Black Like Me
by John Howard Griffin
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Read in July, 2008
I just finished reading the powerful book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. Some of my students read it last semester, and their reactions encouraged me to read it. Additionally, I hoped it might supplement my teaching of To Kill a Mockingbird and A Lesson Before Dying this fall -- and it definitely will. I've already marked several passages to share with students.
The book (and Griffin himself) has really impressed me. As one Washington Post author writes, "John Howard Griffin was a r...more
The book (and Griffin himself) has really impressed me. As one Washington Post author writes, "John Howard Griffin was a r...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
Everyone
This book must have been unbelievably revolutionary in its day. I must admit that its original impact was lost on me at times because I expected many of Griffin's experiences as a white man disguised as a black man in 1959. He's treated poorly by white bus drivers, the hotels he stays in are substandard, he has to use separate facilites. There aren't many surprises as far as how he is treated (although there are a few).
What is surprising is how emotionally involved he gets. Within just a f...more
What is surprising is how emotionally involved he gets. Within just a f...more
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Read in March, 1990
recommends it for:
Everyone, especially those of secondary school age.
An amazing true story! In 1959, the American South - still very much the Jim Crow South - was experiencing upheavals as American Negroes began to protest their scandalous treatment and fight for their rights. At this time, John Howard Griffin, a white novelist, became intrigued with the civil rights struggle, and hit upon an astounding idea: over the course of a week, with the help of a dermatologist friend, Griffin - through the use of melanin pills, a sunlamp, and an external skin dye - tempo...more
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Read in January, 1975
recommended to Cathi by:
a teacher
It was hard for me to decide whether to give this book a 5 star or something lower. I finally decided on the 5, not because of the enjoyment I received from reading it. It was actually a sometimes painful book to read. But, other than religion-oriented books, this book changed my view on life more than any other book I've ever read.
I believe I was in 7th or 8th grade when I first read this book, and I re-read it in 2007. I marvel, still, at the courage the author had to live the ...more
I believe I was in 7th or 8th grade when I first read this book, and I re-read it in 2007. I marvel, still, at the courage the author had to live the ...more
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Read in June, 2008
I mean, this is a classic, right? It must have been pretty amazing when it first came out. I guess people like Tyra Banks are always putting on fat suits and trying to step into someone else's shoes these days, but I think Griffin's experiment was probably fairly revolutionary at the time. The premise is that Griffin, a white man, went through a number of measures to turn himself, at least superficially, "black" in the late 1950s. (He took some sort of skin-darkening pills, spent l...more
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Read in January, 1992
I think I read this book for a 3rd grade book report. Anyone I tell that to is usually pretty surprised. I guess I was reading above my level.
It is a really great book. It is the diary of a white Dallas journalist who decides to undertake a social experiment in 1959. He shaves his head, starts taking pills that will darken his skin pigment, and starts tanning daily. Passing as a light-skinned black man, he travels through America's South, during a time when race-relations (especially in...more
It is a really great book. It is the diary of a white Dallas journalist who decides to undertake a social experiment in 1959. He shaves his head, starts taking pills that will darken his skin pigment, and starts tanning daily. Passing as a light-skinned black man, he travels through America's South, during a time when race-relations (especially in...more
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Read in January, 1985
I don't recall exactly when I read this - was it in jr high, high school or college? In the 80s, anyway, I think. I do remember the way this book impacted my world view. I felt a fundamental shift in how I viewed race issues and the information I recall from this book has become an orienting force inside me when I deal with racial issues, today. The author used make-up?, or dye pills?-somehow he was able to impersonate a black man, then wrote observations about his daily interractions with the...more
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Read in July, 2008
In order to write this book John Griffin became black at a time when that might have very serious repercussions for himself and his family. His very detailed precautions to protect himself and those that helped him in his experiment seemed so paranoid at first but begin to make more sense. We have been told before that the civil rights situation in the South was terrible at the time and give examples but hearing it from a white person who went from the most privileged position in society (uppe...more
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recommends it for:
EVERYONE
This book should be read by everyone and I think it should be taught more often. It's the story of a white man from Texas who decided to "become" black in 1964 and go through the South to experience how people treated him. It's like Tyra Banks putting on a fat suit except this guy actually put himself in danger (not only because being black in the South then was slightly dangerous anyway, but if anyone who was a white supremacist found out what he was doing he could have gotten severel...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
everybody
