Rating: 
Summary: Gripping, Revealing, Readable
Review: This gripping book helps whites to experience life from the other side of the racial divide. In 1959, author John Howard Griffin (1920-80) used special medication to darken his skin, and then traveled the Deep South as a black man in the latter days of legal segregation. The "Negro" Griffin encountered separate facilities, hate-filled stares, assumptions that he was over-sexed, and job options limited to menial labor. He found conditions slightly better in big cities like New Orleans and Atlanta, but never free of rudeness or indignities. Griffin also met a small number of whites that apologized for racism. When Griffin switched his skin color back to white, blacks became surly, and whites became friendly. Unfortunately, Griffin never ventured outside the Deep South, depriving us of a chance to compare racism between regions. In this sense, his stirring book is too short.
BLACK LIKE ME angered white southerners when published in 1960. Griffin (who'd once recovered from blindness) received anonymous death threats, and soon developed health problems associated with his special medication. Too bad we cannot step into each other's race the way Griffin did - it might make for a better society.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Most Important Landmark Works in History
Review: John Howard Griffin offered one of the most important contributions to the Civil Rights movement when his work Black Like Me was published in 1960. Griffin approached his study on race relations in the South by asking a very poignant question: "If a white man became a Negro in the Deep South, what adjustments would he have to make?." To answer this question, Griffin shaved his head and had his skin temporarily darkened by medical treatments and stain in order to travel through parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia as a black man.
Griffin had a deep understanding of discrimination even before he began this ambitious project. As a medic in the French Resistance Army, Griffin helped evacuate Austrian Jews away from the advancing Nazis. During the Second World War, Griffin lost his sight and was forced to live with this disability for over ten years. By 1959, Griffin was a published author and a specialist on race relations. Despite such credentials Griffin "really knew nothing of the Negro's real problem." Only by becoming black did Griffin understand what it was like to live as a second class citizen in "the land of the free."
As a black man, Griffin described the variations and similarities of race relations in different areas of the South. Although some states were more "enlightened" than others, blatant acts of racism were found almost everywhere Griffin went. In Alabama, where Martin Luther King first introduced passive resistance, Griffin endured the hate stares from whites and observed that even graduates from Tuskegee Institute would not be allowed to climb the social ladder in the South because, "whites cannot lose to a traditionally servant class." Finally, while traveling to the otherwise enlightened city of Atlanta, the simple act of a bus driver saying "Watch your step" as his passengers filed out was only reserved for whites.
Even more interesting than these experiences was the way in which Griffin was allowed to converse with blacks and whites on racial matters. Understandably, blacks were highly suspicious of whites and were often inclined to play "the stereo-typed role of the 'good Negro'" when around whites to survive in white southern society. As a "black" man, Griffin enjoyed a rare glimpse of how blacks really regarded segregation beyond the white propaganda. He also discovered the ways in which blacks assisted and supported each other against the perils of racism. In other cases, Griffin observed blacks who were ashamed of their race and who would denounce other blacks for their darker skin or shabby clothes. As a "black" man, Griffin also saw a side of whites that would otherwise be hidden if he had met them as a fellow white man. His experiences with whites while hitchhiking through Mississippi are particularly intriguing. Despite his experiences, Griffin was surprisingly fair in his analysis. While the reader may despise the hate-filled whites in his story, Griffin did not stoop to the racist's level by denying them their humanity. Instead, Griffin made it a point to see the whites in other roles-as a parent, grandparent, church leader, and loyal neighbor. He also realized that whites who may have been sympathetic towards their African American neighbors, were pressured by southern society to continue segregation. In his epilogue, Griffin was even critical of fellow white freedom fighters who often failed to consult with black community leaders on the race issue.
Griffin's work was a landmark for his time, but weaknesses in his study were present. Griffin visited the larger cities of the South; however, a comparison of race relations between the major cities and the countryside may have created a more complete study as would a visit to other states in the South. A better explanation was needed regarding Griffin's practice of alternating his role as a black man and a white man by scrubbing the stain off his skin. At first, the reader may assume that the author could no longer handle the discrimination and longed to enter the South as a first class citizen again. Later, Griffin maintained that he was studying how the reactions of blacks and whites reversed themselves as he changed his skin color. Both reasons are valid; however, if a need to be white again was the primary explanation than an important point was made: An educated and worldly white man could barely survive in six weeks what a black person must endure every moment of his life.
Rating:
Summary: A Book Worth Reading
Review: John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me, contrasts the lives of Blacks and Whites in the 1950's. I was mesmerized by the hateful encounters that the Black people went through just because of their skin color. I was also amazed about how my ancestors, the white man, never gave the Black people one iota of respect.
Another angle of the story showed how far a journalist of the fifties would go for a story. Through the book, I saw Griffin go against all morals of his time for a story. I saw him become an outcast of his society. On top of that he put his life on the line, with the skin change and the crazy white men, for a story. This seemed to me to be a dumb mistake that eventually cost him his life.
