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What Is The Theme Of Black Like Me By John Griffin

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The title of this book is named “Black like me” by John Howard Griffin. This story takes place in several different areas like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia in 1959. The main characters are John griffin, Sterling Williams, George Levitan, P.D. East, Adele Jackson, Christophe, Sam Gandy, and Don Rutledge. These characters played a big part in the story. The message that the author is trying to convey about this story. Is telling the audience what life was like as a black man in southern states. John griffin was a well-known journalist who lived in Texas. He discovered lots of killings and suicides of African American people. Throughout the days he realizes that because he is a white man it is hard to understand the lives of …show more content…

In Alabama he notices that there were lots of different opinions of how whites saw blacks. Whites talked about why they thought blacks were such a disgrace. They also included how different their sex lives were compared to theirs? Throughout Griffin’s experiences he becomes depressed and stops taking his medication. He does this to turn back white to see if the white society will treat him any different. After turning back white Griffin notices that he is again treated with respect from other whites. He also notices that he doesn’t receive any more death stares, or mistreating from other whites. As a white man Griffin looked at with much fear from black people. Overall Griffin’s experiment worked out great.
When he had once more turned white he had gone back home with being questioned and interviewed by other broadcasters. In my opinion think this book is very educational. It made me express different types of emotions. I had expressed worry when Griffin was explaining his project of wanting to transition into a black man. I had then expressed anger and disappointment when he was treated unfair by other …show more content…

The topic of the book is focused on racism and how hard it was being a black person. It could help the historian gain more research about how and why segregation was handled. It could also be used if the historian wanted to gain more information about why Griffin’s project was a success. While reading this book thoughts of anger, curiosity, and depression ran through my mind. The anger was formed by the disrespect whites had upon blacks.
This made me very upset because skin color shouldn’t affect how you treat someone. The curiosity was me asking myself why whites were so cruel to blacks just because of their skin color. While I first started this book about Griffin’s project I thought that he was going to die his first day. I thought this, because in the south whites were known as cruel and harsh. My historical questions are, why did blacks obey all of the white’s laws?
Why couldn’t most blacks all group together and attack the whites who threatened them? These are my questions, because during segregation most blacks did not stand up for themselves. I would further investigate what person started racism and segregation. This would help me understand why and how long it

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The book Black Like Me was written by a man who did the unthinkable in 1959. John Howard Griffin purposely altered the pigment in his skin to darken. He had transformed himself into a black man! Within the text, he describes his disturbing encounters with the inevitable traveling deep into the South. From New Orleans, Louisiana to Mobile, Alabama he journeyed through masses of racism but also discovered a newfound respect and kindness given by his fellow Negroes.

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"Black Like Me" written by John Howard Griffin. Based on Griffin's experience as African American. In his book Black Like " he talks about the white racism that he faced as african american. Also, He tells us how black people are courteous and warm with each other even with a stranger like Griffin. He gave us the example of how when people get together can achieve goals.

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The book Black Like Me illustrated by John Howard Griffin is a book about a Caucasian southern man who wants to know how it feels to be an African-American man in the south, which was segregated during the 1950s. “You can’t just walk in anyplace and ask for a drink… There’s a Negro café over in the French Market about two blocks up”. (25) This was a quote from the book when John Howard Griffin had only been a black man for just a few days and realized things have changed since he became a black man. “A stinging indictment of thoughtless, needless inhumanity.

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By writing Black Like Me, John Griffin was trying to write down everything he felt was important on his journey as a black man. One of the major things wrote down was the idea of white racism. Which is the belief that white people are superior to other races and because of that should run society. So, the main topic of the novel was social divide of whites and African Americans. As a black man John saw the contempt white people had towards African Americans, and just the overall condescending attitude emanated from these people.

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John decides to change his pigmentation to live as a black man in the south. He wants to experience the bad treatment black people go through daily. The main character of the book is John Howard Griffin, who is also the narrator and author. He is a white middle aged southerner.

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