When I started reading Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin, I had no idea what the book was going to about or what the book’s plot was. I began to read and became amazed by the idea of Griffin to place a white man in a black man’s body and live in the south as an African-American. It’s truly a great story idea. The main character, John, takes medication to change his skin color and travels through the south experiencing life as a black man. It is a very touching book that opened up my eyes wider than they were already by the significant stereotypes of people and racial slurs about all groups, but more importantly blacks.
A major theme in the book that I really came to understand, was that our society doesn’t understand other cultures, races, or religions. People get too caught up only worrying about their own people or groups and begin to blame other people and groups for problems. People need to understand all races, cultures, and religions before they should pass judgment. We are all in this together. In the book it clearly pointed out to me that blacks aren’t as ignorant as whites. Blacks have the feeling that the white man is out to get him and are all against the black man. Blacks are scared and untrusting, mainly because whites are in power. Many people in the world don’t see it, but it is very vivid. The misunderstanding of opposite races is a very vital subject in today’s society and goes a long way into why the world is filled with racism.
Often times white people feel that because a person is black or a certain color or race, that they must be a thief or a criminal. This is very distinctive in today’s society. The prejudice of people in the world is sickening. The worst part of it all is that they don’t even know that they are doing it, often thinking that it is just normal behavior. There are people that don’t realize that they are racist and then there are those people who are i