Analysis Of Black Like Me By John Howard Griffin

In the 1900’s many people had harsh opinions of black americans. People who were white were thought of as being superior and more important. After slavery had ended there were still many persisting effects of racism and inferiority among the black community. Although this was recognized people did not do much to help and many white people watched or even acted in on it. John Howard Griffin was a man born in the south along with these opinions. In 1950, Griffin was mostly widely known for his experiment, which he conducted to experience first hand what the blacks were going through. John Howard Griffin contributed to american culture by confronting racism and violence through his experiment in the book Black Like Me. John Howard Griffin started

He was a very hard working and stubborn person, which is one of the things which made him such a compassionate racial equality activist. John had gone throughout most of his life a wealthy man which is what had made him such an uncommon person to do the experiment in which he partook in. Griffin had taken many medications which had been used to change the pigmentation of his skin, into a darker color resembling an african american person. After undergoing the pigment change in his skin color he had decided that he was going to keep his name and identity so that he would have no other changes in his life that could potentially change the course or result of his experiment. After deciding all of the things that were regarding his name and the answers to question that could possibly be asked he had decided to go out into public. At his first time out he had met a very nice black man who had actually made Griffin feel welcomed into the black community. However hs first encounter with a white person had not gone very well. Although at the time of his experiment slavery had been over with, racism had

During John's experiment he concluded that being able to find a job was more difficult than he imagined: "after two weeks of unsuccessful job hunting in New Orleans, Griffin struck out on a bus to the Deep South of Mississippi and Alabama, an area with an even greater reputation for white hostility toward blacks" (Griffin). Griffin had searched for a job for two weeks, and had not been able to place a single one.In the time that he had conducted this experiment the effects of racism and prejudice had been dramatically affecting the income of black workers as well as the commonness of how often they worked. After his experiment John Howard Griffin had actually turned his experience into a book by looking back and providing parts from his journal that he had actually been keeping. Griffin had been someone who had it all in his life as a wealthy white educated man, he had been in the airforce, as well as gone to school and gotten numerous achievements. Griffin had struggled to understand exactly why people treat races so differently and in his experiment he had began to try to figure this out which is why he had given up all of the privileges he had been given in his everyday life to understand better what he had been on the other side of. Griffin had been repeatedly harassed as well as brutally hurt at times throughout this journey into a