Black Like Me Essay

Black Like Me is an astounding autobiographical diary about a white man from the north who temporarily transforms himself into a Negro because he wants to visit the south and experience the difficulties faced by black Americans in the year 1959. At that time, there was racial discrimination towards the blacks with segregation in the south, and the blacks suffered poverty, hunger and hopelessness. John Griffin was his name, and in this diary, he explains his experiences and feelings throughout his entire journey. Griffin first sets off to New Orleans to find a dermatologist who is willing to help him make this transformation successful. He undergoes treatment, including pills and UV lights, to aid in turning his skin color black, and the transformation takes up to three months. The diary starts on October 28 1959, and ends on August 16, 1960. This time in history was full of white racism, and a huge time of deep revenge for the Negroes. The blacks suffered from poverty, hunger, and lack of shelter. They were unemployed and unprotected. Griffin explains these issues in detail and actually tells of the personal experience he had in dealing with it. The diary starts off with Griffin introducing himself and his great idea. It continues with the changes he went through to become a Negro, and everything he went through while temporarily living in the South as a Negro. It ends with a huge conflict surrounding Griffins exposure of his secret journey to the entire world and how people reacted to it.

Griffin first goes to New Orleans to find a dermatologist to change his skin pigmentation. After months of treatment, he decides to look in the mirror and shockingly, he has an identity crisis. Turning off the lights, I went into the bathroom and closed the door. I stood in the darkness before the mirror, my hand on the light switch. I forced myself to flick it on. In the floor of light against white tile, the face and shoulders of a stranger- a fierce, bald, very dark Negro- glared at me from the glass. He in no way resembled me. I was imprisoned in the flesh of an utter stranger, an unsympathetic one with whom I felt no kinship. All traces of John Griffin I had been were wiped from existence.

(Griffin )

This is the beginning of what is yet to come for Mr. Griffin. He was scared, yet excited to see what was going to happen next. That night after seeing that the transformation worked well, he set out on his journey. Negroes looked at him, but without any suspicion for Griffin was just like them. For the first time, he encounters racism when he boards a trolley and has to sit in the back. He is subjected to the hate stare, and even with carefully thinking about out how to ask, to avoid rejection, to use the restroom or ask for a glass of water, almost all the time, he is rejected by the whites. He observes the feeling of inferiority by being called nigger or boy. Griffin is further shocked to discover that to a white racist, the Negro female is just an object for sexual pleasure. That the only place Griffin can go to the bathroom is across town, so while walking many blocks across town, he is frightened for his life as he is followed by a white bully. Finally losing the bully, Griffin looks for a place to stay and is shown a hotel in the Negro section of town where the rooms are not much bigger than the bed, and has no windows.

Although his journey took place during weeks of travel through Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia, Griffin found that the most racist state was Mississippi. When he thought of this great idea, he knew he was going to experience racism, however, not to the degree in which he experienced it in Mississippi. On the bus ride into Mississippi, Griffin experiences his first racial cruelty from a resident.

It was late dusk when the bus pulled into some little town outside of Hatteisburg for a stop. We get about ten minutes here, Bill said lets get off here and stretch our legs The driver stood up and announced Ten minute rest stop,. The whites rose and ambled off. Bill and I led the Negros toward the door. As soon as he saw us, the driver blocked our way. Hey boy where are you going? The driver walked away. Hey boy where are you going? the driver shouted at Bill while he stretched his arms across the opening to prevent myself from stepping down. I stood waiting. Where do you think you going? he asked, his heavy cheeks quivering with each word. Id like to go to the rest room. I smiled and moved to step down. He tightened his grip on the door. Does your ticket say for you to get off here? he asked. No sir, but the others.. Then you just sit your ass down. We turned like a small herd of cattle and drifted back to our seats. (Pg 60). The racial tension brought about on the bus ride to Mississippi was more intense than anything hes ever experienced before. Mississippi is filled with hatred and spite. Griffin begins to realize why black strangers become instant friends in the state of Mississippi, because they are all treated the same, and they all understand each other.

Alabama, on the other hand, was where the Negro was not violent, but just refused to obey racial laws and rules. Griffin decides to stop taking his medication and to experience the south as both a black man and a white man so he go back and forth with taking or not taking his medication. As a white man, Griffin receives respect from other whites, and fear blacks, however, as a black man he receives hostility from whites, and generosity from blacks. When Griffin decides his journey is over, he stops taking the pills and turns back into a white man. He heads home and is happy to see his family again, and is ready to let the world know what he has done, and what he has experienced.

Despite the risks involved, Griffin decides he wants to publish his article in the Negro magazine. Griffin is interviewed on TV in Hollywood, which is broadcasted and watched by all viewers in his area. He has support from a lot of blacks in the south, and a lot of his friends think that his idea was great. However, there are the white racist people that think otherwise, and now are threatening him and his family. Shockingly, they are the white people in his own town. They hang his effigy on the main street and burn a cross at the local negro school and threaten to castrate him. For his own safety and the safety of his family, Griffin and his family are forced to flee America and move to Mexico.

This book is truly outstanding and extremely moving. Griffin explains his journey in such detail so the reader really gets a good feel for what he was going through at the time. It shows the bravery of a loving white man from the North who is willing to risk his life, physically and mentally, to feel the lives of a Negro living in the South. The novel shows his experiences and feelings toward this type of cruelty. It shows hatred and spite that white people had against the blacks in the 50s; white racists who destroy the souls of the black man. It shows how the white man stereotyped the negro as irresponsible and different in sexual morals; that the negro was not smart and was lazy. Further, this book is very startling and blunt as it depicts how the Negro suffered silently. That in spite of his education, the only work available to a Negro is menial labor. At the same time, the book shows the Negros support for each other. Even though they are treated like animals and are denied education, they do not treat each other as they are treated and rarely are they in a depressed mood because of their existence. Especially in Georgia, the Negro, although he may have risen in status, is still compassionate towards their less fortunate brothers. Throughout his journey, Griffin is impressed by the black person who shows him kindness and respect and even though he is a mere stranger, the black man will share their food and home. During his journey, Griffin tries to educate the white man about the dignity of the black individual when the white man only wants to discuss sexual matters with him and who asks him to expose himself since he never saw a black man naked.

Finally, the deep hatred of white racism comes as a shock to Griffin with the actions that drove him and his family out of the country. Griffins final hope is that the blacks will not become racists too because of the ill treatment they experienced because if that should happen, then there would definitely be total destruction of the races. The Negro who turns now, in the moment of near-realization of his liberties, and bares his fangs at a mans whiteness, makes the same tragic error the white racist has made (Griffin 164).