Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Black Like Me
Book Review: A White Males Experience of African American Life
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1959, John Howard Griffin temporarily abandoned his privileged life as a Southern White male, medically darkened his skin, and posed as a Black man in the deep South. Some reviewers rightly question whether a short period of immersion such as this can allow the pain of racism to etch onto one's soul. Of course it cannot. It cannot allow for the decade after decade after decade build-up of racist attitudes and history. Nor can it allow for the day after day after day of soul-numbing hatred. Still, for its time, this book was revolutionary. And even for our time today, "Black Like Me" can at least provide Whites with some small slice of the horrors of racism.
Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.
Book Review: A great historical and sociological read
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed re-reading this book, a nonfiction kind-of-documentary by John Griffin, a white journalist who reports on his travels throughout the South of the US in 1959. During this era of Jim Crow, segregation of Blacks and whites was commonplace in the South, and institutionalized discrimination against Blacks was too. However, what makes Griffin's book very unique is that he traveled in disguise as a black man in the South.
The book is an excellent study of many sociological issues and concerns of that time period in the US, and I was particularly struck by the compelling information of racism and sexism that Griffin objectively presents. Griffin introduces the reader to many stereotypes which were used to describe African-Americans during this journalistic odyssey. As with most stereotypes, the stereotypes presented in the book are based on ignorance and misunderstanding of African-American culture.
Griffin reports of a certain perverse curiosity that many whites had (and may possibly still have) regarding African-Americans. Unfortunately, Griffin chooses to present the reader with certain stereotypes without attempting to explain them. Such stereotypes, however, need to be carefully examined, in my opinion, to illustrate the dynamic interaction between racism and sexism, and to clearly see how racism and sexism are utilized in Black Like Me and in everyday life as mechanisms used by whites to discriminate against,and often times, victimize African-Americans.
Griffin, as a black man, speaks of the numerous encounters he experiences with white people. The vast majority of these interactions occur at night. Griffin writes, "A man [white] will reveal himself in the dark, which gives an illusion of anonymity, more than he will in the bright light." [Griffin, p. 85] Griffin refers to his encounters with white people as pornographic. In conversation, white men interrogate Griffin in hopes that he would reveal some mystic information concerning the lifestyle of sexual behavior of black people. From these experiences with white people, Griffin posits that these individuals believed that blacks were " an exhaustible sexual machine with over-sized genitals and a vast store of experiences, immensely varied." [Griffin, p. 85]
Griffin's nocturnal encounters with white men suggest that such sexual perverse curiosity was one means by which white men subordinated and exploited the black male. Centuries-old white mythology is also employed in the book to victimize blacks. That is, fearful white men established untruths which have been used throughout American history to impede African-American progress.
White mythology has been used to explain the unexplainable as well as to place the white man above other non-whites. History chronicles how white men used to portray the black male as an animal, a horse, a stallion possessing physical prowess, inexhaustible sexual appetite, and uncontrollable passions. In support of such mythology, Griffin recounts an incident when a white man asked him if he had ever had ever been with a white woman. When Griffin responded that he had never been with one, the white man states, "There's plenty of white women who would like to have a good buck Negro." [Griffin, p. 86]
Another established mythological portrayal is of the black female by white people. black women were perceived to be sensual, exotic, and extremely provocative. "...NOTICE!...it was only another list of prices a white man would pay for various types of sensuality with various ages of Negro girls." [Griffin, p. 81] Griffin reports that black women were greatly used and abused by white men, and frequently black women were also mistreated by their own race. Sadly, some black men, when paid a certain amount of money, would even assist white men procure black women and children.
In mythological terms, the black man was viewed as Apollo, the black woman was viewed as Venus, and the white woman was viewed as the Virgin Mary. These stereotypes which were devised by white men have not only caused significant problems for blacks, but also have caused problems for white people. Two more frequently employed stereotypes created by white men and given to blacks included the aggressive savage beast, and the docile child inferior to whites in all aspects. Many other stereotypes have been created and utilized by whites in the US to describe blacks, however, the previously mentioned ones are perhaps the most ingrained in the American psyche and the ones which surface in Griffin's work.
Although Griffin painted himself black on the outside and experienced many things which African-Americans experienced at that time, his interpretation of his collected data was from the perspective of a white man. Griffin's cultural orientation, ethnic heritage, gender and race were constantly with him at all times even if they were not always visible to the naked eye. Therefore, Griffin was only able to draw a conclusion from his darkened `white' feelings, reasoning, and senses.
Griffin's experiment stands as a testament to the wrongs which had been done to African-Americans during the Jim Crow era. I would recommend Black Like Me to anyone interested in investigating how white people perceived and treated African-Americans in the South prior to the Civil Rights Movement in the US.
Book Review: A study in race relations
Summary: 4 Stars
I read this book in the early 1980s when I was a teenager and recently picked it up again. While not having quite the impact and eloquence of Richard Wright's "Black Boy" or anything by Ralph Ellison, this is an interesting contribution to the essays and commentaries on race in the Deep South in the early 1960's.
