black like meeeeee

In the novel Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, the title is used as an allusion to a line in the poem “Dream Variations” by Langston Hughes. In this poem Hughes writes of his wishes to end racism. He writes “Rest at pale evening… / A tall slim tree… / Night coming tenderly / Black like me.” John Howard Griffin who longed to address the issue of race thought that with the title it would reach out to not only to the whites but also to the blacks. Carmihael Stokely states “Black Like Me is an excellent book- for whites.” With his novel he reached out to the black people of society as well. He explained how he knew the struggles, and how they were not alone. With his book the rest of America was going to as well.
While a black man, John Howard Griffin came to realize just what the poem really meant. He writes “The night was a comfort. Most of the whites were in their homes. The threat was less. A Negro blended inconspicuously into the darkness. At such a time, the Negro can look at the starlit skies and find that he has, after all, a place in the universal order of things. The stars, the black skies affirm his humanity, his validity as a human being. He knows that his belly, his lungs, his tired legs, his appetites, his prayers and his mind are cherished in some profound involvement with nature and God. The night is his consolation. It does not despise him.” From the passage one can see that Griffin truly understands the depth of affect skin color can have on someone. He writes to inform the ignorant, but in this passage you can feel the empathy towards the black race, because he too now knows what it feels like.
Throughout the story Griffin does indeed tell his story to inform the white society. But while he does that he does things like have the original parts of Black Like Me published in a magazine called ‘Sepia.’ A majority of the black people in the Deep South would read the articles and stories from this magazine, so with the title Griffin had chosen;