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"Turning off all 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 flood 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 felt about the same way as I felt the first time I read this book, many years ago as a high school or college student. Griffin's experiences as a black man are demoralizing and discouraging. I admire Griffin for his experiment, never otherwise hiding his identity and facing the reactions of people.
"I saw it not as a white man and not as a Negro, but as a human parent. Their children resembled mine in all ways except the superficial one of skin color, as indeed they resembled all children of all humans. Yet this accident, this least important of all qualities, the skin pigment, marked them for inferior status. It became fully terrifying when I realized that if my skin were permanently black, they would unhesitatingly consign my own children to this bean future." (114)
At the Trapist monastery, where Griffin went for a few days to escape:
"They (the monks) sought to make themselves conform ever more perfectly to God's will, whereas outside I had seen mostly men who sought to make God's will conform to their wretched prejudices." (135)
I didn't recall the Langston Hughes' poem, "Dream Variation" from which the title comes.
Rest at pale evening...
A tall slim tree...
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.
"I saw it not as a white man and not as a Negro, but as a human parent. Their children resembled mine in all ways except the superficial one of skin color, as indeed they resembled all children of all humans. Yet this accident, this least important of all qualities, the skin pigment, marked them for inferior status. It became fully terrifying when I realized that if my skin were permanently black, they would unhesitatingly consign my own children to this bean future." (114)
At the Trapist monastery, where Griffin went for a few days to escape:
"They (the monks) sought to make themselves conform ever more perfectly to God's will, whereas outside I had seen mostly men who sought to make God's will conform to their wretched prejudices." (135)
I didn't recall the Langston Hughes' poem, "Dream Variation" from which the title comes.
Rest at pale evening...
A tall slim tree...
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.
This was a pretty great read. At first I found it difficult to believe that people weren't simply humoring him, but after looking at some pictures, I can see he was actually pretty convincing, especially while wearing dark sunglasses.
The book is a fairly straightforward and eloquent narrative, and I found myself engrossed most of the time. I really enjoyed reading about the fallout from the book after it was published as well. All in all, worth the read, no matter who you are.
I think the concept is strange. I’m glad that the work he did helped open white peoples eyes, but I think it’s also a great show of white privilege. When Griffin got tired of facing injustice, hostility, and ridicule he just went back to being white. His experience while it shed light on some of the things going on in that time, can not ever dream of comparing to the black experience and I think if people want to learn more about the black experience they should read accounts from black authors. I commend Griffin for his bravery though.
Black Like Me was a fascinating and sometimes terrifying account of deep cultural investigation. It reads like fiction, perhaps because of John Howard Griffin's background in novel-writing. There wasn't too much that surprised me, given the decades-long transparency around institutionalized racism since the 1950s and 1960s. However, it did make me think of just how fabricated the current racial divide has been by the past - with certain races being more likely to be poor and to reside in poor neighborhoods or even ghettos. It validates the mission of the school system within which I work, whose aim is to bridge that divide through education.
It was good although I was left wanting to know more about the thoughts of blacks. There was not much of a verbal connection that went deep enough to know what a black person was truly going through during those times.
In 1959, John Howard Griffin, a white writer from Texas, dyed his skin and passed as a black man in order to explore racial issues. For seven weeks, he traveled around Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. He changed nothing about his identity other than his skin pigmentation.
I was worried that this book would no longer be relevant since many changes have taken place in the last five decades. The book is relevant. Americans, especially, should work to understand what has happened here. I know things have improved, but I'm not naive enough to think the problem has been completely resolved. My hope is that it will continue to improve with every generation.
I was worried that this book would no longer be relevant since many changes have taken place in the last five decades. The book is relevant. Americans, especially, should work to understand what has happened here. I know things have improved, but I'm not naive enough to think the problem has been completely resolved. My hope is that it will continue to improve with every generation.
This book should be required reading for every White American. Griffin works hard to write a factual, unbiased account of his time living as a black man in the South in 1959, although the depths of his emotions is clear.
Rozumiem, że książka i to 'doświadczenie' było ważne w latach 50. kiedy biali ludzie w Stanach i cała narracja wokół rasizmu nie była opisywana i traktowana poważnie gdy czarni_e obywateli_ki dzieliły się swoimi doświadczeniami - nie słuchano ich, dyskryminowano - więc musiał pojawić się jakiś biały mężczyzna, który by 'wytłumaczył' dyskryminację 'Ameryce' i powiedział, że naprawdę czarne osoby spotykają się z niewyobrażalną więc agresją, pogardą i jest coś takiego jak rasizm w USA. Przypuszczam, że ta książka wiele zmieniła jeżeli chodzi o problem rasizmu i jego postrzegania. Nie u wszystkich oczywiście, bo późniejsze ataki na autora musiały być okropnym doświadczeniem. Natomiast czytając tą książkę dzisiaj - 2021 roku mam trochę zgrzyt, bo jednak wolę czytać i słuchać doświadczeń ludzi, których samych dotykała dyskryminacja, rasizm, jak np Jamesa Baldwina itp. Książka też mi pokazała jak wiele się zmieniło od opisywanych czasów, ale równocześnie pozostawiła z taką refleksją, że jeszcze jest bardzo dużo rzeczy do zmiany i musimy jeszcze bardzo wiele zmienić w naszych społeczeństwach i w nas samych.
If you aren't changed by this book, you didn't read it.