Black Like Me Essay, Research Paper
Greg Trumbold
Black Like Me
In the Fall of 1959, John Howard Griffin set
out on a journey of discovery. A discovery of his
own nature, as well as a discovery of human nature.
With the help of a friend, Griffin transformed his
white male body into that of an African-American
male body. Through a series of medical treatments,
the transformation was complete. He spent the next
several months as an African-American traveling
through the deep South of the United States. What
he discovered changed his perspective of himself,
as well as his perspective of others.
On his journey, John Howard Griffin encountered
what could be termed the dark side of human nature.
He experienced racism in its purest form. He
experienced what it was like to live in squalor
with a sense of hopelessness. John Howard Griffin
also experienced the antagonism of those that
feared him solely because of the color of his skin.
His experiences even included witnessing acts of
racism with the African-American community. (1)
As a “white man” in “White America”, John
Howard Griffin enjoyed certain luxuries. With
those luxuries, however, is an independence of
sorts. A majority of white people pass through
life without much notice of other white people.
What he found as an African-American was that he
developed a bond with other African-Americans. The
type of bond that is shared between people in the
same situation. (2)
With this discovery came a certain amount of
hope. A hope that the human spirit will prevail
through any hardship. Through his journey, he
would step back into his true white self, and enter
back into the white world. He would then observe
the “black” world with a new sense of clarity. (3)
While in the “white” world, he encountered white
people that had a desire to change the wrongs of
white society.
It would seem that white society is comprised
of a great deal of felicity. That is to say, a
human being will naturally be drawn towards the
preservation of the self. (4) During this time
period, the white man viewed the black man as a
threat to the white lifestyle. As experienced
through the eyes of John Howard Griffin as a black
man, the white man would have many questions as to
the nature of the black man. (5)
Through Griffin’s experience, he learned that
there is no fundamental difference in the nature of
the white man as compared to the nature of the
black man. There seems to be a desire to survive.
The white man attempted to survive by making the
black man a “second citizen”, which is to say
“lesser citizen”. The black man attempted to
survive by banding together as a race. This helped
the race survive through a feeling of empathy. If
a human feels that he is not alone, it tends to
give a more powerful sense of strength.
Another interesting finding from John Howard
Griffin was that white children did not necessarily
share their parents racial beliefs. This offers
proof that racism is not a part of human nature,
but rather a by-product of the human nature of the
fear of the unknown. Since the white person was
unfamiliar with the black man, there was a sense of
fear of the black man. Racism is merely a defense
mechanism passed down from parent to child. The
white men in “Black Like Me” would teach their
children to use racial slurs like “nigger” in
reference to a black man. (6)
This theory is supported by the great thinker
Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes theorized that man is
dictated by a “psychological egoism”. That
basically is to say that people are selfish. They
put their own needs in front of the needs of
others. (7)
It is in this manner that the white man “saved”
himself from the black man. The white man saw only
his own need for self-preservation. He feared the
black man because of the white man’s ignorance of
the black man. The white man feared that the black
man was different than the white man, and therefore
dangerous. It is from this fear that racism
springs. By keeping the black man “down” in
society, the white man can fulfill his need to
survive. This is the manner in which Hobbes’ views
of psychological egoism are supported by John
Howard Griffin’s experience as a black man in the
Deep South.
John Howard Griffin’s experiences also helped
to point out many of the known African-American
stereotypes held by many white people. One scene
in particular involves Griffin hitchhiking in
Biloxi, Mississippi.(5)
It was November 19, and Griffin had just
arrived by bus in Biloxi. He proceeded to seek
transportation to his next resting spot, Mobile,
Alabama. He found that transportation by
hitch-hiking with several anonymous drivers.
Griffin encountered a great deal of curiosity
from the people that stopped to give him
transportation. Most were white males, and they
all bombarded Griffin with questions. Questions
ranging from the size of his genitalia to his
sexual prowess. Most of the questions dealt with
the stereotypes dealing with the black male’s
libido.
