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| Griffin, John Howard: Black like Me
Griffin, John Howard: Black like Me
BLACK LIKE ME
Synopsis
John Howard Griffin begins this novel as a white man on
October 28th, 1959 and becomes a black man (with the help of a noted
dermatologist) on November 7th. He enters black society in New
Orleans through his contact Sterling, a shoe shine boy that he met in the days
before starting the experiment. Griffin stays with Sterling at the shine stand
for a few days to become assimilated into the society and to learn more about
the attitude and mindset of the common black man. After one week of trying to
find work other than menial labour, he leaves to travel throughout the Southern
states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas.
November 14th, the day he decides to
leave, is the day after the Mississippi jury refused to indict or consider the
evidence in a kidnap-lynch murder case. He decides to go into the heart of
Mississippi, the Southern state most feared by blacks of that time, just to see
if it really have the "wonderful relationship" with their Negroes that they say
they do. He knows it is a threat to his life if he remains in Hattiesburg
because he is not a true Negro and does not know the proper way to conduct
himself in the present situation. Griffin requests that one of his friends helps
him leave the state as soon as possible. P.D. East, Griffin`s friend, is more
than willing to help his friend out of the dangerous situation that he rots
himself into and back to New Orleans.
From New Orleans, he travels to Biloxi, Mississippi
and begins hitch hiking toward Mobile, Alabama. Griffin finds that men would not
pick him up in the day nearly as often as they would at night. One of the
reasons being that the darkness of night is a protection of sorts and the white
men would let their defences down. Also, they would not have to be afraid of
someone they knew seeing them with a Negro in their car. But the main reason is
of the stereotypes many of these men have of Negroes, that they are more
sexually active, know more about sex, have fewer morals and therefore would
discuss these things with them. One man who offers Griffin a lift is amazed to
find a Negro who speaks intelligently and tries to explain the fallacies behind
the stereotypes and what the problem with Negro society is.
Many Negroes he encounters on his journey through
the Deep South are very kind and open their hearts and homes to him. One example
of this is when Griffin asks an elderly Negro where he might find lodging, the
man offers to share his own bed with him. Another instance is when Griffin is
stranded somewhere between Mobile and Montgomery and a black man offers him
lodging at his home. The man`s home is a two-room shack that housed six members
of his family, but he accepts John into his home and refuses any money for the
trouble saying that "he`d brought more than he`d taken."
In Montgomery, Alabama, Griffin decides it is time
for him to reenter white society, but he also wants to gain a knowledge of the
area as a black man. So, he devises the technique of covering an area as a black
and then returning the following day as a white. What he finds is, as a black he
receives the "hate stare" from whites and is treated with every courtesy by the
black community. As a white, it is the exact opposite, he gets the "hate stare"
from blacks and is treated wonderfully by the same people who despised him the
previous day.
After a few days of zigzagging across the colour
line, Griffin decides that he has enough material from his journal to create a
book and enough experience as a black man so he reverts permanently into white
society. Crossing over into the white world is unsettling to Griffin, if only
because of the way he is treated by the same people who despise him previously
due to his pigmentation. The sudden ability to walk into any establishment and
not be refused service is also a shock after having to search for common
conveniences days before.
After returning to his hometown of Mansfield, Texas
Griffin is not widely accepted back into the community he once knew. Many of the
residents of the city are racists, therefore they consider him one of the
`niggers.` The racists even go as far as to hang Griffin in effigy from the
town`s stop light one morning. This prompts him and his family to leave the area
until the situation considerably calmed down.
Griffin is interviewed by various television and
radio hosts as well as magazine and newspapermen after the book is made public.
His main objective is to educate the public of the situation in the South and
people couldn`t help but hear about it. Whether or not they accepted the
information is not up to Griffin, but he did his best to make the knowledge
available.
If a white man became a negro in the deep South. what
adjustments would he have to make? What changes would occur to the heart, body,
and intelligence when a so-called first-class citizen is cast in the junk heap
of second and third class citizenship?
These we the underlying questions that were the driving
force behind the experimental exploration taken by John Howard
Griffin.
His main thought was that the communication between the two
dominant races in the South had stopped. He believed that once there was some
information exchanged the understanding would increase. People would change
their ways when they saw what was really happening. He risked his life and the
life of those who were close to him for the good of mankind. He jeopardised his
wife, 5 year old daughter, and all he met along the way, so that we, as a
society, could learn from our mistakes.
Topic
It is the story of the persecuted, the defrauded, the feared
and detested.
In the Preface, the author states "I could have been a Jew
in Germany, a Mexican in a number of states, or a member of any `inferior`
group. Only the details would have differed. The story would be the same." The
details he mentioned were he being black and in the South, and the story is of
hatred and racism directed toward him and others like him on account of those
details. The account he related showed America and the world that race relations
in the South was not the pretty picture it was painted as. Instead, he showed
the daily struggle of the blacks to survive.
Comment
Although some of the things that Griffin faced as a "black"
man have changed (in America they do not have any longer separate drinking
fountains or different laboratories for blacks and whites), the subtleties of
racism still pervade their culture, so Griffin`s book remains
pertinent.
I was fascinated, among other many things, to see Griffin
changing shades of skin colour to flip back and forth from the "white man" to
"black man" appearances, recording the marked differences in the way apparently
polite people displayed their true feelings when they suddenly saw him as a
member of the "other" race.
This is an easy book to recommend, and I only wish Griffin
was still alive to update his comments and give his observations of how America
appears now compared to four decades ago.
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