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.
Racism violates universal rights, and therefore is ethically wrong says Asking Ethical Questions. John Griffin when disguised as an African American experienced a great deal of racism. Undeniable what he experienced was ethically wrong, but was his experiment also ethically wrong? Asking Ethical Questions goes on to mention how deceiving someone is ethically wrong. Of course the whole story of Black Like Me revolves around Griffin’s deception of individuals both black and white. However did his deceit directly harm anyone? No, but it easily could have. All of the remarkable individuals who helped him along his study could have been seriously harmed if it was found out what he was doing. After he went public with what he had done the backlash forced him to move his family to Mexico for their own safety. Luckily his family was not harmed, but imagine if they had been harmed by a radical individual. Ethically I believe that would have been hugely wrong if his actions resulted directly in personal injury of death.
I struggle to understand how his transformation from black to white could have been so easy and flawless. How by simply dyeing his skin, taking medication, and shaving his head he was perfectly transformed. I find it hard to believe that no one would notice his disti...
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.... I would hope that if he were with us today he would see how far we have come, and think that everything he did and all that he suffered was for the benefit of all.
All in all Griffin’s project was groundbreaking and nothing like it had ever been attempted before or since. He kept his personal bias to a bare minimum which is an admirable accomplishment in itself. He gave up his own peace and quiet, made his life heavily scrutinized by the media and changed his future forever. I greatly respect the amount of courage it took for him to carry on through it all until the end. While he may not have gotten a full picture of what was happening during his time as an African American, he selflessly shared all that he had learned and tried to help race relations as best he could. What he did will show what a single person with a little help can do to combat national issues.
It is often said that products made in sweatshops are cheap and that is why people buy those products, but why is it behind the clothes or shoes that we wear that make sweatshops bad? In the article Sweat, Fire and Ethics by Bob Jeffcott is trying to persuade the people and tell them how sweatshops are bad.
The novel The Garies and their Friends is a realistic examination of the complex psychology of blacks who try to assimilate through miscegenation and crossing the color barrier by “passing as white.” Frank J. Webb critiques why blacks cannot pass as being white through the characters Mr. Winston and Clarence Jr.
African-Americans aged 12 and up are the most victimized group in America. 41.7 over 1,000 of them are victims of violent crimes, compared with whites (36.3 over 1,000). This does not include murder. Back then during the era of the Jim Crow laws, it was even worse. However, during that time period when there were many oppressed blacks, there were many whites who courageously defied against the acts of racism, and proved that the color of your skin should not matter. This essay will compare and contrast two Caucasian characters by the names of Hiram Hillburn (The Mississippi Trial, 1955) and Celia Foote (The Help), who also went against the acts of prejudice.
Racism is not a factor of the heart, according to Tommie Shelby in “Is Racism in the ‘Heart’?” He writes “the ‘heart’ does not have to be involved in order for an action or institution to be racist” (483). Instead, Shelby argues that racism is based on the effect of a person’s actions on deepening racist institutions or promulgating the oppression of a particular group of people based on their race. The individual intention of a person or the “purity” or his or her heart does not take precedence over the effect of his or her actions. Shelby’s argument is constructed as follows: Individual beliefs can be true or false but not inherently immoral. Therefore, it is not appropriate to morally condemn someone for holding a particular belief. However, when the particular belief leads to “race-based hatred...actions...or institutions” that is when it becomes appropriate to hold the individual with the belief morally culpable for racism.
We probably know discrimination occurs in any situation, and it depends on individual reasons, or societal. Today, we know discrimination of race is unlawful, but it is still existent in some people, and it gets skillfully concealed under some form. For example, in the essay “Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public” by Brent Staples, the author is a black man, he explains some encounters that he has been a victim of the discrimination of skin color from people around him. Discrimination can appear in any situation and everywhere. I love America, because this country included many different races; it makes me think of the beautiful colorful flowers on the prairies. I thought discrimination was over; however, due to different racial have built the discrimination still inside of some people. Therefore, I had gained some experience of skin color discrimination from others put on me since when I stepped on this America land. I believe discrimination of skin color brings me the feelings of isolated, unequal, and humiliate. Discrimination is a terrible thing; if it happens to you, you will understand how it feels.
