Black Views of White in Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

“I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.” Martin Luther King Junior’s powerful words explain the relationship between blacks and whites in John Howard Griffin’s fictional novel, Black Like Me. John Griffin conducts an experiment to change his skin color from Caucasian to Negro. Due to his outside, his inside becomes neglected but when Caucasian covered the outside, the same man gets treated with respect. When he decided to travel to Mississippi, he interviewed many black leaders asking them how they feel about the neglect and hatred among Negros. After returning to New Orleans, he stops is medication which slowly changes his skin back to white. Griffin’s adventures educate all who are Caucasian and even African American. John’s realistic storyline explains the hate and suffering a black-skinned man experiences in order to receive answers regarding racial discrimination.
John Griffin’s extraordinary transformation from white to black helped him open his eyes and see both sides from a unique point of view. “When all the talk, all the propaganda has been cut away, the criterion is nothing but the color of skin. My experience proved that. They judged me by no quality. My skin was dark” (Griffin128). John’s day of birth sits at June 16, 1920, in Dallas, Texas. When he traveled to France as a teenager to attend school, Griffin was astonished to discover that the French did not care about racial differences like the United States. He committed to himself to end racial discrimination but he did not know what stands in his path to that goal. In an effort to step closer to his goal, he changes his skin color from white to black. “The completeness of this transformation...

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...t. Strength is both physical and mental, if humans are humans, then all humans share the same characteristics no matter white, black, tan, blue, red, green, or any other color in the universe.
John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me makes me feel as if a character by John’s side, helping him with his troubles. Overall after reading this novel, it does in fact stick out among other books but not high on my list because the plot slightly confused me. I would not recommend this story to anyone but those interested in racial discrimination or people who are intrigued by Martin Luther King Junior. John Griffin’s Black Like Me is a slightly depressing read although it does, however, bring up the fact about human equality and that should cheer most people up. No matter appearances, mentality, religion, or nationality—all who step on planet earth should be treated with respect.