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dukegregory 's review for:
Black Like Me
by John Howard Griffin
2.5
A kind of wonky, insane book that is fascinating to me not for its trite insights into the "black experience" but for its constant accidental tension in exposing the absurdity of white Americans inability to conceive of racism on the personal (let's not even get into the systemic) level unless a white man "becomes" a black man and shares his experiences in print. Everyone saying or writing or proclaiming that Griffin is "courageous" need to get a grip. He blackened his skin, lived like black Southerners and, when getting to Montgomery, just as quickly chose to remove the false pigment from his skin so as to feel more secure. He couldn't even perform his artifical blackness for a long enough period of time to have actually achieved any sort of sociological grandeur. Black people cannot demelinate at will! If Griffin is truly a hero, then every black American deserves a Purple Heart.
A kind of wonky, insane book that is fascinating to me not for its trite insights into the "black experience" but for its constant accidental tension in exposing the absurdity of white Americans inability to conceive of racism on the personal (let's not even get into the systemic) level unless a white man "becomes" a black man and shares his experiences in print. Everyone saying or writing or proclaiming that Griffin is "courageous" need to get a grip. He blackened his skin, lived like black Southerners and, when getting to Montgomery, just as quickly chose to remove the false pigment from his skin so as to feel more secure. He couldn't even perform his artifical blackness for a long enough period of time to have actually achieved any sort of sociological grandeur. Black people cannot demelinate at will! If Griffin is truly a hero, then every black American deserves a Purple Heart.