Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Effects of racial discrimination in society
Effects of prejudice and discrimination
Effects of racial discrimination
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Effects of racial discrimination in society
John Howard Griffin, an American author, photographer and journalist, was best known for his six-week long diary of a journey into oblivion, Black Like Me (1961). He was born the second son of John Walter and Lena May on June 16, 1920 in Mansfield, Texas.
Griffin had pondered for years how a white man must change in order to pass as a Negro, and in November 1959, he finally decided to test this, exposing himself to ultraviolet lights and ingesting pigmentation pills to darken his skin. After five days, the transformation was complete, and Griffin was ready to venture into “oblivion”.
Griffin attended R. L. Paschal High School until the age of 15, when he left America in search of a classical education.
After responding to a newspaper advertisement, Griffin and his family were surprised to find that he had been offered a scholarship at the boys’ private school in France, Lycée Descartes. Although he didn’t speak any French, Griffin persuaded his parents to let him go.
Being brought up with racist ideology in Texas, he was surprised to see white students having lunch with blacks, and began to question the racial segregation being practised back in southern states of the U.S.A.
Griffin later studied French and literature at the University of Poitiers and then medicine at the École de Médecine, as well as studying as a trainee under the direction of Dr. Pierre Fromenty at the Asylum of Tours (France), conducting experiments on the use of music as therapy for criminally insane persons.
Griffin’s experience of non-racism in France helped him discover the great racial hatred displayed in the United States of America, and inspired a commitment in him to understand racism.
At the age of 19, Griffin served as a medic in the underg...
... middle of paper ...
...ved the Saturday Review Anisfield Wolf Award for Black Like Me, the Christian Culture Series Award, as well as receiving two honorary doctorates from universities.
Some of his quotes include “He who is less than just is less than a man.”; “How can you render the duties of justice to men when they may destroy you?”; and “Every fool in error can find a passage of scripture to back him up.”
John Howard Griffin was courageous to dare face racial discrimination deliberately. He wrote a number of other books on racial issues. He was often called upon to lecture about racism and its impact, and he continued to be a controversial figure. Griffin died in September, 1980, at the age of 60 from complications of diabetes and other health issues, but he is still remembered for his books, especially Black Like Me (1961), the story of his six weeks’ worth of discrimination.
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.
...isely. This book has been extremely influential in the world of academia and the thinking on the subject of segregation and race relations in both the North and the South, but more importantly, it has influenced race relations in practice since it was first published. However, Woodward’s work is not all perfect. Although he does present his case thoroughly, he fails to mention the Negroes specifically as often as he might have. He more often relies on actions taken by whites as his main body of evidence, often totally leaving out the actions that may have been taken by the black community as a reaction to the whites’ segregationist policies.
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
The author Ralph Ellison is a renowned writer and scholar with significant nonfiction stories credited to his name. He was born in Oklahoma City about the year 1913. His family had a small business wherein his father worked as a foreman but soon died when he was only three years old. After several years, he later found out that his father wished that he would someday become a poet after the great American essayist popularly known as Ralph Waldo Emerson who became his namesake. His mother was Ida Millsap Ellison who was involved as a political activist campaigning for the Socialist Party. Moreover, she was arrested several times in violation of the segregation orders.
One examples is, even before his surgery was complete and he had not made the full transition from white to black yet, he was startled at what he heard from his doctor. At the time of his surgery, he spoke with the dermatologist who was changing his skin color, and found out that even this man had prejudices over black people. The doctor was insistent that the “lighter-skinned Negroes” were more ethical and more sensible than the darker-skinned ones. This man, with a high intellectual IQ and much schooling, also claimed that, as a whole group and race, blacks are always violent. Griffin, horrified that he let this man be in charge of his operation, was utterly and completely appalled that a liberal man could indulge in such hateful fallacies. Not only before and during his surgery does Griffin find himself being appalled by white people, but also during his time as a black man in the south he experienced many harsh and unfriendly situations, he never would have experienced if he was a white man. For example, on his first day as a black man he goes into a drugstore forgetting his skin color and that he now, since he is black, he forbidden from ordering a fountain drink, but after a few mean and disgusted looks from the white workers he realizes, he wasn’t even allowed in the store. His first day hit him hard when he figured out that everywhere he went whites seemed to look at him with suspicion and hostility. Also, after having the word nigger seem to never escape his ears its implications almost became unbearable. Hearing this really made me think about all of the black people in the south that have had to put up this and even worse things every day of their lives and how strong they all were; a white man has been through this one day and can barely take it; how have these people put up with this for so
Griffin experiences exactly what he expects to experience. He is taunted with typical racial slurs, and other forms of hostility, which he is able to brush off as meaningless ignorance. This bus driver is denying the black customers the most basic of human needs.
autobiography. He also illustrates his early experiences of segregation, as early as before he was born:
Richard Wright’s autobiographical sketch, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow was a glimpse into the life of a young black man learning to navigate the harsh and cruel realities of being black in America. Through each successive journey, he acquired essential life skills better equipping him to live in a society of inequality. Even though the Supreme Court, provided for the ideology of “separate but equal” in the 1896 case, Plessy v, Ferguson, there was no evidence of equality only separation (Annenberg, 2014).
