Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Black Like Me
Book Review: Memorable
Summary: 4 Stars
I had to read this book for school, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It's really fascinating to read the author writing about how he has to put up with discrimination merely for skin color. Being actually white and enjoying the privileges Caucasians enjoyed during the era of segregation enables the narrator to realize the kind of discrimination black people had to deal with when he colors his skin to look like an African-American, and is actually a pretty insightful look and a fascinating glimpse at a bygone - and thank goodness it's gone - era.Book Review: Must read
Summary: 5 Stars
Almost too incredible to believe, I couldn't put Black Like Me down. I read it in high school and again about seven years later. I appreciated it even more the second time. Highly recommended!Book Review: Olga, Artemio, Mariela, and Marisol's reviews
Summary: 5 Stars
The book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin is about how the author, John Howard Griffin, goes from being a white, honorable journalist to a black journalist. He transforms through a series of aid medication and dye. He changes his color pigment from white to black. In the book, he transforms completely. He keeps a diary on his daily experiences, experiences hard to imagine. The diary documents his experiences as a black male trying to survive the crucial racist reality in the Deep South in the late decade of the 1950's and early 1960's. He transforms from a man who is able to get what he wants when he wants it, to someone who faces restrictions when going into places and doing what he wants.
This book is an excellent way to show people of the United States the crucial reality of, not only the experiences of a black male, but of the whole entire ethnic group. I think this book is an excellent way to portray and show racism at a first glance. John knows the risk he is taking when he decides to go undercover as a black male in the Deep South, but he still goes ahead and does it. The truth is very harsh, but he still writes it. He opens a discussion among people of this crucial reality: that Blacks face discrimination in the simplest forms of life. He opens up the dormant eyes of every American in the country. This is an excellent book. -by Olga
The book Black Like Me talks about a lot of discrimination. John Howard Griffin is the author and he writes about himself and the reasons why he changed from white to black. He wanted to be black and he decides to change how he looks and go to other places where nobody will know him. When he is black, he tests racism because he isn't like the other white people. The racism in the book Black Like Me is against black people for how they look.
The book makes me question why people discriminate against other people. Everyone is human, everyone has feelings and everyone should have the same rights in this world. When he is white he is able to do what ever he wants and when he is black, he is restricted from doing a lot of things. People look at him differently for how he looks. People make racist comments and he feels bad for why people are like that. -by Artemio
The book Black Like Me is very interesting. It is about a white man named John Howard Griffin that wants to change his skin color to black. He changes his white skin color to black because he wants to experience how black people were treated around 1959. It is something brave to do, because when he changes his color he goes through a lot of discrimination. He actually feels how other people from a different race are treated so badly.
John Griffin is a businessman but he is no one when he changes his skin color. He has a wife and kids that he loves very much. He leaves that behind for some time just to feel how black people are treated. He is known as a black person and it goes really badly because he can't do what he would do if he was a white man. After being black, he finally realizes it is not easy being a black person. He feels bad for blacks; he can't believe they are treated so badly.
In my opinion this book is very interesting. This book shows a good example of racism. It also shows that there are white people that care about black people because of what John Griffin did. John Griffin is a man that understands what black people were going through and it was something brave for him to do.
These are three examples from the book that support my personal statement. One of them is that John Griffin tells his friend about what he is going to do with his color skin. His friend says he is crazy but John doesn't care. He still does it. Second, when John changes his color, people treat him badly but there are actually other people that help him out. The third example is that John has to get used to being black because he can't do what he used to do when he was a white person. These are my three examples that support my personal statement. -By Mariela
The book Black Like Me is about John Howard Griffin, the author, and his life. It all starts by him wanting to change his skin color through treatment/medication. He wants to change his color to a black person because he wants to see how people from his opposite color are treated. While he is living like a black person, he sees many differences between when he was white and then black. When Griffin was first white, he could go anywhere he wanted like fancy restaurants, sit on the buses with no trouble and stop where he wanted. He could also change checks into money. When Griffin changes his color to black, he can't sit in the park comfortably without being criticized by a white person. He is discriminated against, and he can't change a check into cash like he could when he was white. The main idea in this book Black Like Me is that black people are and were discriminated against currently and in the late 1950s while doing the same acts that white people do.
I thought this book was interesting. I liked learning about John Howard Griffin's opinions/thoughts/experiences in his life. He goes through being black and seeing how blacks are treated. At the same time, I think he is the kind of guy that didn't judge people based on color. He cared about everybody, no matter what. For him, everybody is family. When Griffin was white he could go to fancy restaurants, stay in nice hotels, and have a great time outside without being discriminated against. After Griffin's medication darkens his color, he has to get comfortable with the reality that blacks get treated differently. John Howard Griffin was white and wanted to see from his own perspective how black people were treated. -by Marisol
Book Review: Poignant, Powerful, Thought-Provoking!
Summary: 5 Stars
Racial prejudice has long been an issue in the United States of America. What irony that a nation titled "United" should go through so much division! In his poignant narrative Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin chronicles his experiences in America's Deep South during the 1950s as a white man dyed black.
Griffin's journal entries are easy to breeze through and intense enough to keep your eyes glued to the book. I basically read this book in 2 days.
Although this story did not surprise me, it profoundly impacted me and added to my personal convictions that no one should mock, scorn, or humiliate another individual solely because of appearance. It is pure ignorance to say that because a man is black, he is less deserving of basic human rights.
I feel that this book has given me great insight and is another astonishing example of how important it is to treat others, no matter what they look like, with respect, dignity, and honor. Not doing so can cause them to feel unwanted, ashamed, and desolate (as Griffin so aptly points out).
Overall this book has stirred up a myriad of emotions in my heart: anger, repulsion, anguish, outrage, and amusement. It pains me to see how some people justify their cruel treatment toward others. It pains me to see others being treated with utter contempt and disrespect. The fact that a person can degrade another human being merely for the color of his skin is ridiculous and utter foolishness.
This book is an honest telling of a time in our American history.
I say, definitely go read it!
Book Review: Powerful
Summary: 4 Stars
John Griffin's story is a powerful one. Having walked in the shoes of both white and black men, his perspective is fascinating. However, the book drags along at some points, making it worth 4, not 5, stars. Nonetheless, if you want a new perspective on racial tension in our recent history, definitely give this book a chance.