Black Like Me

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Recommended: Racial and ethnic inequality

Everyone likes a little change, right? Everyone has heard the small saying, “curiosity killed the cat,” well in the book; Black like me it is the opposite. The author John Howard Griffin shares with us his decision to become a Negro and documents his whole journey in his journal which later becomes published as a book. John is a specialist in racial relations, and thus decided to really find out as himself being a white man what a Negro man in the Deep South endures. John wants to be able to understand and know just what exactly a Negro faces in their society in the late 1950’s. He then makes the decision he has debated on for years; to become a black man. “The only way I could see to bridge the gap between us was to become a Negro. I decided to do so, to suddenly walk into a life that appeared mysterious and frightening.” (7-8)
After making his now life changing decision he decided to go to an old friend and doctor, …show more content…

In Mississippi he had a guy tell him that they refuse to hire and or work with colored people and the only jobs Negros can get around there are jobs a white guy wouldn’t do himself. John notes that his life as a Negro was hard and everyday things such as using a bathroom getting some water or food is something that was tremendously difficult, yet something he took for granted as a white man. After a few months john quit taking pills and started transitioning back into a white man; soon after he returned home to his family where he did get kind of shunned by some people and had a few threats but most was admiration and praise. Once his story was published he started getting contacted to do interviews with different newspapers, and television shows to tell his story. Now john is able to settle his never ending curiosity as to what a black guy endures and is able to relate to other Negros facing hard times in their life and help make thing more

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