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To what extent does African American literature serves as an expose to the African American Tradition
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Title: Black Like Me
Author: John Howard Griffin
Genre: Non-Fiction
Copyright: 1976
Publisher: Penguin Books USA Inc.
Pages: 176
Obtained: EKFC Library
Black Like Me is a non-fiction book written by John Howard Griffin about what a black, middle-aged man has to go through every day in the Deep South. To find out what it is like to be a Negro, Griffin changes his skin color to that of a black. During his experiences, Griffin keeps a journal and that is what this book is. Black Like Me is a journal of Griffin's feelings, experiences, pains, and friends.
The setting of Black Like Me is intensely important. The setting starts out on October 28, 1959 in Mansfield, Texas. The setting in Black Like Me is so important because if the setting is any other place than the Southern United States then the plot is completely different. If the setting is in the north, then the issue of racism is not known. It is the south that is dealing with problems of racism. The setting changes a few times due to Griffins moving so much. The setting later moves to New Orleans, Louisiana and then on to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Griffin then travels to Mobile, Alabama and from Mobile to Montgomery, Alabama. From there, Griffin moves to Tuskegee, Alabama and then on to Auburn, Alabama which leads Griffin to Atlanta, Georgia. Griffin travels to New Orleans, Louisiana and finally, to the hometown of Mansfield, Texas. With each different city which Griffin travels to there are different problems, which Griffin must face. In the first city, Griffin's problems are mild but as time goes on and Griffin travels deeper and deeper into the south, the problems become more in-depth. The problems in the cities range from as small as having colored/white bathrooms to a white mob nearly killing a Negro. At one point in Black Like Me, a problem on a bus traveling to Hattiesburg, Alabama arises. At a rest stop on the way to Hattiesburg, the bus driver lets all of the whites off but refuses to let the Negroes off. Here is a quote from the scene: 'I stood on the bottom step, waiting. The driver turned back to me. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked, his heavy cheeks quivering with each word. "I'd like to go to the restroom." I smiled and moved to step down. He tightened his grip on the door facings and shouldered in close to block me.
The stories that the author told were very insightful to what life was like for an African American living in the south during this time period. First the author pointed out how differently blacks and whites lived. She stated “They owned the whole damn town. The majority of whites had it made in the shade. Living on easy street, they inhabited grand houses ranging from turn-of-the-century clapboards to historics”(pg 35). The blacks in the town didn’t live in these grand homes, they worked in them. Even in today’s time I can drive around, and look at the differences between the living conditions in the areas that are dominated by whites, and the areas that are dominated by blacks. Racial inequalities are still very prevalent In today’s society.
Both memoirs—John Griffin’s Black Like Me and Dick Gregory’s Nigger—examine race marginalization as it existed in mid-twentieth century America. Griffin’s Black Like Me intimately explores the discrimination against the black community by whites to expose the “truth” of racial relations and to “bridge the gap” of communication and understanding between the two races through a “social experiment”—an assumption of alterity (Griffin 1). In Nigger, Gregory also recounts personal racial discrimination as a black man trying to survive and succeed in a discriminatory society. But unlike Griffin’s experience, Gregory’s memoir progresses from a position of repressed “Other” to a more realized, dominant identity. However, the existence of a dual persona
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin is a Multicultural story set in the south
“The New Negro” brings negroes from the south together with Negros from the north after the beginning of the World War. “So, what began in terms of segregation becomes more and more, as its
“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of the hunger for life that gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human.” (Richard Wright) In 1945 an intelligent black boy named Richard Wright made the brave decision to write and publish an autobiography illustrating the struggles, trials, and tribulations of being a Negro in the Jim Crow South. Ever since Wright wrote about his life in Black Boy many African American writers have been influenced by Wright to do the same. Wright found the motivation and inspiration to write Black Boy through the relationships he had with his family and friends, the influence of folk art and famous authors of the early 1900s, and mistreatment of blacks in the South and uncomfortable racial barriers.
Racism was the biggest issue of the 1960’s and in Jackson, Mississippi it was a time of mistreatment and neglect for African-Americans, to a point where they did not get the say they deserved. The wealthier section Jackson, which was made up of all whites, had the female African-American be their maids which, they referred to as the “help”. The “help” were supposed to do everything from changing the children’s diapers to making dinner for the family every night. At the end of the day, they had to also take a bus ride to their homes on the opposite side of town and take care of their own families. The white people in town expected to wake up, have
In ‘How it feels to be colored me’ Neale Hurston opens up to her pride and identity as an African-American. Hurston uses a wide variety of imagery, diction using figurative language freely with metaphors. Her tone is bordering controversial using local lingo.