Griffin describes an almost perverse pleasure
that was achieved by the white males in asking such
sexual questions during these episodes; questions
about his past sexual experience with white women.
One such driver even asked Griffin to exit the car
after Griffin refused to answer one such question.
This would seem to support the theory that
humans are curious, and maybe even a little
frightened, of the unknown. The constant craving
for answers to apparently perverse questions showed
a fear of inadequacy on the part of the white male
drivers. By achieving the answers to these
questions the white males were possibly hoping to
allay their fear that the black man was sexually
superior.
Were this to be found true, this in turn would
lead to further racism. If the black male was in
fact found to be sexually superior to the white
male, the white male would in turn continue to
“keep the black male down”, if Hobbes’ theories of
psychological egoism are to be believed. By
“keeping the black male down”, the white male could
indeed maintain their superior position in society,
thereby allowing them to take care of their own
selfish needs.
Towards the end of John Howard Griffin’s
journey, he ended up in the city of Atlanta. In
Atlanta, he found a different sort of spirit among
the black community. It was a spirit of social
change. Griffin had arrived in Atlanta feeling
that the black condition in America was one without
hope. It was in Atlanta that he found a glimmer of
hope within the black community. (7)
While in Atlanta, John Howard Griffin met with
several black community leaders. Civic leaders,
men of the cloth, and various black business owners
throughout the city were among his audience.
Through these conversations, Griffin discovered
that Atlanta had found a way to deal with the white
person’s suppression of the black person.
Griffin found that three main ingredients were
responsible for the improved racial conditions in
Atlanta. First, blacks in the community were
united in their purpose. Secondly, Atlanta had at
the time a fair and just mayor. And finally, the
city newspaper was known for taking a stand on
racial injustices. (7)
These findings helped Griffin to understand
another facet of human nature: the survival
instincts of the oppressed. Griffin found that
although the Southern African-American was
suppressed in society, the Southern
African-Americans came together as a people as a
means of survival.
The black civic leaders that John Howard
Griffin had encountered in Atlanta organized the
black community in such a was as to give the black
people a better chance at education, health care,
and employment. This in turn changed the black
person’s outlook on life in the city. This is what
gave the black person in Atlanta hope, which is
necessary for survival, which in turn is a basic
element of human nature.
During this entire event, John Howard Griffin
had been keeping a journal of his experiences. He
was a reporter of sorts, and this was his story.
He enlisted the help of other affluent white people
from the North, as well as an internationally
distributed black magazine. The trip was paid for
by the magazine “Sepia”, and in return for the
trip, Griffin was to supply the magazine with the
tales of his journey.
While John Howard Griffin and Thomas Hobbes are
from different eras, their concepts of basic human
nature were in most cases very similar. Hobbes
theorized that man is consumed by psychological
egoism, which is the need to attend to one’s own
needs over that of another human being. Griffin
found the same line of thinking in the white man
while living as a black man in the Deep South.
However, Griffin also stumbled upon the
resilience of the human spirit in times of duress.
The black people that Griffin encountered in
Atlanta were determined to improve their condition.
The difference between the white people and the
black people in this instance was that the black
people held into account the needs of other black
people. The white’s seemed only concerned with
their own personal well being.
It would appear as though both thinkers share
similar ideas in regards to this form of human
nature. It would be interesting to determine
whether race makes a difference in the outcome.
That is to say, what would happen if the roles were
reversed? What would happen if the black person
were in a position of power and the white person
were supressed?
If these are truly examples of human nature,
one could theorize that the outcome would remain
the same. As John Howard Griffin discovered from
his experiences, the only difference between white
and black is the color of our skin.
Bibliography
(1) “Black Like Me” John Howard Griffin Pg. 55-59
(2) “Black Like Me” Pg. 116-117
(3) “Black Like Me” Pg. 118-121
(4)&(7) “The Battle For Human Nature” Barry Shwartz Pg. 41
(5) “Black Like Me” Pg. 85-96
(6) “Black Like Me” Pg. 156
(7)”Black Like Me” Pg. 133-139