end. In reality it was quite the opposite, since when they did voice their opinions the white people would “lash out” and “put them back in their place” for disrupting the “peace”. It still happens today, sadly, like in recent murders of minorities in which the media –the same source used back then- alters events and changes our opinions on situations to make things seem like something

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

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.

“Passing,” for The Ex-Colored Man gives him an initiation into a “freemasonry of…race;” gaining access to a secret knowledge that is out of reach for most individuals (Johnson 59). His ability to view the world from both races enables him to experience “the attitude of the whole [community] to change,” when he is “passing” as a black; he is treated differently than when he is “passing” for white (Johnson 95). This “freemasonry” is what convinces him the white society is the dominant culture. Success can only be

That is to say, a human being will naturally be drawn towards the preservation of the self. (4) During this time period, the white man viewed the black man as a threat to the white lifestyle. As experienced through the eyes of John Howard Griffin as a black man, the white man would have many questions as to the nature of the black man. (5) Through Griffin’s experience, he learned that there is no fundamental difference in the nature of the white man as compared to the nature of the black man. There seems to be a desire to survive.

Slavery was abolished after the Civil War, but the Negro race still was not accepted as equals into American society. To attain a better understanding of the events and struggles faced during this period, one must take a look at its' literature. James Weldon Johnson does an excellent job of vividly depicting an accurate portrait of the adversities faced before the Civil Rights Movement by the black community in his novel “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” One does not only read this book, but instead one takes a journey alongside a burdened mulatto man as he struggles to claim one race as his own.

Griffin’s journey let him experience the discrimination against black people first hand and allowed him to empathise with them. Towards

Black Like Me is a film about a white reporter who darkens his skin in order to report and experience life from the other side of the “color line.” John Howard Griffin passed as an African American man for six weeks in the deep south during the height of the civil-rights movement. John undergoes mental torment, abuse, discrimination, and treated as an inferior by whites. Throughout histravels, John encounters three Southern white men who are wiling to stop to pick him up when he hitchhikes. Disturbingly two of the men only do so to ask offensive and indelicate questions about his sex life. Having ben picked up by repulsive racist, John is last picked up by a kind construction worker who seems to not care about John’s skin color.

Why do Black and Minority Ethnic young people experience differential treatment in the Youth Justice System?

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

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.

“The Book of Negroes is a master piece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail, necessary for imagining the real beyond the traces left by history.” I completely agree with The Globe and Mail’s interpretation of this story. One could almost see the desolate conditions of the slave boats and feel the pain of every person brought into slavery. Lawrence Hill created a compelling story that depicts the hard ships, emotional turmoil and bravery when he wrote The Book of Negroes.

Black Like Me takes place in a few run-down towns in both New Orleans and the deep south of Mississippi and Alabama. Centered around these areas great tension arises as John Howard Griffin, both our central character and author, takes a great risk of changing his skin pigmentation in order to make himself appear as a former negro. During the time period of the 1950’s the racial question; do negroes deserve their rights, led him to conduct this experiment without knowing of the long road that lay ahead. Black Like Me contains many different aspects of how people were treated back then due to racial tensions. Whites hated the negroes, while the negroes had nothing against the white folks. Black Like Me portrayed the aspects accurately using the harsh criticism directed towards him and other negroes by white folks and writing about his journey for others to learn from. Three reasons that support the evaluation above include: white folks letting Griffin purchase goods from their stores, but not letting him use the restroom or purchase something to drink/eat. The other reasons include: rude and disrespectful words being shouted at him followed by dirty looks and the fact that Griffin got treated differently by his own race simply because of the pigmentation of his skin.