During the early 1900’s, the time period in which the story took place, racism was rampant throughout the entire nation. While African Americans technically were equal by law, they were anything but, in action. Laws such as “separate but equal” were used to justify blatant discrimination, laws that were coined as “Jim Crow Laws.” (Wikipedia,
During the early 1900’s, the time period in which the story took place, racism was rampant throughout the entire nation. While African Americans technically were equal by law, they were anything but, in action. Laws such as “separate but equal” were used to justify blatant discrimination, laws that were coined as “Jim Crow Laws.” (Wikipedia, Jim Crow Laws) Jim Crow Laws were local and state laws that were used to “legally” discriminate and segregate African Americans. Perhaps the most well-known Jim Crow law of that time was “separate but equal,” a law that opened up the gates to decades of racial tension and discrimination.
Being African American in the 1930’s, how free you were was determined by the half you lived in - the North or South. In that time period there was a significant amount of racism, segregation, and prejudice occurring. However, racism was on a whole different level in the South than it was in the North of the United States. In the North colored people had rights like freedom of speech, but in the South they had no rights. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird the author, Harper Lee, did a wonderful job of vividly portraying how Negro’s lived in the South, particularly in the state of Mississippi in Maycomb county. In the society of Maycomb white folk hated the blacks. For many people racism changed their life dramatically. The grass really was greener on the other side for colored folks - the North. For Calpurnia, Tom Robinson, and Mr. Dolphus Raymond racism dramatically affected their lifestyle.
Griffin, J. H. (2010). Black Like Me. New York: Signet. (Original work published 1961). Print
I was late for school, and my father had to walk me in to class so that my teacher would know the reason for my tardiness. My dad opened the door to my classroom, and there was a hush of silence. Everyone's eyes were fixed on my father and me. He told the teacher why I was late, gave me a kiss goodbye and left for work. As I sat down at my seat, all of my so-called friends called me names and teased me. The students teased me not because I was late, but because my father was black. They were too young to understand. All of this time, they thought that I was white, because I had fare skin like them, therefore I had to be white. Growing up having a white mother and a black father was tough. To some people, being black and white is a contradiction in itself. People thought that I had to be one or the other, but not both. I thought that I was fine the way I was. But like myself, Shelby Steele was stuck in between two opposite forces of his double bind. He was black and middle class, both having significant roles in his life. "Race, he insisted, blurred class distinctions among blacks. If you were black, you were just black and that was that" (Steele 211).
“Black Like Me” written by John Howard Griffin is an excellently written novel, based on factual events experienced by the author himself. It is based in the 1950s, a time when racism was widespread throughout America. The basic outline of the story is the following of one man (Griffin) as he embarks on a journey that takes him to the ‘other side’. Griffin is a middle-aged white man, and decides to personally experience the life of a Negro. He achieves this by literally changing the pigmentation in his skin so that he is no longer white. Griffin moves to the deep southern states of America where he is subject to harsh racist treatment by the whites. By doing so, he experiences first hand the reality of racism and prejudice, almost to the point of disbelief. The story focuses on the lives of Negroes: restricted, brutal and harsh. “My skin was dark. That was sufficient reason for them to deny me those rights and freedoms without whi...
In southern place of Rural Georgia there were racial issues. Walker discuss stereotypes that Celie went through as the daughter of a successful store owner, which ran by a white man Celie did not have no right to. The black characters and community were stereotyped through their lives to have human rights (Walker 88-89). Walker engages the struggle between blacks and whites social class, blacks were poor and the whites were rich. This captures the deep roots of the south discrimination against blacks. African-American women went through misery, and pain of racism to be discriminated by the color of their skin. Another major racist issue Hurston represent in “The Color Purple” is when Sofia tells the mayors wife saying “hell no” about her children working for her, Sofia was beaten for striking back to a white man (Walker 87). Racism and discrimination in the black culture did not have basic rights as the whites instead they suffered from being mistreated to losing moral
The poem “Negro” was written by Langston Hughes in 1958 where it was a time of African American development and the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Langston Hughes, as a first person narrator tells a story of what he has been through as a Negro, and the life he is proud to have had. He expresses his emotional experiences and makes the reader think about what exactly it was like to live his life during this time. By using specific words, this allows the reader to envision the different situations he has been put through. Starting off the poem with the statement “I am a Negro:” lets people know who he is, Hughes continues by saying, “ Black as the night is black, /Black like the depths of my Africa.” He identifies Africa as being his and is proud to be as dark as night, and as black as the depths of the heart of his country. Being proud of him self, heritage and culture is clearly shown in this first stanza.