"Black Like Me"-Day 86

Happy Wednesday. May this day bring you happiness, joy and love. May you be blessed abundantly and may you be a blessing to others.

Yesterday, while my daughter and I were at Barnes and Noble bookstore, I finished reading "Black Like Me", by John Howard Griffin. Griffin, a white native of Texas, chronicles his six week journey through the South, passing as a black man. Sometimes he would take buses or he would hitchhike through various southern states.

Griffin was very much of the mind set that all humans are created equal and therefore all rights, dignity,respect, and opportunities, should be afforded to all humans, even the "negro". He stated that he did not understand why America treated the "Blacks" with distain. Griffin refuted various studies which concluded that Blacks were "genetically inferor", and he wanted to prove that Black people were treated different for one reason and one reason ONLY, their skin color.

So he set out to prove his thesis. He had a dermotologist (skin doctor) change the pigmentation of his skin color, from white to brown. Everything else about him stayed the same. His manner of speech, his dress, his name, and ect. His skin was darkened like the "negroes".

What did Griffin conclude after being a "negro" for six weeks?

"Griffin expects to find prejudice, oppression, and hardship, but he is shocked at the extent of it: everywhere he goes, he experiences difficulties and insults. The word "nigger" seems to echo from every street corner. It is impossible to find a job, or even a restroom that blacks are allowed to use. Clerks refuse to cash his checks, and a white bully nearly attacks him before he chases the man away. After several traumatic days in New Orleans, Griffin decides to travel into the Deep South of Mississippi and Alabama, which are reputed to be even worse for blacks. (In Mississippi, a grand jury has just refused to indict a lynch mob that murdered a black man before he could stand trial.) In Mississippi, he is disheartened and exhausted, so he calls a white friend named P.D. East, a newspaperman who is ferociously opposed to racism. He spends a day with East, during which time they discuss the way racial prejudice has been incorporated into the South's legal code by bigoted writers and politicians. Eventually, a rejuvenated Griffin leaves for a long hitchhiking trip throughout Alabama and Mississippi.

In general, Griffin finds that conditions for blacks are appalling, and that black communities seem run-down and defeated. He even notices a look of defeat and hopelessness on his own face, after only a few weeks as a black man. In Montgomery, however, the black community is charged with determination and energy by the example of one of its leaders, a preacher named Marin Luther King, Jr. Blacks in Montgomery have begun practicing passive resistance, a nonviolent form of refusing to comply with racist laws and rules. Griffin, again depressed and weary of life as a black man, briefly stops taking his medication and lightens his skin back to his normal color. He begins alternating back and forth between races, visiting a place first as a black man and then as a white man. He notices immediately that when he is a white man, whites treat him with respect and blacks treat him with suspicious fear; when he is a black man, blacks treat him with generosity and warmth, while whites treat him with hostility and contempt. Griffin concludes that the races do not understand one another at all, and that a tolerant dialogue is needed to bridge the terrible gap separating them."(Sparknotes)

While I read this book, I cried. I cried because, Griffin put his life and those of his own family, on the line to prove that Blacks were treated inhumane based upon the color of their skin. Griffin believed, given the opportunity, Blacks would progress, take advantage of education, build their own economic wealth, take care of their own families, and communities.

Have Griffin's hopes and dreams for Black people come to fruition?

Take a close look around, and you tell me what you see. Tell me if most Black people are taking advantage of education. Tell me if most Black people are building economic wealth. Tell me if most Black families have both parents, to help rear their Black children. Tell me if most Black neighborhoods are thriving and peaceful.

Please tell me the truth.

Have a great day.

L. for Love