I enjoyed the book and will read it again. I think this book could give you a different perspective on a lot of issues not only of Griffin's time, but on ours as well.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book
Review: I read Black Like Me for school... as a summer reading book. The title interested me. At first, I had an idea that it would be about racism but I wasn't sure. I investigated and decided I would buy the book instead of borrowing from the library or something because the topic interests me. This is a very good book seeing that it is a personal experience by the author.
Rating:
Summary: Black Like Me, a Shocking Book
Review: Living in the South, I thought I knew how white people treated blacks, but BLACK LIKE ME showed moe how little I understand the way whites treat blacks routinely. I even thought I knew as a white person how I treat blacks, but I didn't. This book opened my eyes to the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle cruelties to my fellow human beings. This book needs to be read.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful!
Review: John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me is a powerful book which reveals the small, hidden bits of racism in all of us. Griffin, a white journalist, undergoes an amazing transformation which allows him to experience and understand racism throughout the South in a whole different light and an entirely new degree - he becomes black himself. By changing his skin's color, Griffin experiences first-hand the stunningly different, and often hopeless, world on the other side of the racial barrier. A book that makes you both sad and angry, but ultimately opens your eyes - changing the way you see the world. Powerful!
Rating:
Summary: Man's inhumanity to man
Review: Anytime you that you think your life is bad, pick up "Black Like Me", a riveting expose on how black people were (are?) treated in the Southern U.S. in the 1950's/1960's. You think you've got it bad? Has anyone ever prevented you from using the restroom facilites when your bladder was full, just because they could? Has anyone hung you from a tree just for looking at a white woman the "wrong" way? What white America did (and still does to a certain extent today, they just aren't as obvious about it anymore) to the black community is revolting, disgusting and stomach churning. I found myself closing the book in several passages because I couldn't bear to continue reading about the absolute delight white men and woman took in berating, insulting, ignoring and torturing black people. You will be distubed and sickened while reading "Black Like Me" in which a white man uses pills to darken his skin in order to pass as a black man while traveling through the deep South. What he experiences pure evil behavior from whites (with a few exceptions). However, time and time again, he is amazed by the kindess and courtesy shown by his "fellow" black man. Perhaps faith in humanity can be restored by witnessing how kind your fellow man can be, but you will be appalled at how cruel others can be. A must read for everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Civil Rights Revisited
Review: I bought this book after reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, because I wanted to see a man's point of view on the treatment of Blacks. This was very informative, and gave a view of a white man's life as a Black. However, as an African American, I could not help but feel sad by reading this book. This man had the opportunity to go back and forth as a Black, but many that he came in contact with did not. I wish that there was more written about how this affected the author's home life, and also how the author felt about the experience once time had passed. This is a highly suggested book for one who would like to know about the race relations of the 1950's.
Rating:
Summary: An eye-opener
Review: I read Black Like Me because the picture on the cover intrigued me. I think now I am a better person for having read it. Just like Mr. Griffin confronted his own prejudice when looking at his reflection in the mirror, I realized too that I might be harboring baseless stereotypes. The fact that a white man darkening his skin color meant that he had to walk miles to eat or drink just forty years ago is astounding and sickening at the same time. People that are easily angered by acts of segregation or intolerance may not want to read this book because there are several instances of blind hatred. White truckers would offer John rides at night only to ask inappropriate questions about his sex life. A bus driver refused to let the black passengers off to use the restroom on a trip. I am not sure I would want to experience what life must have been like for a black person in those times. However, I am glad that John Howard Griffin did. The fact that the author happened to be extremely talented at his practice makes the reading that much better. I think everyone should read this book at some point in their lives...black, white, brown, old, or young. There are few books that can alter your day to day living, and this is one of them.
Rating:
Summary: Drives to the heart of black-white relations in the US
Review: I just finished a class at school on black/white relations, and this book drove to the heart of the issue in a dramatic and truthful fashion. The book is the true account of Griffin, a white man, changing only the color of his skin so as to experience first-hand the life of a black man in in the very openly racist Deep South of the late 1950s. The account becomes particularly revealing when Griffin describes how towards the end of his investigation he "switched" back and forth between black and white on a daily basis, noting the negative reactions he received from both black and white communities based on the color of his skin. Additionally, the epilogue by the author is incredible. He bemoans how people, particularly northerners, have tokenized him, seeing him as the only white person capable of communicating with blacks. Specifically, he describes one situation where a city task force brought him in as the "liason" to their black community, yet they had not even taken preliminary steps to communicate with its most outspoken representatives. I don't typically read books in their entirety at one sitting, but this book drew me in by its interesting topic, and I wasn't able to let it go until I had finished it. This book is a great book, and I recommend it to all. Specifically, I would imagine this book to be particularly helpful for a white seeking to better understand the nature of race in this country, but there is nothing about the book that would preclude enjoyment by another demographic.
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