The racism and discrimination against blacks in both Black Like Me and Black Boy show the hardships and racial injustice that blacks faced in the south with their share of differences and similarities. After reading Black Like Me and Black Boy, I have gained a better perspective, about how in Black Like Me when John Howard Griffin was a “black” man he was treated unequally as all blacks are and once he went back to being a white man those people who had treated him bad were now treating him with respect. However, in the end no matter the skin color some things are the same for both colors. In Black Boy, I have learned that the life of a young child, a black boy, is hard during the segregated south and can harshly affect the child while growing up. As I read, I came across some similarities between both works as well as some differences. Even though both works had their moments in which the characters faced struggles, I was still able to see optimism as well as hope for a better life and future.
As I read Black Boy, Griffin provided me with a small insight on the way whites and blacks were differently treated. Black Like Me was based on a white man who wanted to get a better understanding of the life of negroes and how it feels to be treated unequally. He wanted to know what stood between the white man and black man, why they could not communicate. Griffin writes in his book that, “the only way I could see to bridge the gap between us was to become a Negro” (Griffin 1). His journey then began and he lived the life of a black man. It is with such bravery that he went and risked becoming a Negro. He knew that adverse consequences would occur once people knew the truth. He did not care; I was fascinated with his desire to see what...
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... let the events that were occurring to demolish his dream. He moved to Chicago because in the North the conditions were said to be much better than they were in the South for blacks. When times were tough he never gave up. The book is proof that all his hard work paid off.
In the end, both books explored the racism there was towards blacks and showed me no matter the race both share commonalities and I was also able to get some insight of a boy’s life growing up in the South. I was also able to identify some similarities and differences in Black Like Me and Black Boy. Besides showing the struggles faced both works showed some hope for a better future.
Works Cited
Griffin, J. H. (2010). Black Like Me. New York: Signet. (Original work published 1961). Print
Wright, Richard. Black Boy. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1944. Print.
Ethnic group is a settled mannerism for many people during their lives. Both Zora Neale Hurston, author of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me; and Brent Staples, author of “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space,” realize that their life will be influenced when they are black; however, they take it in pace and don’t reside on it. They grew up in different places which make their form differently; however, in the end, It does not matter to them as they both find ways to match the different sexes and still have productivity in their lives.. Hurston was raised in Eatonville, Florida, a quiet black town with only white passer-by from time-to-time, while Staples grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania, surrounded by gang activity from the beginning. Both Hurston and Staples share similar and contrasting views about the effect of the color of their
Black Like Me is the incredibly interesting story of John Griffin, a Caucasian man who decided to try being African American in the south during the 60s. In this analysis paper I will be addressing the ethics of this project, his potential self-deception, his ability to pass unnoticed as an imposter, along with his courage for attempting such a dangerous project in the Deep South. His project was a success and a remarkable accomplishment for such an individual.
In the two essays, “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space” by Brent Staples and “I’m Not Racist But…” by Neil Bissoondath, there are both differences and similarities. The two authors differ in their opinion on the causes of racism and life experiences involving racism, but are similar in regards to the use of stereotypes in the world
Griffin feels it is necessary to understand the hardship of blacks in the United States of America. Through medications, bleaching and ultraviolet light, Griffin is able to temporarily change his skin color so that he can walk through the streets and understand the injustices faced by African Americans. Later on, the author moves farther south where he is faced with even more racism and begins to switch between white and black skin, understanding the different expressions given by society of both races. While white, Griffin finds that white people treat him with respect and black people fear him. But while black, Griffin is despised and neglected by whites and is welcomed warmly by blacks (Griffin, 1962).
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will,” Martin Luther King Junior. When King refers to shallow understanding from people of good will he is speaking of people that notice a problem or bad situation in society but chose to do nothing about it. Absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will is referring to people who see no issue is society. He believes the shallow people are more frustrating because although they do see that there is an immoral law in place they chose to not take action against it. . This is a paradox because Luther is explaining that the most frustrating people are not the ones who don’t think the same way as him but the ones who do.
Racism in Black Boy Black Boy is a denunciation of racism and his conservative, austere family. As a child growing up in the South, Richard Wright faced constant pressure to submit to white authority, as well as to his family’s violence. However, even from an early age, Richard had a spirit of rebellion. His refusal to punish earned him harder beatings.
Fueled by fear and ignorance, racism has corrupted the hearts of mankind throughout history. In the mid-1970’s, Brent Staples discovered such prejudice toward black men for merely being present in public. Staples wrote an essay describing how he could not even walk down the street normally, people, especially women, would stray away from him out of terror. Staples demonstrates his understanding of this fearful discrimination through his narrative structure, selection of detail, and manipulation of language.
