summer2205's Full Review: John Howard Griffin and Robert (AFT) Bonazzi - Bla...
It was hard for me to believe this book was written less than forty years ago because the time of extreme racial hatred and segregation seems so long ago. When this book was written it was perfectly normal to refuse service and plain manners to someone based only on their skin color. Public schools, restaurants, bathrooms, and more were segregated all because of this one physical characteristic. It is hard to imagine what this kind of life would be like, partly because at the time black people could not speak out about this injustice in fear for their lives. Therefore, Texan writer John Howard Griffin temporarily altered the pigment of his skin and set out into the deep South to find out the truth.
Of course, the author does not actually know what it is like to be a black person because he has only been black for about a month and a half. He hasn’t had the experience of living in poverty and fear his entire life and always has the motivation that when things get too rough he can wipe off the dye and return to his old life. However, it was important that he did this experiment to attempt to bridge the gap between the ideas between the two races. I agree with Howard’s conclusion that miscommunication and lack of the real truth was a major problem between the two races. Both sides never truly expressed their feelings because they were afraid of how their peers or the other race might react. This problem is probably why discrimination continued for so long because racial stereotypes were always the same and most white parents were continually telling their children that blacks were inferior. The problem of unity among black people was discussed, but I found that most of the black people that Griffin stayed with were extremely hospitable and had many of the same ideas towards solving “the problem”.
I definitely admire the author’s bravery in undertaking such a dangerous experiment, especially in choosing the cities that he visited. It was interesting how different cities in the South had varying degrees of attitudes and conditions against blacks. The first city that the author stayed in, New Orleans, was considered fairly tolerant versus the other places he visited. Mississippi was definitely the most extremely intolerant and on the bus there the author was warned by fellow blacks that even glancing at a white woman or even a poster with a white woman on it could get a black man into serious trouble. Atlanta, Georgia, was probably the most advanced city because it contained many prominent black leaders as well as a newspaper that is not afraid to stand for justice. I had originally thought that every place in the South was on the same level regarding civil rights, but I learned that there were actually differences in the lifestyles of blacks in various cities in the South.
I liked this book because it portrayed, to some extent, what it was like to be a black man in the deep South during such a hard time. It really brought to light the level of hatred at the time to deny a man a glass of water or the use of the restroom based on his skin color.
The author tells of his experiences after he darkened his skin and traveled through the South in order to find out how it feels to be black.More at HotBookSale
In 1959, Griffin--a white man--headed to New Orleans, darkened his skin, and immersed himself in black society. He then traveled through several state...More at Buy.com
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