The Undercover Experiment of John Howard Griffin

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The former rancher and now newspaper columnist, John Howard Griffin, is the main character in this book. This extraordinary novel about the choice of a white man to change the pigment of his skin to experience the life of a black man in the south. Griffin notices that the racial issues in the south is immensely growing aside with the rising number of suicides with African Americans. He then comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to even have the slightest clue of what it feels to live the life of a black in the south. His full devotion to better understand and help the cause he find a way to transform himself into a darker skinned person by medical terms. This was a feared idea by all his family and by him too but as much as he feared it, the amount of courage was more. Griffin goes and talks to an editor friend about his idea to better connect the bridge of misunderstanding between the two racial groups. He hopes that his friend will fund his motives in exchange for the rights to publish his works in the newspaper. Speculative of this idea they give him all the warnings and bad endings of this action. Even after all the warnings they finally give in and fund his motives, when he returns home he tells his wife of his idea and the wife is reluctant but realizes that there is no stopping him so she agrees to take care of things at home. As the night ends he thinks to himself that if he still keeps his identity as a writer will people treat him differently just because of his skin color. He travels to New Orleans and observes the living quarters of both racial groups. To no surprise he see that white Americans had it so much better. He reflects to himself while eating at a candlelight dinner and thinks how he would be treate... ... middle of paper ... ...urning to Texas. He tells both races that they should understand each other and not takes the article as a bigger conflict maker but a peace maker. And by not taking his advice this could end up to be a big tragic event of violence. He died in 1980 after all the great work he did in the community to better the quality of life for every single African American in the United States. He received many awards for his work in the national council of Negro women award in 1960 and the pope john XIII Pacen in Terris Peace and Freedom Award in 1964. He is mainly remember for the book black like me but he also did a lot of humanitarian work. The best thing he accomplished in my opinion is the bridge of understanding between two races that never really understood each other’s perspective which lead to a lot of compassion and jumpstarted a lot of the movement to equal treatment.

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