They appear to think that the Negro has done all those “special” things they themselves have never dared to do. Here in America, in this day, the simple act of whites receiving a Negro had to be a night thing and its aura of uneasiness had to be countered by gallows humour.Īll showed morbid curiosity about the sexual life of the Negro, and all had, at base, the same stereotyped image of the Negro as an inexhaustible sex-machine with oversized genitals and a vast store of experiences, immensely varied. When all the talk, all the propaganda has been cut away, the criterion is nothing but the color of skin. I was imprisoned in the flesh of an utter stranger, an unsympathetic one with whom I felt no kinship. I had expected to see myself disguised, but this was something else. Top 5 Quotes From The Book – Black Like Me Or, as white he is free to move, and as black he is living in constant fear of being controlled or attacked.

He notices that as white, whites treat him nicely and with respect, while he causes a fear within the black community. He becomes a victim of the racist laws which are in place. And through the acquisition of a black identity, he comes to understand the deep racism which is in place in his own community. Throughout the book, we see how Griffin accepts the loss of his identity in order to understand the others. Once losing his original “whiteness”, Griffin set foot in New Orleans and starts living his life as a Black American.

He goes through medical treatment to change the colour of his skin as well as exposed himself to ultra violet rays. So to understand the experience of “blackness” and to understand America, Griffin takes the step of becoming a “Negro”. It is the History making classic about crossing the colour line in the segregated South and must be read by everyone who is interested in the cause of fighting racism.Īs a white man, John Howard Griffin is frustrated by his distance and inability to understand the Negro cause, although in the South both blacks and whites live side by side. Written by John Howard Griffin, Black Like Me is a nonfiction book that explores the condition of racial justice as well as the experience of being an African-American in the early 1960’s in the USA.

Griffin black like me