Black Like Me Study Guide
This story is a rare example of non-fiction that can be read exactly like a fiction book - so unlikely are the events described in it. The author of the book, the journalist John Howard Griffin makes a brave experiment (totally discarding his instinct of self-preservation, because this experiment would have been greatly disapproved by both black and white people). He darkens his skin and pretends to be black. To understand the real depths of the racial segregation, Griffin, as a black man, travels to the most affected regions of the United States like Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, to see what life looks like from the other side of the color line.
The six weeks of his life as black are vividly described in his book that resembles a diary of a scientist exploring the uncharted regions of the planet. This diary caused a real wave of shock, disbelieve and repulsion from the readers, who refused to see the problem and even recognize the black people as real and equal people. Griffin tried to live just an average white man, but the obstacles he met were absolutely unexpected. From the lack of access to the public toilets to the great disapproval from both black and white passengers of the bus when he tried to give his seat to a white lady - the change of skin demanded from the journalist the complete change of habits and behaviour. Even his close friends, who talked to him a lot before, who knew his voice and style of speaking, didn’t recognize him just because Griffin was black.
This book puts to light all the hypocrisy and bigotry of the society of that times. Still, despite lots of negative reviews, Griffin received many letters of support and the issues got more attention from the government. Now this book is a must read one, because we, as modern people, shall understand what privileges we have now, independent of our skin color, race, sex and age. We shall understand the way of thinking of our ancestors - good people in general, who just couldn’t imagine that some other people are people too - and never repeat their mistakes.
Author: Erica Morris
New Essays
?Giancarlo Orlando English, Block E 5/28/13 Is Prejudice Forgotten? In the novel Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, one of the biggest themes in that blacks and whites act differently towards one another while in each other’s company. This theme is expressed many different times in the novel...
Throughout decades past, American philosophers and psychologists have strived to discover the “reason” for racism. John Howard Griffin, however, decided he would go straight into the heat of it. John Howard Griffin transformed himself into a man of color and went straight into the...
For the book report, I read the book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. The story takes place in 1959 and revolves around a white man who decides to go to the Deep South undercover as a black man to try to understand what really goes on there. This man, John Griffin, documented his journey from...
'For years it was my embarrassing task to sit in on the meetings of whites and blacks, to serve one ridiculous but necessary function: I knew, and every black man there knew, that I, as a man now white once again, could say the things that needed saying but would be rejected if black men said...