black like me

             "Black Like Me" is a novel about the true experiences of a white novelist, John Howard Griffin, a Southern white man who changed his skin color to become a black man. John took treatments to darken his skin and even left his family in Texas to travel throughout the South. During his journey, he experienced discrimination and segregation on buses, restrooms, eating places, hotels, and even walking on the street. He trudges south streets searching for a place where he could eat or rest, looking desperately for a job other than a laborer, he felt the "hate stares" everyday. Luckily, he became friend with a black shoeshine man, Sterling William, who shows John how to act so that he can fit into the black community in New Orleans. As hitchhiker, John met several white men who looked down on black men and women in ways that angered him. He got harassed and persecuted without reason. In his many stops throughout the South, he had heard many experienced that happened to some black men. Being a black, John had problem to finding good position job. The only job he could get was man working in a sawmill although he had college degree. He could not find a store to cash his traveler's check. Furthermore, as he passed back into white society, he then became first-class citizen again. He felt totally different for having been white and a black man. Now all doors into cafés, rest rooms, libraries, movies, concerts, schools, and even churches were open to him. This book kept the reader interested by John's unusual experiment, thing that changed him, and what John's unbelievable encounters with racists was a unique way for man to experience pain and suffering of the black people.
             John Griffin is a very curious person and he is one who takes risks. Instead of just asking black people how they feel about their life in the South, Griffin makes personal sacrifices to truly understand the pain and s...

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black like me. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 05:20, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/71333.html