Never-Ending Hypocrisy In John Griffin's Black Like Me

In Richard Wright’s novel, Black Boy, Richard is struggling to survive in a racist environment in the South. In his youth, Richard is vaguely aware of the differences between blacks and whites. He scarcely notices if a person is black or white, and views all people equally. As Richard grows older, he becomes more and more aware of how whites treat blacks, the social differences between the races, and how he is expected to act when in the presence of white people. Richard, with a rebellious nature, finds that he is torn between his need to be treated respectfully, with dignity and as an individual with value and his need to conform to the white rules of society for survival and acceptance.

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

John Howard Griffin's research should undeniably be considered sociological. He began with a theory, if he became black he could help understand the difficulties between races as both a white man and a black man in the south and with this knowledge develop a means to bridge the gap. With this information he developed a micro-theory, trying to explain a limited part of human behavior; why is there hate among blacks and whites? He collected his data in a process of explanatory research. He needed to test his theory in order to elaborate existing explanations. He gathered all his data and went through all research methods in the hopes of explaining his theory. He followed the research

The book’s narrator and main character is Griffin himself. At the beginning of the book, Griffin is living in small town rural Texas. Being an adamant supporter of the civil rights movement and plagued by an inability to understand what the black community is going through, Griffin decides to take a radical step. He hatches a plan to go undercover and surgically change his appearance to that of a black man. Griffin then plans to write an article chronicling his experience. He travels to the deep south to experience racism first hand.

When John Howard Griffin wrote the book “Black Like Me” he made it so that it was set in the southern states of the 1950’s. Griffin was a middle age man during the era of segregation ,he decided to change the color of his skin to see how his kind will react to the new depiction. The setting was critical to the story for being in the post-slavery era people where blacks and whites were separate but not equal. The tone of the story is gentle yet produces a powerful meaning. The main message from this story is racism is a very evil subject.

The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man depicts the narrator as a liminal character. Beginning with an oblivious knowledge of race as a child, and which racial group he belonged, to his well knowing of “white” and “black” and the ability to pass as both. On the account of liminality, the narrator is presenting himself as an outsider. Because he is both a “white” and “black” male, he does not fit in with either racial group. In the autobiography of an Ex-colored man, James Weldon Johnson uses double consciousness to show the narrators stance as a person that gives up his birthright for the “privilege of whiteness”.

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.

In Brian Copeland’s memoir, “Not a Genuine Black Man: My Life as an Outsider”, he vividly shares to what kind of racism and treatment that he and his family have gone through in a white community in San Leandro, CA during the 70’s. Through an ethnic studies lens, we can see clearly that indeed, the treatment of most Americans or “whites” toward African-American or “blacks” are hostile. There’s an invisible gap between two races, and Being an African-American

An example to illustrate this argument from Black Like Me is found on page 39. The elderly owner of the Y café complained to Griffin about how unfair the economic system was to black people. Many brilliant black students graduated with great marks, but still ended up doing the most menial work or very few selected jobs. Many black people, therefore, chose not to educate themselves. As a result, the whites said they were not worthy of first-class citizenship and everything continued in a vicious circle. (Griffin, 1996: 40)

Imagine a situation where one is walking down an empty street and a woman gives one a glance and begins running, or one is told to leave a public restaurant simply because of the family one was born into. This is the reality for two African-American authors in the 20th century. Over the history of the United States minorities have faced a numerous amounts of racism. The types of racism that was expressed to these minorities has evolved as time went on. Two authors decided to write about their experiences and they occurrences vary vastly. The details that really set one essay apart from the other include the time of day the racism took place, time period of the occurrence, and type of racism witnessed.

Griffin feels it is necessary to understand the hardship of blacks in the United States of

The content of Taylor’s essay is based upon his negative experiences with racism, presented through anecdotes taken from his life. Though these experiences provide support for his arguments there is an overabundance of facts and a lack of

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.

It doesn’t take long to figure out that race and ethnicity issues continue to affect America - a quick glance at the news will show the latest riot, hate crime, or police brutality incident. This centuries old struggle has given rise to a number of literary works on the topic, many of which take a different approach to the issue. W.E.B. Du Bois, for instance, published the work The Souls of Black Folk in 1903, arguing for blacks’ right to equality in a horrifically segregated society. In these essays, Du Bois coined the term “double-consciousness,” wherein those with black skin must view the world both from their own perspective, and from the perspective of the predominately white society. The short story Recitatif by Toni Morrison explores this concept through the removal of the characters’ races, and the film Do the Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee, tells a story to demonstrate it. While the former shows double-consciousness through the usage of ambiguity, the latter almost directly references the concept. Taken together, these two sources argue a multi-faceted version double-consciousness, wherein society alienates the characters in ways that go beyond just the color of one’s skin.

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.