Book review of Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin - Essay Example

The book highlights the darkest moments in the history of US, where social justice to blacks was bare minimum. The author in the best manner elucidates the obstacles and the hardships that a black man undergoes. He not only highlights the cursed life of blacks but, also involves himself in a quest to discover his own identity. The racial oppression led to problems for the black people in US, in finding food and shelter, even the rest rooms through out the country which the black people were allowed to use as there was a great scarcity.

There was discrimination in day to day affairs like travelling by bus, getting a cheque cashed and sitting on bus stand or park benches. Their residential areas were filthy, stinking and dark like ghettos. The social justice was conspicuous from the behavior of each race in another's company. A white used to receive respect and courtesy from the whites only, whereas they were always formidable from the behavior of blacks, always suspicious of their actions; whereas, blacks were looked upon with animosity and hostility.

The blacks were generous with each other. Where Griffin mentions all the bad sides, he also mentions examples of P.D East and construction worker from Alabama - the whites and the blacks like Sterling Williams (who helped him in his transformation, made him learn the etiquettes, the style and the mannerism of the blacks) and the mill worker who proved that human kindness and generosity cannot be overshadowed by the evils of racism. The book addresses the sociological issues and concerns related to racism and sexism.

The book points out how African Americans were a stereotyped because almost majority of the Americans had no knowledge of their culture. Black men were subordinated because white believed that blacks were sexually perverse. The book provides a very sentimental and heart rendering approach to the sufferings of the black people in American South. It touches the heart directly because the events are unfolded by a white man himself, who experienced the troubles of the blacks by under covering himself as a black man.

It was a quest for the author to see how blacks struggled. The author left his family and friends and lived under cover for whole six weeks, travelling from Texas to Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia.The author tells how he started off with his transition from a white to black; the most interesting part, because this is his quest for search of an identity. He starts to make friends with black people and one of his very first mates was a shoe shining man, Sterling Williams; living amongst black, the author starts to realize what these men in Atlanta have been through to come so far.

He ends the book on a worrying note that the time will come when blacks will come haunting the American white racists, for all the cruel and the deadly treatment they have done to blacks.John Howard Griffin's social experiment of converting into a black man, proved to be a success; it was a contribution of his efforts as a white man to bring to front the relentless efforts of blacks to be recognized how badly they have been treated. His guise for putting himself into shoes