Challenges of a Black Man in Racist South in Black Like Me

John Howard Griffin is the author and main character of the Anisfield-Wolf Award win- ning book, Black Like Me. In the autobiography of his experience, Griffin, a middle-aged white man, details the deliberate transition and his challenges as a black man during a time of racial in- justice in the South. Obviously expecting to find bigotry, persecution, and destitution, Griffin is further shocked by the actual depth of racism upon experiencing the abysmal conditions and devastated communities of the black man.

What began as an experiment quickly becomes more in- tense than anticipated when Griffin struggles to avoid “stepping out of line”. After only a week as a black man, Griffin is able to propound that “the Negro is treated not even as a second-class citizen, but as a tenth-class one”. Deeply unsettled with his insistently troubling observations of racism against the black community in the South, Griffin becomes devoted to learning the truths of racial inequality.

The questionable validity of his incompetent bias as a white man motivates Griffin to comprehend the life of his black counterpart by radically altering the color of his skin to temporarily become a black man Sepia, a black-oriented magazine, agrees to fund this ad- venture if Griffin supplies some articles after the project is completed.

By living among those so greatly afflicted by the tyranny of systemic racism Griffin sought to discover if the white population of America was justified to deny their similarities to the Nazi suppression of Jewish peoples. Griffin discovers that the condition for blacks and their communities are depressed but energized with a sense of hope.

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During his experiment, Griffin has difficulties finding shelter, food, and restrooms as a black man. He is turned away when trying to find transportation, cash a check, and simply find rest in a park as a black man He is the subject of an odd fascination with black sexuality and the constant threat of violence from the white population.

After enduring both passive and active forms of racial segregate—

tion Griffin concludes “The Negro does not understand the white any more than the white under- stands the Negro”. Griffin’s perspective of his own experience is graciously flawed by his assumption that voluntarily and controllably ‘enduring’ the black experience for six weeks has any greater merit than an actor dressed in blackfacet His experience is void of the true foundation through the parental influence of every culture. Where is his experience of hearing elder family members re- count the tales of racial suffering in their ancestry? Where was the actual correlation throughout his formative years between the behavior that he attempts to imitate and the centuries of despo- tism created by those he walked among for almost forty years before a meager six-week social experiment? Where is the fear that his children will be the victim of lynching?

The preparation for his social experiment was void of adequate research as indicated when he discovered that he should “never look at a white woman — look down or the other way” (Griffin, 68), Griffin’s writ- ing best analyzes the mindset of upper and middle-class whites who supported racial justice but fails to address an introspective view that isn’t assumed of his black counterpart The methodol- ogy of a mere six»week experience invokes skepticism rather than convince the reader that Grif- fin has truly learned anything new rather than selectively expanded on his own preconceived no- tions. Despite his unacknowledged bias, Griffin’s work does offer a new social perspective not available prior to his experiment To assume that one can simply alter their outer appearance then quickly emulate an oppressed minority group is grossly insulting.

The cowardly Griffin ironi- cally absconds to Mexico to avoid the same type of persecution he discovered during his social experiment. Griffin’s hasty execution of his white privilege, in the end, exemplifies that his moti- vation was never to actually right the wrongs of racial bigotry. While Griffin wrote about racial injustices his message is applicable to all aspects of civil rights through the roles of the privileged and the oppressed in that his view persuades one to imagine the experience of occupying an alternative social sphere. N0 reader would be void of some insight and emotional response to reading Griffin’s experience as this perspective is truly organic in the time of racial injustices in Americas. Those fortunate enough to not experience big- oted oppression in their lives will greatly benefit from a new and humbling perspective while those who have so grievously endured oppression may appreciate the sense of empathy delivered by Griffins.