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In this nations history, society has alienated many groups based on race or color. The most widely known of these such prejudices has been those committed against blacks. Ever since the beginning of this nation, before 1776, blacks have been regarded as inferior, bs, and somewhat of a nuisance. John Howard Griffin, in his book Black Like Me, explores this thought as a white man and a black man, after he changes the color of his skin. In the book, alienation is clearly seen in states of the deep South.
By tradition, if not by conformity, the white Southerners of the United States had previously been taught to hate the Negroes. Parents taught their children about their superiority to the Negroes and how Negroes would have to act when confronted with a white person. White children were also taught that if a Negro did something it wasnt supposed to, so much as a stare at a white person, then he or she would have to be punished. This is clearly seen in Black Like Me after Griffin finishes his transformation and buys a ticket at a bus station. A white man before him is treated with the utmost courtesy and respect as well as a flirtatious remark by the woman behind the counter. When Griffin approaches to purchase his ticket, he is faced with a completely different person.
The woman first shuns Griffin away by telling him that there are no more tickets. When Griffin tells her there still is, upon giving him his change, she hurls it so hard that all coins are flung on the floor. After purchasing his ticket, due to the moral code of segregation, Griffin is forced to wait in a colored waiting room when the whites only room was completely empty. This scene in the book shows how entire generations were bred to hate. Segregation laws also contributed to the alienation of blacks in the South. After the Supreme Court case, Please v.
Ferguson, separate but equal facilities were set up throughout the United States. In these facilities, there was also a colored and a white section. This law is clearly seen throughout the book. J. H. Griffin is forced to sit towards the back of the bus when he travels from state to state.
He is not allowed to drink from a water fountain that is only five feet away, but must travel five miles across town to drink from the colored fountain. He cannot rent a room so he must go to the colored YMCA. He cannot go to the corner coffee shop because it is whites only, and so on. This equality was appealing because not only did blacks in the South suffer from higher and poverty, they also suffered from repressed fear and anger due to the inhumanity and absurdities of this law. The true comparison between the morality and treatment by the people of the South in general can be seen towards the end of the book. Desperate and confused, Griffin decides that he no longer can take the injustices committed not only towards blacks, but towards himself as well.
His skin color, light enough to pass as a white, and dark enough to touch up as mulatto, allows his to explore both sides of society at once. As a black man, he is treated with courtesy by blacks and harassed by the whites. As a white, he is respected by the whites and shunned by the blacks. When he frequents New Orleans as a black, he is not allowed to enter a French restaurant he visited previously as a white. The most degrading experience as a black is when he decides to hitchhike and is asked by every white driver about the reality between blacks and their sexual potency. At this point, Griffin realizes that the true inferiority lies not in the blacks, who are not allowed to surpass their state, but in the whites.
Society's norms have lead to, many times, alienation of a person or a people because of their gender, race, class, or creed. In the United States, until the passage of the Civil Rights Act, were the people most alienated throughout the nation. Their color, not their individuality, was the apple of discord that did not allow prosperity to flourish. John Howard Griffin, in his book Black Like Me, experiences the injustices first hand, proving how unequal the separate but equal institutions really were.
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