Black Like Me

Changing the way a society views itself is one of the most difficult tasks one can accomplish. Throughout history only a handful of people or organizations have been able to accomplish such a feat. In the Black Like Me, Griffin experiences many derogatory actions against him because he was an African American. Specifically, there are three times that Griffin was treated poorly because of his skin color. Because griffin published these incidences in his book, he was able to enlighten society regarding the true essence of the problem of racism in America. An incident that really showed America the persisting problem of racism was when Griffin tried to cash a check but was rudely denied the right to do such on several occasions. It’s clear that this was a racist remark because Griffin, an African American, knew that as a White man he would have never been treated with such incivility. Another proof that the Whites considered only skin color is because every time he walked into a store they became sour as it says, “Their smiles turned to grimaces” (pg. 47). This really showed America that the segregation and bad attitude towards African Americans had nothing to do with nature of their character, but rather only with the colour of their skin. This really opened up America’s eyes about the ugly truth of racism
We see another incident where Griffin was again viewed in a bad light and therefore, was forced to take a certain action. Once when Griffin was boarding the bus, the driver told him to move to the back of the bus. There was no interaction between the driver and Griffin that could cause a reason for Griffin to be treated differently. Clearly the only reason that he was sent to the 3back of the bus to sit was because he was African American. This again disproves the theory that they actually judged the African Americans by their attributes. The fact that he was sent to the back of the bus also symbolizes that White Americans thought of African Americans as second class citizens. The reason that African Americans were second class was because they were forced to walk farther to get to their seats--like on an airplane where there are classes of seating. Particularly one Black in history found it unacceptable for an African American to be treated this way; her name was Rosa Parks. She figuratively took a stand for African Americans, and showed White bigots that ultimately they can’t control people with their racist attitudes. Largely because of this event, Parks was considered the mother of the civil rights movement. This was in stark contrast to what many Whites considered as acceptable segregation: known as separate but equal. This really showed the arbitrariness of racism. Another incident of discrimination was when an African American wanted to vote and was technically qualified to do so. The White man who was evaluating him to see if he was qualified to do so took out a foreign language newspaper to test his reading ability. We see here the lengths that some White men went in order to keep the African American from being a first class citizen. We also see the extent that Whites will go to keep African Americans from being first class citizens even if it’s beneficial to them. For all we know, the man that was kept from voting could have theoretically voted for the same party that the bigot supported. This is another major event that caused America to really see the extent of racism.
These three major events in the novel enlightened America about the way African Americans were treated. The accomplishment that the author, John Howard Griffin, achieved was quite spectacular. He, along with only a handful of individuals in history, can say they have accomplished the feat of transforming society’s view of itself. If only more people could take the advice of Maya Angelou “If you don't like something, change it”.