Equiano And John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me

In Equiano 's autobiography, he is eleven years old and kidnapped by white men from his home in what is now Nigeria. The captors took Equiano to a slave ship on where he fainted because he was overwhelmed by the sight of different Africans all chained to each other, of the sea which he had not seen before, and of the light complected men which was also new to him. On the ship’s journey to Barbados, Equiano fell sick because of the terrible conditions of the slave hold. When the ship’s crew tried to feed him, he refused and was consequently whipped with windglass by the crew members. In an effort to keep as many slaves alive as possible, the crew would bring the sick or weak slaves (like Equiano) onto the deck instead of in the slave hold. On

In the excert of the book that we read, Griffin is talking to a fellow black from Mississippi, and he is telling him basically how to not get himself killed. He tells him things like don’t look at a white woman or even stare in her direction. Keep your head down and never make eye contact. He also tells him that if there is a poster of a woman, do not look at it for too long, and when crossing in front of a dark alley be sure to walk as closely to the road as possible because if men, white or black, think you have money they will beat you and rob you. And lastly he tells Griffin that he should not ever stop when a white man hollers at him, and don’t let them start questioning you. After the man was done telling him all of this the bus stopped and the driver told them it was time for a bathroom pit stop. The driver then let off all of the white people, but when the blacks tried to get off and go to the restroom he stood firmly in the way and would not let them off. Bill, the man that was teaching Griffin the survival of blacks in Mississippi, quickly ducked under the arm of the man and bolted to the bathrooms. The man hollered for him but he didn’t come back. When all the blacks angrily went back to their seats, one of the men decided that if the bus driver was not going to let him do his business in the bathroom then he

After 9/11 and other terrorist attacks it has almost been embarrassing to be a Muslim American. Stares and frightful looks is all you ever get and sometimes you might even get a rude comment about going back to your country. I do feel very bad for the Muslim Americans, but I can not really say the same for the African Americans. This may make me sound like I am racist, which I am not, but it seems to me that African Americans do not want equality. They want superiority. I am not saying that every black is the same or that every white is the same. As we have proven in the past, we Americans can be heartless, merciless and ruthless. Yet, it is 2015 and we have a black president that isn’t even from the U.S. Things are changing, or they were. Let’s take a trip back to August 9th, 2014. An unarmed, African American teenager named Michael Brown is shot and killed by a white police officer. A loud argument broke out between the teen and the officer after Michael Brown and another friend were stopped because of suspicion of stealing liquor. The next action the officer takes is, by my standards, wrong. He fires two shots at Brown, one grazing his thumb and the other missing him. Brown takes off and so does the police officer. Brown stops and starts moving towards the officer in which case he fatally shoots Michael Brown. This sweeps the city of Ferguson, causing a riot. I am not here to tell