Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Black Like Me
Book Review: Powerful Memoir That Stands The Test Of Time
Summary: 5 Stars
I'd heard of this "experiment" before and was curious about how it turned out. I saw the movies Watermelon Man and The Spook Who Sat by the Door after taking a racism class in college, interested in the evolution of black power in America. Many years later I got Griffin's book.
It's a quick read, only 200 pages (including epilogue & afterward), yet is enough to fill the reader with enough information to show them that there was still deep-rooted racism in the south. You must understand, though, that this takes place during '59-'60, so much has changed as far as laws & many incidents of blatant discrimination. The civil rights movement started, and in some aspects continues today. And recently the country's first black president sits in the white house, something no one could have thought of in the '60s. Despite all this we can still see forms of discrimination & racism today.
Griffin's experiment proved a point that no matter what color we are, we can discriminate, hate, judge, and these things are what keep us back as a species. They prevent us from making any real progress because we always divide ourselves by color, class, caste, race, sex, culture, instead of realizing that we are humans first, and that's the perspective we should come from when handling issues that trouble us...at least that's how I see it. I understand that we all have different needs & they might not apply to everyone, but we also have the same basic needs that everyone cannot live without.
We can understand, though Griffin's book, how black people might feel towards whites, or towards their own people. The frustration of being overlooked, chased away, ridiculed, or immediately classified as "not good enough" just by the pigment of your skin. We've made SOME progress over the years but I doubt that much has changed since the books' publication.
Griffin's book is one of many (The Spook Who Sat By the Door, Malcolm X,Soul on Ice, Nigger ) that have tried to understand the struggle of blacks from the times of slavery up to present-day. It is a struggle that, unfortunately, we'll have to fight for a long, long time.
Book Review: Pretty Good
Summary: 4 Stars
I feel like ive read nearly every book there is on racism. It is rare for me to feel as if ive read something of that nature with a new angle, but this book suprised me. What I love is that Griffin writes with little to no favortism, the style is very objective. A minor classic.Book Review: Sad that it's true
Summary: 3 Stars
This book was hard to get into. I was surprised at the difference in how people treated him when he was white vs. when he was black. I think it is so sad that racism is still alive. I know we don't live in a perfect world, but I just don't understand how people can continue to treat certain people with less respect only on the basis of skin color.
This book was recommended to me by a professor from my graduate program. I think everyone would benefit from reading this book and taking time to reflect on your own beliefs, attitudes, and actions.
Book Review: Scooter Jones' (Age 13) Review of Black Like Me
Summary: 5 Stars
Scooter Jones' (age 13) Review of Black Like Me
"Rest at pale evening...
A tall slim tree...
Night coming tenderly
Black like me."
--Langston Hughes
In 1959, John Griffin, the author of Black Like Me, used ultraviolet rays and stain to make his white skin darker. He shaved his head, took some traveler's checks, bade his wife and children goodbye, left his Texas farm, and boarded the nearest bus to Mississippi. Griffin wanted to learn whether African-Americans really had a "'wonderfully harmonious relationship (p.7)'" (as the Southern legislators put it) with the white people of the Southern states. He visited Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia. Griffin was amazed at the things he discovered. He traveled as an African-American man for about half a year before returning home and writing Black Like Me.
When I read this book in 2005, I was blown away. I had always assumed our country is one of the world's most advanced in treating all citizens equally-and I had believed that it had been this way for a long, long time. You know, there had been slaves and everything, but we'd taken care of that, like, 150 years ago. But John Griffin showed me that I was dead, dead wrong. It was like he took me by the hand and we both plunged into an alien world, quite unlike the one I know now. He led me into the segregated South. Along with him, I felt the "hate stares" on my back. I felt the discrimination. I felt the loathing faced by African-Americans just 45 years ago. People in America today need to read this book so that they can understand a shameful, but educational, piece of our nation's history.
I really liked Black Like Me. I experienced powerfully how segregation made so much of our society off limits to to the African-American Griffin. I analyzed people's true natures based on how they treated Griffin first as white, then as black. I learned how young children had their hopes for the future robbed from them, just because of their skin color.
As a white upper middle class man, Griffin never had to worry about finding simple public things such as a bathroom, a water fountain, or a park bench. After darkening his skin, Griffin asks a black man about where to find a bathroom and a church. The man says, "'Well, man, now just what do you want to do-[pee] or pray?....Lordy, Lordy...if you stick around this town, you'll find out you're going to end up doing most of your praying for a place to [pee]...you can go in some of the stores around here, but you've almost got to buy something before you can ask them to let you use the toilet (p.24).'" At one point, Griffin has been walking all over town and needs to rest: "My legs gave out. At Jackson Square, a public park, I found a long, curving bench and sat down to rest for a moment...I looked to see a middle-aged white man across the park...get to his feet and amble toward me...With perfect courtesy he said,'You'd better find yourself someplace else to rest. (p. 45)'" At this moment, Griffin and I are both amazed at how white people feel that black individuals are lower class, and forbid them to do something as simple as sit in the same park as themselves.
As a black man, Griffin quickly learns that people will not give him the same courtesy he has taken for granted before. People he had always interacted pleasantly with when he was white now refuse to speak a civil word to him, and sometimes even try to hinder him. When Griffin tries to cash one of his traveler's checks, he becomes painfully aware of the discrimination. "I took the bus to Dryades and walked down it, stopping at the dime store where I'd made most of my purchases. The young white girl came forward to wait on me. `I need to cash a traveler's check,' I said smiling. `We don't cash any checks of any kind,' she said firmly...I went into one store after the other along Dryades and Rampart Streets...It was not their refusal-I could understand that; it was the bad manners they displayed...they would have cashed a traveler's check without hesitation for a white man. (p. 51)" Griffin feels upset that these people will treat the exact same person differently just because of his skin color. As a reader, I feel the same sense of outrage, and though painful, this remains my favorite part of the book--because it show the "double face" of racism so acutely.
Growing up, Griffin had always assumed his right to hope for a bright future. If he was smart enough, he could get into a good college, earn his degree, get a good job, and make a lot of money. He hadn't realized that African-American children could not do the same. One black man says that the crème de la crème of the African-Americans become postman or pastors, and that is only if the family can raise enough money for the child to go to college. Today's generation needs to understand the hopelessness faced by African-Americans just one generation ago.
After reading Black Like Me, I see why it is a classic. I recommend it for people ages 13 and up, because this book showed the injustices from an insider's perspective. In 2005, when our society hasn't left racism as far behind as many of us would like to think, people need to learn how it feels to face segregation, discrimination and hopelessness. John Griffin was a brave man; he could have been killed by hate groups for writing this controversial book. Americans everywhere should honor his efforts by having this book in their bookcases. It will remind us of the shameful irony in the statement: "all men are created equal."
Book Review: Still relevant today
Summary: 5 Stars
Here's something that often makes me laugh...
People who seem to have no Black friends, don't know any Black people other than at a distance (say in another department at work), have none in their social circle and who have no knowledge of 'Black' history, the history of racist thought and practice or its persistent legacy of discrimination are quick to say those magic words:
'I'm not racist'.
I've observed this many, many, many times. It often precedes 'but...' and someone saying something that often reveals staggering ignorance. Now I'm no mind reader but I would ask the question of anyone who says 'I'm not racist' - how do you know?
We all have opinions that we would do well to examine from time to time. I've heard people from different ethnic groups, countries etc say the most stupid things imaginable about 'other' people and even themselves. Men say stupid things about women, women say stupid things about men. Let's face it - stupidity is common currency all over the world.
This book, if honestly read and understood, is an antidote to the abject stupidity of racism.