Student Essay on Black Like Me - Racism

An analysis of the portrayal of racism in 1950s America through the Griffin novel, Black Like Me.

Black Like Me is a story based of the real-life experience of author John Howard Griffin. Griffin was born in Dallas and educated in France. He served in the U.S. Air Force, where he acquired an injury causing him to completely lose his sight; he surprisingly regained his vision in 1957. Griffin describes, in detail, the complicated life of a black man in the South during the 1950s. Although he is white, he thinks that the only way he can truly understand the true hardships of a black man is to experience it himself as a black man. In order to do this, he sees a dermatologist, takes an oral medication, and exposes his skin to ultraviolet rays. This process changes his skin to black. As a black, he walks around several.....