Black Like Me

This was the last book that was discussed in my book club. I had been meaning to read it for a long time but had never gotten around to it. This book, written in 1960, chronicles the journey of a white man who lived as a black man for 6 weeks. One of the first things that shocked me was the physical transformation that John Howard Griffin went through to do his experiment. Previously when I had heard about the book, I just assumed that he put on some makeup everyday and went on about his business. But he was actually taking medication to aid in the change of his skin pigmentation. On the other hand, trying to live as someone of another racial background is so much more than changing your skin color.

Overall, I was not impressed with this book. I think it was in part because I had such high expectations based on its reputation as an international bestseller that is still being discussed in classrooms today. I understand its significance at the time of publishing, but I feel it has much less of an impact today. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that racism isn’t still an existing issue, but this country has come a long way in the past 40+ years. (We still have a long way to go, but we’re definitely making progress in the right direction.)

There was nothing profound about John’s experiences, at least from my point of view. Most of the time I was just nodding my head in agreement that something like that happened all the time back then. Although he did experience discrimination during his experiment, I don’t feel that he completely immersed himself. Even though he was living as John Howard Griffin the black man, he still had so many advantages over the average black male. Due in much part to the repression of the race, many young black men were uneducated and struggled financially day to day. Griffin was an educated man who basically had an endless supply of funds for this project.

Surprisingly, there was nothing particularly profound about his writing. Even though it was basically a journal, I expected his literary style to explain his experiences in much more depth. Although I think this man was crazy for jeopardizing his life like that while he had a wife and kids at home, I know this novel has made a huge impact in our world. And for that, he definitely deserves the kudos he’s received.