The premise is something of a gimmick in some ways, although very seriously intentioned, but one that works like this: a middle aged white man, who also happens to be a writer and commentator on race, "blackens" his skin with medical pigmentation procedures and stain. It all sounds quite rudimentary, but it appears that this combination allowed him to pass for a black man for a period of about six weeks in the deepest parts of the American South. He actually switches back and forth between white and black society over that period, and the differences in treatment are astounding, but also expected.
While this is a useful part of writings of the 1960s race issues, I could not help feeling that the plight of the black race was deeper of course than Griffin was able to go: he could always opt out of his situation and reappear as a white man. While he experienced some of the feelings of hopelessness and violation that was part of the daily life of the black person in 1960, he also could escape it at any time. This book is arguably superficial in that respect since it deals with race on an emotional level - how Griffin felt, how people felt about him, what he experienced while temporarily black. While this is a valiant and noble effort, I doubt that anyone who has not completely walked for a lifetime in the shoes of a race victim can truly feel the impact of racism. I say this as someone who is white. In the end, I admire what Griffin set out to expose, and he probably has done much good by so doing, but the impact to me was considerably less than from reading Wright or Ellison.
Book Review: As important now as it was then
Summary: 5 Stars
John Howard Griffin's "Black Like Me" is probably one of the most important works of the Civil Rights Era. Sadly, it's not important so much for what it says (although, what it says is quite powerful), but for the fact that a white man said it. Griffin doesn't say all that much that black writers hadn't been saying for decades, but for a variety of reasons, white people - even well-intentioned white people - couldn't hear it until it was said by one of their own.
One of the biggest obstacles in the Civil Rights Movement was that most black people had long been conditioned not to tell the truth of their experience to white people for fear of angering them and suffering reprisals. In turn, because of this silence, whites could comfortably wear their blinders and assume that "separate but equal" was working just fine. After all, most whites interacted with blacks at least from time to time and most didn't harbor any ill sentiments. Most were courteous and pleasant, and most were genuinely - albeit naively - unaware of any real suffering by blacks. It was just the way things were.
The only way to breach the barrier between blacks and whites, and thereby bridge the communication gap, was for a white man to become black and live in the "Negro" world. The important thing to note about Griffin's transformation is that, while he was scrupulous about altering his appearance, he specifically chose not to alter his name, speech patterns, mannerisms or any other fundamental aspects of himself. This gives the lie to the oft-repeated rationalization that blacks were judged by the "content of their character" rather than the color of their skin.
Perhaps the greatest strength of Griffin's book is his ability to simultaneously sink himself fully into his new persona while at the same time consciously and carefully observing and critiquing his responses thereto. Griffin makes passing reference to "when I was blind". We don't know the circumstances of either his blindness or his recovery, but it shows that Griffin has had previous experience entering into and returning from an alien world.
The first time Griffin sees his new "Negro" self in the mirror, we, the readers, experience the shock and alienation right along with him. As he learns to navigate as a "Negro", we too learn things before that we'd never even thought to think about before, let alone experienced before. We feel Griffin's fear as he is stalked by a young, threatening white kid. We squirm in disgust as white man after white man probes the "sexual character" of the "Negro". And we sigh in gratitude for the small and large kindnesses he receives along the way. Most of all, we too lose touch a bit with our comfortable white existence and sense, perhaps for the first time, what it feels like to be literally uncomfortable in our own skin.
My only regret about the book is how short it was. I, in my own selfishness, wanted the experiment to go on so I could experience more of that alien world which I thought I knew. But the fact that Griffin could endure the experiment for only a few weeks speaks volumes. Certain places he is only able to stay a few hours before fleeing or being rescued. Fortunately, he had the resources and connections to do so. Imagine being poor and black, consigned to such places having to struggle like an animal to survive, and then having that very animal-ness flung back in your face as the reason you are not worthy of equal citizenship?
Griffin's 1979 epilogue is also immensely important as it gives a context and understanding of the development of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of the same patterns which existed pre-Civil Rights - the "Negro" as an ignorant child who needed to be led and controlled by smarter, "benevolent" whites for his own good - persisted throughout the movement. Well-intentioned whites were understandably upset to be pushed aside after putting their time, money and reputations on the line, but seen from the black perspective, it made perfect sense. It wasn't about separatism as much as it was about empowerment, which blacks could (and can't) achieve so long as whites are in charge of deciding what rights will be fought for and how.
Finally, many will argue that this book may have been important "back then" but it's dated now because things are different. After all, we have our first black president, don't we? But the very rise of that black president has made it crystal clear that the struggle isn't over and that the movement still has a place. From the documented rise in overtly racist "hate" groups to the perhaps naïve ideas of people like Rand Paul who thinks that private businesses should be legally allowed to discriminate, it is inescapable that "Black Like Me" is as relevant today as it was then. If anything, perhaps we need a new John Howard Griffin to cross racial barriers and compare the lives of today's blacks to those whom Griffin encountered. I do believe we've made progress, but I'm sure today, just like fifty years ago, many people would be shocked to hear the truth.
Book Review: BLACK LIKE ME
Summary: 5 Stars
I WAS VERY PLEASED WITH THIS PRODUCT. IT ARRIVED ON TIME,ONLY TOOK A COUPLE OF DAYS. THE BOOK WAS USED, IT WAS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION.I RECOMMEND THEM, SO VERY HAPPY.