Racism In John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me

"Black Like Me" written by John Howard Griffin. Based on a white man who becomes black. Griffin wanted to know how life was for African American in the south. However, he was white and so that he would not be accepted by the Negroes. For that reason, Griffin darkened his skin and live as a Negro in the southern states in the 1950s. The central theme in the book was the white racism that he faced as African American. The author told us his experience as a Negro, and how he was a victim of the white racism. Also, the author highlighted the theme of how black people are courteous and warm with each other even with a stranger like Griffin. The author told us when he was looking for a place to sleep, a poor Negro offered the floor of his house,

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