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Analysis Of Black Like Me By John Howard Griffin

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Black like Me Essay
In the story Black like Me, John Howard Griffin experienced being an African American for 6 weeks. This was to see how it was like to be a Negro in the Deep South where racism was a huge problem. Griffin now a Negro in the south experiences things he never thought would happen. Throughout this journey Griffin records his experiences in his journal to publish. I believe he really got to experience being a Negro even though it lasted 6 weeks.
Griffin becoming an African American was a risky decision. Putting his family and his life in danger. Griffin felt that he would show everyone how Negros are really treated in the southern states. He got his first taste of what it was like to be a black when he got to Mansfield, Texas. John says “I remembered to let the white man on first” (12) something so simple as getting in to a car you would have to let the white man first. After several days he encounters multiple incidents of racism.
After a while Griffin started to realize that the …show more content…

A black man has to keep his head down because of whites accusing them of staring at them, this causing a big scene made the black man feel miserable. Especially white woman, looking at them and they will become raged easily. “A Negro’d be asking for the rope to get himself mixed up with white woman.” (87) The Negros would make sure to very cautious around the white woman and not to slip up.
The blacks could not fight back because they knew that this would only make the problem worse. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” (1) He is saying that the hatred that griffin and other Negros have for the white man will do no good to gain freedom. They will have to put away their differences and come as one. Violence will do no good except make the problem

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Black Like Me is an incredible journey into what life was like in the Deep South during the late 1950s. John Griffin performed a social experiment to see what was life really like for blacks in the Southern States. John Griffin transformed himself into a black man and recorded his experiences into a book, Black Like Me. I was fascinated that 1950s science and medicine had advanced enough to allow someone to change the pigment of their skin. The procedure that Griffin underwent was simply taking pills and exposing himself to ultra violet rays (6).

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