Black Like Me is a book that is able to strike passionate responses from those who read it. Considering the subject matter of the novel, it doesn't come as a surprise to me that people would feel so strongly about certain sections of the book.
             The first incident in the novel that caught my attention was when John Griffin first went through the transformation of having black skin. At this point in his life, Griffin is staying with a friend after having made the extremely difficult decision of giving up everything that is familiar and safe in his life and diving into the unknown. Griffin wanted to get a first-hand look at what goes on in the lives of blacks living in the South at that time. The scène is all about his very first look at the new him. He put it off for as long as possible and then he took a good hard look at himself, the self he wasn't even able to recognize anymore.
             After having read this I felt myself wondering how someone could come to make the decision to completely alter their life, not to mention risk their life, for the simple sake of writing a book. John griffin gave up his life, his family, and part of himself to try to shed some light on a subject that nobody wanted to discuss. I don't think that I could ever give so much up for people who might not even appreciate it in the end. I know that may seem a little bit selfish, but the truth is, I found Griffin to be the selfish one. He put his family at risk, knowingly, and he left them alone for months while he went off to become a new person. I just kept thinking that this guy must be crazy to give up all he had to become the type of person that was hated for no reason except for the color of their skin.
             The next incident that I feel is worth writing about is the one in which John Griffin was so tired of walking that he had to sit down or else his legs would give out from under him. He has been a black man for a little while now, so he...