Truman Show Vs Black Like Me Essay
At first glance, one might not think Black Like Me, a book with such real issues millions of people face daily, and The Truman Show, a movie about a man being born and raised all while being filmed by thousands of cameras without his knowledge, would have a lot in common. The latter can really only be relatable to few, if any at all, where something like the racism written about in Black Like Me can resonate to millions of people world wide. After digging deeper, however, the similarities between the two start to surface and become undeniable. One of the more obvious comparisons between the two pieces is something called an single-blind experiment. In a single-blind experiment the subject is unaware of the details that are being observed
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Unfortunately, it is all too easy to understand how Griffin, a man who willingly turned himself in to a Black man to understand the depths of racism, could be treated as something less than human. He is not allowed to go to the bathroom anywhere other than in colored bathrooms, and he better not dare to look at a white female the wrong way or else he could risk being beaten, or worse. In a way he has little free choice; he literally has to plan his day around when and where he will be able to find reliable food, water, and facilities like a bathroom. In some extreme situations he can not even choose when he wants to get off the public bus. Likewise, everyone Truman comes into contact with is pretending; pretending to be his friend, pretending to actually care about him, and pretending to allow him to make his own choices. Everything Truman wants to do he is not allowed, the creators of Truman's life are less obvious about blatantly restricting Truman from doing things, compared to Black Like Me, but they still manage through rigorous subliminal messaging, which could almost be considered worse because it twists all of Truman's decisions back on him to give the impression that it ended up being Truman's decision after all. Allowing someone to have little to no freedom of choice is one of the easiest ways to degrade that
Unfortunately, it is all too easy to understand how Griffin, a man who willingly turned himself in to a Black man to understand the depths of racism, could be treated as something less than human. He is not allowed to go to the bathroom anywhere other than in colored bathrooms, and he better not dare to look at a white female the wrong way or else he could risk being beaten, or worse. In a way he has little free choice; he literally has to plan his day around when and where he will be able to find reliable food, water, and facilities like a bathroom. In some extreme situations he can not even choose when he wants to get off the public bus. Likewise, everyone Truman comes into contact with is pretending; pretending to be his friend, pretending to actually care about him, and pretending to allow him to make his own choices. Everything Truman wants to do he is not allowed, the creators of Truman's life are less obvious about blatantly restricting Truman from doing things, compared to Black Like Me, but they still manage through rigorous subliminal messaging, which could almost be considered worse because it twists all of Truman's decisions back on him to give the impression that it ended up being Truman's decision after all. Allowing someone to have little to no freedom of choice is one of the easiest ways to degrade that