Abstract from Essay The reader can contemplate the passage of Du Bois' essay to substitute the words "colored" and "Negro" with African-American, Nigger, illegal alien, Mexican, inner-city dwellers, and other meanings that articulate people that are not listed as a majority. Du Bois' essay is considered a classic because its words can easily reflect the modern day. -------------------------------------------- The Souls of Black Folk broadens the minds of the readers, and gives the reader a deeper understanding into the lives of people of African heritage.
The Souls Of Black Folks, by W. E. B. Du Bois The Souls of Black Folks by W. E. B. Du Bois is a text published to explain a series of events to inform many people about the many unexplainable ways of African Americans. This story is about the coming of the strong African American race. This story is the explanation of many un-easily described discrepancies between African Americans and White Americans. It conveys the meaning of many black ways of reasoning. African Americans were obviously always a race of sophistication, but in its own ways.
Lynch is a writer and teacher in Northern New Mexico. In the following essay, she examines ways that the text of The Souls of Black Folk embodies Du Bois' experience of duality as well as his "people's."
A society that is ruled by liberty contains morals, morals that come with rights that must be respected in order to preserve integrity. In his article “A Right to do Wrong”, Ethics, vol. 92 (1981), pp. 21-39, Jeremy Waldron argues that if people in a society take moral rights seriously they must accept an individuals “right to do wrong” from a moral perspective. Having a choice to do wrong from a moral point of view creates diversity in a society which lead’s to development in the society as a whole. Waldron offers a paradox to explain his position on individuals having a moral right to act in ways that might be seen as wrong from a moral point of view. I will explain and outline Jeremy Waldron’s position on the idea of individuals having the moral right to do wrong, and I will also evaluate Jeremy Waldron’s position and demonstrate if there is really such a moral right using my views that will be enhanced by John Stewart Mill views.
Analysis of Mis-Education of the Negro The most important aspect for a teacher to understand is that every student that comes through their door has their own experiences, history, and point of view. Mis-Education of the Negro is about how the euro-centrism-based learning has, in one way or another, crippled the African-American community and their pursuit for an equal opportunity in our society. Written by Carter Godwin Woodson in 1933, this African-American studies book is written so that everyone can understand what society has done and what they can do to correct their wrongs. Author Carter Godwin Woodson dedicated his life to studying African-American history and fought so it can be taught in schools and studied by scholars.
Richard Wright’s autobiographical sketch, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow was a glimpse into the life of a young black man learning to navigate the harsh and cruel realities of being black in America. Through each successive journey, he acquired essential life skills better equipping him to live in a society of inequality. Even though the Supreme Court, provided for the ideology of “separate but equal” in the 1896 case, Plessy v, Ferguson, there was no evidence of equality only separation (Annenberg, 2014).
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
Ralph Ellison’s short story, Battle Royal, is mainly a description of the African American struggle for equality and identity. The narrator of the story is an above average youth of the African American community [Goldstein-Shirlet, 1999]. He is given an opportunity to give a speech to some of the more prestigious white individuals. His expectations of being received in a positive and normal environment are drastically dashed when he is faced with the severity of the process he must deal with in order to accomplish his task. The continuing theme of Battle Royal is that of a struggle for one’s rights against great odds. Instances of this struggle are found throughout the story. Ellison highlights the vastness of the problems faced by the African American community to claim themselves. This is done by the extreme nature of the incidents described in the Battle Royal. A short analysis of the major theme found in Ellison’s Battle Royal, supported by a literary criticism dealing with the tone and style of the story.
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
In the article “What makes us moral” by Jeffrey Kluger, he describes how morality is defined and how the people follow rules. Kluger discusses about scientific research that has been done to point out the important reasons of morality. Kluger explains that a person’s decision to do something good or bad is based on empathy, that humans tend not to do bad to those they sympathize with. Kluger also compares humans with animals and thinks that morality is the only thing that separates us from animals. I do agree with Kluger that people are born with a sense of right and wrong, but we should be taught how to use it. We learned to be nicer to those around us because we already know the type of person they are, and the morality we learned as children