I struggle to understand how his transformation from black to white could have been so easy and flawless. How by simply dyeing his skin, taking medication, and shaving his head he was perfectly transformed. I find it hard to believe that no one would notice his disti...
He demonstrated how life was for African Americans in the southern states like South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia. He achieved his goal by dying his skin to become black man, spending several months in 1959 living as an African American as they were living at that time . For example, one of the greatest discrimination the Griffin lived was the deprivation of public services such as the use of a toilet, restaurant, library, education. He said " … this year of freedom any man could deprive another of anything so basic as the need to quench thirst or use the restroom” (61). In my opinion, this is a true example of how Negroes were deprived of physical needs and excessive abuse of whites. Although the president Lincoln had proclaimed the freedom for the Negroes hundred years ago; however, in 1950’s they still have not enjoyed it. Personally, the climax of the book is when the author start to feel the discrimination from white people to him as an African American. He said that when he was in the restroom was the only place that he felt safe, isolated and owns the space around him (132). At this point, I imagine that he was desperate, angry, and disappointed. I guess most of the black people could feel in the same way. Also he said, “… nothing but the color of skin. My experience proved that. They judged me by no other quality. My skin dark. That was sufficient reason for [white people] to deny me those rights and freedoms without which life loses its significance and becomes a matter of little more than animal survival” (115). This is the clearest way that he can prove that because of his pigmentation, he was being discriminated, he was living with a fear of people with the different skin color of him. Therefore, I believe that Griffin
The following report gives a critical analysis of Dr. Cornel West’s book, “Race Matters.” In his book, Dr. West, a scholar, theologian, and activist, presents key issues of the day (1990s) primarily relating to race. He wrote “Race Matters” following the Los Angeles riot of 1992 after the acquittal of white police officers involved in the tragic beating of Rodney King. The book was originally published in April 1993 by New York: Vintage Books. This book is comprised of eight separate essays focusing primarily on racial issues relative to current events, the political climate, and market forces. Dr. West’s basic argument is that race matters in all aspects of American culture as well as abroad. He attempts to raise the awareness of his readers (and audiences) about the importance of race as an integral part of American society.
Historians Mary Dudziack, Micheal Krenn, and Thomas Borstlemann have been credited in this work for their contribution to the struggle for Black equality in that their scholarly contributions share the same historiography as Carol Andersons Eyes off the Prize. Author Carol Anderson uses their works to build upon her own thesis.
Mr. Griffin was a middle age white man who lived with his wife and children. He was not oriented to his family. He decided to pass his own society to the black society. Although this decision might help most of the African Americans, he had to sacrifice his gathering time with his family. “She offered, as her part of the project, her willingness to lead, with our three children, the unsatisfactory family life of a household deprived of husband and father” (Griffin 9). Leaving Mrs. Griffin and his children would deprive them of the care they needed. Even though he was not oriented to his family, he was full of courage. He was willing to discuss topics that people hesitated to talk about, trying new ideas that people were afraid to do. After turning back to his own skin color, he attended most media conferences and also wrote books about what he had gone through. During those interviews, Griffin was very considerate. He requested Wallace, a reporter, to report carefully so that he would not hurt his African American friends. “Please… Don’t mention those names on the air.
Griffin feels it is necessary to understand the hardship of blacks in the United States of America. Through medications, bleaching and ultraviolet light, Griffin is able to temporarily change his skin color so that he can walk through the streets and understand the injustices faced by African Americans. Later on, the author moves farther south where he is faced with even more racism and begins to switch between white and black skin, understanding the different expressions given by society of both races. While white, Griffin finds that white people treat him with respect and black people fear him. But while black, Griffin is despised and neglected by whites and is welcomed warmly by blacks (Griffin, 1962).
His education was at the University of Poitiers, where he took practice of law in his hometown. Soon he rose to prominence by the astute legal services to prominent people (Parshall 1).