Black like me



Black like me

Review of the book

There was a day in 1964 when John Howard Griffin, a 44-year-old Texan reporter and writer, stood on the road located at Mississippi with a flat tire. He saw a large number of people that approached towards him. Griffin had an assumption that these men were coming to help him, but, in fact, they pulled him away from the car, and, started violently with chains that almost killed him. Griffin needed five months for the recovery because of the wounds he suffered during the attack. The attack was not accidental because it looked that these men had some plan before beating the man. Griffin had to suffer the punishment because of the book he wrote some time ago. The book known as Black like got printed three years ago in November 1961 and made its author suffers from unspeakable brutality. Griffin, a lantern-jawed and chestnut-haired white man, intentionally colored his skin dark and had to spend six weeks in visiting the huge isolated southern parts of USA. He revisited several towns in a confidential manner in having the image of a black man. In the initial part of the book, he described some of his initial phase suffered during the discrimination period (Griffin, 1962).

He made a visit to the dermatologist who recommended medicines normally given to patients who suffer from vitiligo disease. He had to supplement the medicine with the help of several sessions. In the most influential sections in the book, Griffin mentioned the shock of seeing himself for the first time in front of the manner. Griffin proceeded with the journey and had to suffer some more shock because of the recognition he experienced from several countries. The man who failed to recognize him was the man who used to ...