John Griffin's Black Like Me

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John Griffin's Black Like Me

All men are created equal... or are they? John Griffin's "Black Like Me"

shows how racism is nothing more then the foolish misunderstanding of man.

White's current superiority hangs in the balance as Blacks become tired of being

the minority, in the late 1950's. Even though this struggle isn't as dreadful

as it was then, it still exists. The certainty of racism can't be ignored but

it will soon disappear as generations mix. Racial discrepancies challenge the

unity of human civilization.

John Griffin had a biting curiosity which he could no longer stand. What

was life truly like, for a black man in the deep south? He sought the real

answer to this by darkening his skin with extreme amounts of medication. A new

skin color determines everything and John is now thrown into a new world that he

was in no way prepared for. He was no longer John, an average but respected

white novelist, he was a black man and that is all that mattered. Simple

pleasers like a drink of water or the use of a restroom become near impossible.

John, at first was puzzled by this, but soon realized that it was not his

personality, his age, but his blackness that made him a disgrace in the eyes of

an average white person. If he were white, a white store owner would have not

hesitated in the slightest to allow such privileges. How could these people be

so blind as to not see that a black person breathes the same air, eats the same

food, and has the same internal functions as themselves? This misunderstanding

stares them in the face and they can't see it. Their selfishness and fear is

completely unnecessary but it remains because the whites have never been exposed

to any other way of life. This is why the whites can not allow such common

privileges to Mr. Griffin or any other black person. To treat a black as an

equal was absolutely unheard of.

Fatigued from rejection and many actions which would be declared

unconstitutional, the blacks must do something so their future generations do

not suffer the same. This desire for action only stirs a greater terror within

the (racist) white community. People like, Martin Luther King Jr. begin to

surface. He and many others aspire to show the blacks that they are equal human

beings. Its strange to think that most blacks thought a white was better just

because that is what they were brought up to believe. This new realization

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