Black Like Me

The moment that I finished reading the last page of Black Like Me and put down the book, I breathed a sigh of relief. In this day and age although that I know that racism is still alive and kicking in society, I personally have not have had the misfortune of encountering it. In fact, it is not hard for me to often forget the fact that I am in fact a young woman of color. There are many of my friends who find it odd that I say that, but it is true. I had never given much thought to the subject before. That is until I had actually completed this novel. John Howard Griffin's writing really drew me into the story and I actually felt as if I was there experiencing all the pain and hatred that he felt on a regular basis while living the live of a black man.

I believe that the fact that I am a woman may be one of the reasons why I have never really had to deal with outright blatant racism. Another reason may be the fact that my parents never made race an issue as I was growing up so I was never totally aware of it. I believe if I was then I would have been more aware of certain things that were happening around me. It was basically the same in the book. The author, while aware that certain injustices were being perpetrated against Negroes, would never have actually been able to truly understand the effect it had on black culture if he had not gone to such drastic measures.

I am actually very grateful for the fact that I was given the chance to read a novel such as this one. It has opened my eyes in a sense. I have always been aware of the fact that there were horrible things done to innocent people who didn't deserve it just because they were black. It is another thing entirely thought to actually read one person's account of this. What I find even more amazing though, is the fact that someone would willingly put themselves in a position to be treated as an inferior being, and risk their life just for the sake of an experiment.