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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
Fascinating book that I'd wanted to read for years, totally forgotten about, and then stumbled across in a bookstore. I learned about Griffin in a sociology class 20+ years ago; while we never read his book, we spent a brief amount of time studying his findings. Amazing how some of what he wrote about in 1960, experienced in 1959 during his time spent as a "Black" man in the Deep South, rings true today.
"...the most obscene figures are not the ignorant ranting racists, but the legal minds who front for them, who 'invent' for them the legislative proposals and the propaganda bulletins. They deliberately choose to foster distortions, always under the guise of patriotism, upon a people who have no means of checking the facts. Their appeals...[show] a willingness to destroy and subvert values that have traditionally been held supreme in this land." (pp. 77-78)
"The monk laughed. 'Didn't Shakespeare say something about 'every fool in error can find a passage of Scripture to back him up'? He knew his religious bigots." (pp. 131)
Throw in pages of pages about how race-mixing was "communism" and you can see that the tactics of Fox and their ilk existed long before Fox and their ilk were things. The whole book is just a fascinating document of very specific time of American history through a very unique lens. However, in many ways, it doesn't really have the feel of history -- because so many aspects of this history have bled into the present.
"...the most obscene figures are not the ignorant ranting racists, but the legal minds who front for them, who 'invent' for them the legislative proposals and the propaganda bulletins. They deliberately choose to foster distortions, always under the guise of patriotism, upon a people who have no means of checking the facts. Their appeals...[show] a willingness to destroy and subvert values that have traditionally been held supreme in this land." (pp. 77-78)
"The monk laughed. 'Didn't Shakespeare say something about 'every fool in error can find a passage of Scripture to back him up'? He knew his religious bigots." (pp. 131)
Throw in pages of pages about how race-mixing was "communism" and you can see that the tactics of Fox and their ilk existed long before Fox and their ilk were things. The whole book is just a fascinating document of very specific time of American history through a very unique lens. However, in many ways, it doesn't really have the feel of history -- because so many aspects of this history have bled into the present.
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
5 stars for the value of what's said in this book taking into account the time that it was written and who the likely target audience was. If this was written today I'd be disappointed in the use of kid gloves and probably the whole premise.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
I really appreciate what Griffin attempted, to show people the alternate reality of their thinking when you changed the colour of someone's skin. The unconscious changes in the way they treated the exact same person, the difference in their visible reactions to him, even the way he was spoken to according to his outward appearance, showed the effectiveness of his experiment.
Similarly to the story of Beauty and the Beast, we are reminded that every individual has their own story, which is not necessarily the one that you immediately assign to them based on their looks.
I believe his intentions were pure and good, and applaud him for what he tried to help achieve. The additional chapters in the version I read were helpful too, in which he made it clear that he did not consider himself a voice of Black people, as it was shameful that Whites would only listen to their plight through him, when they should consult the people they are trying to work with.
Griffin's own story is rather amazing, but it is carefully minimised here, so that the true importance of his experiment are left to shine.
Similarly to the story of Beauty and the Beast, we are reminded that every individual has their own story, which is not necessarily the one that you immediately assign to them based on their looks.
I believe his intentions were pure and good, and applaud him for what he tried to help achieve. The additional chapters in the version I read were helpful too, in which he made it clear that he did not consider himself a voice of Black people, as it was shameful that Whites would only listen to their plight through him, when they should consult the people they are trying to work with.
Griffin's own story is rather amazing, but it is carefully minimised here, so that the true importance of his experiment are left to shine.
I'm sure this book was groundbreaking and eye-opening when it was first published, but it didn't age well. Similar to "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee", you knew after the first few encounters that every story in this book was going to end in disappointment. Which is why it took me so long to finish. Wish there was more anger/accountability thrown in the direction of the racist systems and people. Merp. John Howard Griffin has a heart of gold though.