Thesis For Black Like Me

Title of the Essay

John Howard Griffin’s book “Black Like Me” gives us a look into a black man’s everyday life in 1959-1960’s. Griffin realized that he needed to live as an African American to be able to have the slightest knowledge of how hard their lives actually were. I believe that Griffin can empathize with the black race because even though he was only colored for 6 weeks, he then understood how difficult life was for those men and women. He went through the struggles first hand, he met people and families that he learned from, and he experienced the racism that effects their everyday life.

Griffin struggled with everyday life as a colored man. While in Mobile, Alabama, he sought a job. He could not find one anywhere. “’No, you couldn’t get anything like that here.’…’I’ll tell you… we don’t want you people. Don’t you understand that?’” (Griffin 100). If you know someone who cannot get a job anywhere for a reason they cannot change, wouldn’t you be able to understand how they felt? Griffin also experienced the lack of public anything for the black race. “’You better drink some water before you go,’ [Sterling] said. ‘You might not find any before you get to

Dryades.’” (Griffin 29). Most of the time, water and restrooms were blocks away. Griffin would not be able to forget that struggle, he could understand how hard everyday was, even to just go to the bathroom.
Griffin met many people along his journey that had these struggles, and he learned from them.

One family was so kind and generous to let him stay and eat with them, even though they didn’t have much. From this family, he learned that even in the darkest of times, they had home to keep pushing on. “For a moment I knew the intimate and subtle joy of misery.” (Griffin 113). When learning about this family and seeing how determined they were to raise up their children, he related to the parents and how they felt. “I saw it not as a white man and not as a Negro, but as a human parent. Their children resembled mine in all ways except the superficial one of skin color, as indeed they resembled all children of all humans.” (Griffin 114). In this way, Griffin feels how they feel, and has empathy for

them.
While on his journey to feel the “real problem”, John experienced the hate and racism towards black people. One of many examples is when on a bus going to Atlanta, Griffin witnesses and incident where two black people were told to move so that the two white women boarding wouldn’t have to sit next to them. They refused to move, and one man didn’t like that. He got so angry that the bus driver told him to calm down. “’No-for God’s sake-please-no rough stuff,’ the driver pleaded.” (Griffin 131). If you have ever seen someone get bullied, you instantly feel for them, and want to help. That is how Griffin felt. He knew how wrong it all was and emphasized with the black people.
Griffin was an African American for 6 weeks and throughout those six weeks he went through the struggles first hand, he met people and families that he learned from, and he experienced the racism that effects their everyday life. I believe that after his experience, he could empathize with the black race, at least to the point of knowing that their lives were much harder than any white would have ever understood. If you see someone struggling so har just to survive, and then take the next step to even live their life, I believe that you can empathize with them. Don’t you?