This book was riveting. For many whites it is impossible to understand the experience of race, given the cultural normatives of whiteness as the dominate perception of being American. I can't express enough how this book takes the reader into the personal experience of race both Black and white experiences. I would use this book as a teaching tool. It is a foundational description for white to understand how race works in our culture. All too often I have heard white male students argue against ...more
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Read in September, 2007
I was sucked in to Griffin's narrative without really realizing it. I thought I would be sufficiently guarded: his entries are from 1959, he's white - though he obviously makes a point of asking why and if that matters - and somewhat of a bleeding heart. 1959; such a long time ago to my twenties mind, yet not so long if you really think about it. The next set of narratives he tags on to the end are from the late 1970s, and to think of the riots, racial battles and terror happening around the t...more
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Read in January, 1973
recommends it for:
Everyone
Being assigned to read "Black Like Me" is one of the few productive things I remember about my high school days. John Howard Griffin certainly paid a high price to prove his point about how differently blacks were treated in those days; the dye he injected to turn his skin dark later caused him to go blind for a period of time. This book would be an instructive read for those young people who might not understand what American race relations were really like back in the late 1950s-earl...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
this book is well-written and pretty short, it made for a quick but powerful read. it's the type of book that really makes you think. basically, a white journalist alters his skin pigment using medication and makeup, and begins traveling through the deep south as a black man, right around the time that the civil rights movement begins to pick up pace. he documents his experiences as he tries to find work, buy food, use the bathroom, travel, find a place to stay, walk down the street...every a...more
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Read in January, 1963
recommends it for:
everyone
It took a lot of guts for John Howard Griffin to go "undercover" in the Deep South of the 1950's. I was a child in Atlanta then, so I remember it well: separation by race at nearly every juncture, except when it came to handing over money to shop keepers. I rode the bus downtown with my mother and sat in the front, ate at the segregated lunch counter at Kresge's, and drank from the designated water fountain. This book is a menhir, a standing stone that marks a point in American hist...more
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Read in June, 2008
John Howard Griffin took investigative journalism to new lengths with his experiment to change his skin color and live in the Deep South as a black man. It is a book that everyone should read because it goes into great detail the number of different racists there are, and how being passive or apathetic to racism, is nearly as bad as being racist. This is true journalism at work, and has paved the way for so many others such as Barbara Ehrenreich to get out and do original research, and experie...more
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This is the journey of John Howard Griffin, a white man, a renaissance man who dyed himself black so to acquire a firsthand experience of what it was like to be black in the early 1960’s. Griffin was struck by how drastically different society treated him as a black man. Sure it was expected but he was appalled from some of the things he learned. For example, taxes from gasoline went to the upkeep of the beaches but Negroes, who of course bought gasoline, weren’t allowed to swim in the water...more
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Read in May, 2007
I found this book fascinating and shocking at the same time. I know it took place almost 50 years ago, but that people can treat other people as less than human, just because of the colour of their skin... It makes me so angry. Especially people who claim to be Christians and yet see nothing wrong with being racists as well. *sigh* I'd like to think that we're better now, but I fear that the bigotry has just gotten more subtle so it's harder to call for what it is.
I wonder what would happen ...more
I wonder what would happen ...more
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A little bit dated from a language standpoint, and I feel like I've read things that have addressed the same issue better - that issue being segregation and discrimination in the South prior to the Civil Rights movement. However, I can definitely see how this book was considered bold at the time of its original publication date (1959). The gist is that the author, using dye and sun lamps to darken his skin, goes "undercover" as a black man in the South. It's written in a diary forma...more
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recommends it for:
anyone
After living in a comparable situation for a year, I hoped that this book would be very insightful, and I was not let down. However, Howard's insights are almost too perfect. It's obvious from his clarity of thought and organization that his recorded observations are compiled after the fact, which makes me wary of trusting his experiences completely.
That said, I love the book. It is poignant and heartbreaking. I would recommend it to anyone who wishes for a deeper insight into tense race ...more
That said, I love the book. It is poignant and heartbreaking. I would recommend it to anyone who wishes for a deeper insight into tense race ...more
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Read in June, 2006
How did I miss this book in my Minority Groups class in college? This was a good, classic read that actually came available at the library on my hold list when I was asked out by an native African man and I had to sheepishly answer the standard question of what book I was currently reading. Being from Nigera and born in the mid 1970's, he was unfamiliar with the book and so I had to explain the story line and the era to him.
This should be on the required list reading for any high school ...more
This should be on the required list reading for any high school ...more
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