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Can’t Get Enough: How John Howard Griffin Is Unable to Understand the Daily Life of
Blacks in America and Racism Towards Blacks
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, author John Howard Griffin changed the color of his
skin to test and experience the life of black people in America at the time. He soon discovered
that there were many things he did not understand or expect about black life that shocked and
surprised him. In the text Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin uses his thoughts and dialogue to
portray the lack of understanding of life in the black communities and the racist treatment
towards blacks from whites. This is done to demonstrate the clear divide between the lives that
blacks and whites live.
John Howard Griffin struggles to understand
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why white people treat him so harshly simply because of the color of his skin. ‘“ I can’t change that big a bill,’ she said abruptly and turned away, as though the matter was closed. I remained at the window, feeling strangely abandoned but not knowing what else to do” (Griffin 51). The way the woman speaks with Griffin and her hostile actions show how deep the roots of racism and discrimination are in the white community. Griffin feeling “strangely abandoned” shows his inability to comprehend/understand the situation that has just occured. Since he isn’t sure what is occurring, he is not able to make a clear decision on what to do next. Griffin’s shock and cluelessness shows how unique this experience was and how it had never occurred to him when he was white. Parsamian 2 Griffin’s lack of experience as a black person is clear when he doesn’t realize what will happen to him when he acts like he normally would as a white man. The woman’s lack of respect and ignorance demonstrate the clear divide between white and black lives. This educates Griffin on what he can and cannot do. “But at the time of the rebuff, even when the rebuff is impersonal, such as holding his bladder until he can find a ‘Colored’ sign, the Negro cannot rationalize. He feels it personally and it burns him. It gives him a view of the white man that the white man can never understand” (Griffin 45). “Holding his bladder until he can find a colored sign” further explains the daily struggles that blacks and blacks only have to face, and white people will not understand since they are first class citizens. “Feels it personally and it burns him” shows how blacks are upset and suffering compared to whites who are happy and well off. This shows again, the clear divide between the way blacks live and the way that whites live. The statement “It gives him a view of the white man that the white man can never understand” clearly shows and states how blacks develop an opinion and view of whites that white people will never be able to understand.
It shows how the only way for white people to understand the life of blacks, is to live
and be treated the same way as they are.
Throughout the text John Howard Griffin realiz
Parsamian 3
their sex lives. The fact that the man addressed the black community as “you people” shows the
condescending and racist tones that are engraved in white culture against blacks. He is assuming
that black people can “get away and “avoid conflicts” simply because of rumors and stories he
has heard about blacks’ sexual lives. When the man states “Negroes don’t have much neuroses”
he is basically stating that black people have no touch with reality or awareness of their
surroundings. He uses this to justify blacks’ “vivid sex life”, which shows how racist and
uniformed whites can be about blacks’ way of living. As Griffin is in a car with a man in
Montgomery the man states, “‘We figure we’re doing you people a favor to get some white
blood in your kids.’ The grotesque hypocrisy slapped me as it does all Negroes. It is
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worth remembering when the white man talks of the Negro’s lack of sexual morality, or when he speaks with mongrelization and with fervor about racial purity” (Griffin 103).
The first sentence
stated by the man vividly shows the racism and condescending feeling of whites on blacks. The
white man thinks he is “purifying” and “helping” black women by having sex with them, even
though he is not. This shows how little whites understand about blacks’ lives and opinions
because they aren’t able to recognize that having sex with their women does not make them
better off or “purer”. The use of “doing you a people a favor” shows how whites can do
whatever they want and treat blacks however they want without repercussions.
Throughout history and the text Black Like Me, white citizens in America have been
given many more rights and privileges than blacks living in America. The actions carried out by
white people have been allowed and justified at the time, causing the problem of racism and
segregation to grow and become normal. The lynching and killing of innocent blacks by white
men throughout the early to mid 20th century show how the problem of racism continues to grow
Parsamian 4
and how whites are never put on trial. Since white people in America are above the law, it gives
them a sense of superiority and dominance over black citizens, justifying the actions
they carryout. They believe because they are “first class citizens” it is ok for them to treat blacks the way they do.
The test he had so eagerly taken identified him as every single race except African. He is, according to the test, 0 percent African. The life he had built was made under an assumed race. He had been passing for black for over fifty years. The discovery sent his world into a spiral and he began questioning what he should consider himself. He had been a part of a community forged through blood, sweat, and tears only to find out that he did not belong. He was now excluded due to the one-drop rule. He had lost his community, but it was all he knew.
The use and repetition of the word “nigger” suggest both physical and psychological boundaries for Griffin, which, of course, also extend to the black population of the mid-twentieth century. In identifying himself with the term, Griffin becomes overwhelmed by its dehumanizing and de-individualizing effect: “I knew I was in hell. Hell could be no more lonely or hopeless, no more agonizingly estranged from the world of order and harmony” (66). Griffin’s internalization of discrimination and his repression as “Other” allows Griffin to convey the “wrong-doing” by the white middle class, forcing a truthful realization of the detrimental effect of racism on the
Although black men have been and still are being ridiculed and proposed to be a mugger, rapist, drug dealer, or a subject of someone’s crime, it is not always true. All black men are not and should not be seen as a hazard to another life. Some men of color are trying to make it out, aside from being a statistic of being an uneducated man that gets through by selling drugs. Some men are trying to make it to the top of the food chain, rather than remaining at the bottom and never moving elsewhere. These men are those who are most offended by others who consider them to be hazardous or a threat to them.