Mr. Griffin was a “white American author who temporarily altered the pigment of his skin in order to experience firsthand the life of a black man in the South” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Black Like Me depicts the hardships blacks in the south had to endure. In one incident, Griffin was being stalked by a young, white man as he walked to his next destination: “I’m going to get you, Mr. No-Hair. I’m after you. There ain’t no place you go I won’t get you. If it takes all night, I’ll get you - so count on it” (Griffin 68). In the events of this terrifying encounter, Mr. Griffin tried to get help from a white couple, but the couple would not help him. In the end, he found a safe haven, but this shows what any black human had to deal with during this period of time from random whites in the south. Towards the end of his experiment and after so many encounters such as this, Griffin began to falter and lose his faith in
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin tells the story of racial prejudice of blacks during the 1960s. As the main character of the book, Griffin is very dedicated to raise racial justice. However, as a white man, he is unable to understand the experience of blacks, so he undergoes a medical treatment to change the pigment of his skin. Funded by George Levitan, the editor of a black-oriented magazine called Sepia, he leaves his family and sets out to New Orleans to begin life as a black man.
They both express the difficulty of living and growing up as an African American child. Lori Hansberry and Martin Luther King Jr both demonstrate the African American dream for America to reach one day. They play with the idea that although it is not reality, it's something their characters still hold onto very closely. Both stories just explain the idea of America to be free country again, and where they are able to do things whites do today. America would not be the same if people like Martin Luther King Jr, and Hansberry spoke out into the world. Today African Americans are treated better and kinder. Even some of the most famous people in the world are African American. Both authors portrayed to us, how important the dream was of one, and how America should respond to their cries for a change. Even today the world is not perfect. Look around in life, most cab drivers in today's American society are African American, and that is something Walter Lee Younger, in A Raisin in the Sun, most of all hated. All he ever wanted was to be able to be driven around, not to drive others for a change. King’s speech also makes a point, in today's world people still second guess whether they should share food with a person of a different race, or sit next to them on the bus or plane. Both of these authors wanted to make a change in this world, and even though there was little progress, America will not ever be
Brent Staples focuses on his own experiences, which center around his perspective of racism and inequality. This perspective uniquely encapsulates the life of a black man with an outer image that directly affects how others perceive him as a person. Many readers, including myself, have never experienced the fear that Staples encounters so frequently. The severity of his experiences was highlighted for me when he wrote, “It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto.” (135) Having to accept that fact as a reality is something that many people will never understand. It is monumentally important that Staples was able to share this perspective of the world so others could begin to comprehend society from a viewpoint different from their
In “Black Men in Public Spaces” the author talks about multiply situation where he was treated different for being an African American. Staples said,” I entered a jewelry store on the city’s affluent near North side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash” (161.) Then there is “Right Place, Wrong Face, which is focused on and African American man that is wrongly accused of a crime because of his race. White said, “I was searched, stripped of my backpack, put on my knees, handcuffed, and told to be quieted when I tried to ask questions” (229.) The two articles have many similarities. Both articles have two educated African America men who get treated different because of their race. Staples and White both have situations where they are being stereotyped by society because there black
Both novels demonstrate the characteristics of gender, race, and family relations. Black culture has endured through challenges as represented in these books. Both books present the struggle that individuals go through regarding slavery or society changing. They present diverse stories regarding things actually falling apart in both books.
“Black Like Me” written by John Howard Griffin is an excellently written novel, based on factual events experienced by the author himself. It is based in the 1950s, a time when racism was widespread throughout America. The basic outline of the story is the following of one man (Griffin) as he embarks on a journey that takes him to the ‘other side’. Griffin is a middle-aged white man, and decides to personally experience the life of a Negro. He achieves this by literally changing the pigmentation in his skin so that he is no longer white. Griffin moves to the deep southern states of America where he is subject to harsh racist treatment by the whites. By doing so, he experiences first hand the reality of racism and prejudice, almost to the point of disbelief. The story focuses on the lives of Negroes: restricted, brutal and harsh. “My skin was dark. That was sufficient reason for them to deny me those rights and freedoms without whi...
Faced with the segregation of white and blacks; rich and poor, communist and anti communists, the intellectuals and illiterate, the “haves” and the “have nots”, Richard Wright, a black boy from down south struggles to prove himself to not only his family and the rest of the world, but himself. Richard struggles with a black culture that tries to reshape him according to what it believes he should be which is less bookish, more obedient, and more religious. In the book Black Boy; by Richard Wright, Wright reveals a fundamental insight into human nature: that there is nothing that really separates people except for what they separate themselves by.