Thesis For Black Like Me

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Title of the Essay John Howard Griffin’s book “Black Like Me” gives us a look into a black man’s everyday life in 1959-1960’s. Griffin realized that he needed to live as an African American to be able to have the slightest knowledge of how hard their lives actually were. I believe that Griffin can empathize with the black race because even though he was only colored for 6 weeks, he then understood how difficult life was for those men and women. He went through the struggles first hand, he met people and families that he learned from, and he experienced the racism that effects their everyday life. Griffin struggled with everyday life as a colored man. While in Mobile, Alabama, he sought a job. He could not find one anywhere. “’No, you couldn’t get anything like that here.’…’I’ll tell you… we don’t want you people. Don’t you understand that?’” (Griffin 100). If you know someone who cannot get a job anywhere for a reason they cannot change, wouldn’t you be able to understand how they felt? Griffin also experienced the lack of public anything for the black race. “’You better drink some water before you go,’ [Sterling] said. ‘You might not find any before you get to …show more content…

One family was so kind and generous to let him stay and eat with them, even though they didn’t have much. From this family, he learned that even in the darkest of times, they had home to keep pushing on. “For a moment I knew the intimate and subtle joy of misery.” (Griffin 113). When learning about this family and seeing how determined they were to raise up their children, he related to the parents and how they felt. “I saw it not as a white man and not as a Negro, but as a human parent. Their children resembled mine in all ways except the superficial one of skin color, as indeed they resembled all children of all humans.” (Griffin 114). In this way, Griffin feels how they feel, and has empathy for

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