What he was claiming was that African Americans slaves were born in the United States so they should be entitled to same American values given to the white Americans. He also goes ahead to bash the government for the attitudes towards his people and goes on to explain how he feels they are be exploited. His impact that he intended to have from this speech had been to bring freedom to African American’s by letting proper democratic ideals decide who is entitled to what rights. During the time of the speech he said black American’s should be ashamed to celebrate this holiday due to the misdeeds and unfair enforcement of these laws. His main take away from this was that the slavery going on in America was harmful and illegal because they violated the founding father principle rights. Throughout him speaking he goes on to undercut many powerful institutions in America that are simply letting slavery go on and not doing anything about it (Church). He is a very faithful man and believes looking back at his sentiments will ring home and show that he was inevitably correct in due time. In conclusion this ties to the ideas that African Americans should not have to celebrate this holiday until they feel like they are being equally treated under the same law are the white
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
Fueled by fear and ignorance, racism has corrupted the hearts of mankind throughout history. In the mid-1970’s, Brent Staples discovered such prejudice toward black men for merely being present in public. Staples wrote an essay describing how he could not even walk down the street normally, people, especially women, would stray away from him out of terror. Staples demonstrates his understanding of this fearful discrimination through his narrative structure, selection of detail, and manipulation of language.
While reading Brent Staples textual analysis “Black Men and Public Space”, I thought the theme was simply displayed: white people are still racist. However, when I reread the analysis a few more times it became very clear and more composite than how I interpreted it the first time. Staples implies that there is a fine distinction between the two races. The author notices the habits or cultural appropriation. Staples concentrates on how black men were being taken a gander at by the way they conveyed themselves or by the way they were wearing open spots.
Although he learned of his true identity at an early age, it seems as though the narrator preferred to be white. This could have possibly been influenced by his upbringing during his early childhood and the mistreating of blacks as opposed to the higher regards for whites. He seems to accept a white, and sometimes often racist view of the world in general. This can be noted in ways such as when he states he never forgave the teacher that led him to understand he was black. Also, in his travels throughout the South, the way he observes his surroundings is often like those made through the eyes of a racist white man. He picks out the "unkempt appearance, the shambling, slouching gait, and loud talk and laughter” of the lower-class blacks that he meets (p. 40). He also admits that he never really enjoyed seeing a rich white widow have a black companion. Then, after partaking in a debate about race among several white passengers on a train, the narrator expresses his admiration for the most racist man that was involved in the discussion. It also seems as though he only had eyes for white women and he eventually married one and had children with her. Although he may have preferred to
There is some evidence that connects our protagonist's line of thinking with his upbringing. Our protagonist's mother tells him, "The best blood of the South is in you," (page 8) when the child asks whom his father is. Clearly, his mother was proud of (and perhaps still in love with) this genteel white man who gave her a son. So his bold pronouncements make much sense in light of his own condition.
The episode of Everybody Hates Chris that was shown in class is an excellent example of the negative representations of black, lower class people in the media. Specifically, the episode addresses the common black stereotypes of having poor home lives, absent parents, and the overall belief that black people are more violent and aggressive than white people. The episode addresses the everyday stereotyping that comes in a day of the life of a lower-class black, male student at an otherwise all white middle-class school.
From the article, Davis’s main argument is that the mainstream society has developed the perception the black men are to blame for the
...After giving the presentation there were many different views coming from the audience which were not expected. The audience did not hold the same views presented to them. The point addressed was about how Will Smith was the buffoon on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. They did not feel Will Smith was acting buffoonish, they thought he just brought comedy to the show. The audience seemed to focus on black people acting white rather than black people acting ignorant. They brought up the character Carlton, and how he acted white. When asked the question how they knew he was acting white they said he went to an all white school and was influenced by the way they acted. The audience also said Will criticized Carlton for acting white. They excused Will's buffoonish actions by saying white people were also made fun of through Carlton's character. This brings up the question how do we know what is characterized as acting "black" or acting "white", and what makes a show a "black" show or a "white" show. Again these questions revert back to the fact television shows have embedded stereotypes in our society. This makes people believe there must be a typical "black" person and "white" person.
In “Black Men in Public Spaces” the author talks about multiply situation where he was treated different for being an African American. Staples said,” I entered a jewelry store on the city’s affluent near North side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash” (161.) Then there is “Right Place, Wrong Face, which is focused on and African American man that is wrongly accused of a crime because of his race. White said, “I was searched, stripped of my backpack, put on my knees, handcuffed, and told to be quieted when I tried to ask questions” (229.) The two articles have many similarities. Both articles have two educated African America men who get treated different because of their race. Staples and White both have situations where they are being stereotyped by society because there black
“Everytime I think about it I feel like somebody’s poking a red-hot iron down my throat…We live here and they live there. We black and they white. They got things and we ain’t. They do things and we can’t…I feel like I’m on the outside the world peeping in through a knot-hole in the fence…” (20).
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free”. Which shows how even though the Emancipation Proclamation freed the African Americans from slavery, they still are not free because of segregation. He then transitions to the injustice and suffering that the African Americans face. He makes this argument when he proclaims, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”.