46 pages • 1 hour read
Black Like Me
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Chapter 10 Summary: “November 14”
After a week of no luck in finding work, as well as growing tired of having to search for places to eat or use the washroom, Griffin realizes that his experiment isn’t getting easier. The pain of rejection is always as harsh as the time before. He believes that Black people can take comfort in the fact that these societal attacks are not against them as individuals, but as a race, and as such, they can still hold onto their own personhood. As a result of this constant tension and othering, Griffin concludes, many Black people resort to drinking or overeating as a form of distraction.
When Griffin goes out on this day, he notices an atmosphere of anger and frustration in the air. He hears from Sterling that those responsible for kidnapping and killing a Black man, Mack Charles Parker, before his trial in Mississippi were not investigated for their crimes. The lynchers were instead found to have taken the law into their own hands, and the entire event was seen by Black people as an assault upon their community and a stain on the South’s reputation. Sterling expresses his lack of faith in the justice system, and Griffin has no words to console him. In this moment, Griffin decides that he must go to Mississippi to experience this racism firsthand. Both Sterling and Joe warn him that it’s far too dangerous, but Griffin feels compelled.
Griffin attempts to cash a traveler’s check at several shops but finds rejection at every turn, knowing it is certainly because of his skin. He happens upon a Catholic bookstore and hopes their religious charity will see past his apparent race, and sure enough, the woman there cashes his check without hesitation. At the bus station, the attendant refuses to give Griffin a ticket at first, but after Griffin stands there for a while, she relents and throws his ticket and change at him forcefully, staring at him with the utmost hate. Griffin is then stared at by a white man sitting and waiting, and he cannot help feeling shocked by the ridiculousness of the people around him. It is a new and jarring experience to be so alienated and hated. After waiting at the back of the line with other Black people, Griffin boards a bus to Mississippi. On the bus, he meets Christophe, an eccentric man who sings the blues and knows Latin Gregorian chants. He wanted to be a priest, but instead is on his way to take revenge on some people. Griffin wonders who Christophe may have been if race had not been an issue in his life. Some other men warn Griffin never to look at any white women whilst in Mississippi—not even photos of them. At a rest stop, the bus driver refuses to let any Black passengers off to use the restroom, and Griffin compares them to cattle being herded back to their seats. One man decides to urinate at the back of the bus, and the rest painfully wait until their final stop. The bus passes through Poplarville, where the Parker lynching took place, and tension amongst all the passengers is clear.
Finally, they arrive in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. A fellow passenger advises Griffin to go see a certain man, who directs Griffin to another man who takes Griffin to a room in an upstairs apartment where he can stay. In his room, Griffin sees himself reflected in a broken piece of glass and feels a deep sense of anger and frustration for his position and the position of all Black people in the South. He also feels enraged at white people who actively keep Black people in this position. Griffin feels as though he is in Hell, and the smell of food and the sounds of loud music around him only seem to amplify this feeling. He thinks about writing to his wife, but finds he cannot, because he feels like a stranger and experiences a sense of shame over writing to a white woman as a Black man.
Griffin goes out to the street, where the music gets louder; Griffin concludes that music is a way for Black people to escape and quiet the voice within them that reminds them of their position. He knows many white people would see this partying as a proof of happiness or joy, but that in reality, it is anything but joyful. Griffin thinks about the image that Mississippi presents of itself—a happy and fun-loving place. Rather than going back to the room he was offered, Griffin calls an old friend, P. D. East (“P.D.” in the text), who is a white journalist, and goes to stay with him. Arriving at P.D.’s house in the darkness, it occurs to Griffin that P.D.’s family is risking their own reputation and lives to house him.
P.D. gives Griffin a copy of his autobiography to read, which Griffin finds fascinating; P.D. entered a moral crisis when he realized he was writing for the comfort of white people, but not telling the truth. When he began writing the truth about various unjust laws instead, he attracted massive controversy and threats. The response led P.D. into a depression, but Griffin finds a dark humor in P.D.’s account as he exposes the flawed attitudes of the average Southerner. Eventually, Griffin decides to go to sleep, but realizes it is already morning.
Chapter 11 Summary: “November 15”
P.D. wakes Griffin a couple of hours later, eager to discuss his autobiography. Griffin groggily obliges as they listen to Mozart and P.D. talks. They spend all day this way, and then P.D. hands Griffin even more files to look at before bed. Griffin is intrigued by all of it and spends another night reading, noting P.D.’s overarching argument that individual racists are not the main problem; instead, it is the lawmakers who defend them and prolong a system that encourages such crimes.
Chapter 12 Summary: “November 16”
P.D. drives Griffin back to New Orleans, and they visit Dillard University, a university for Black students. The university is upscale and beautiful, and P.D. jokes about how many white people must criticize that fact. They meet with the dean of the university, who laughs at P.D.’s callous humor regarding racism in the South as they discuss the obstacles Black Mississippians face while voting. P.D. gives the dean a hard time for not inviting him to speak about his media experiences.
Griffin buys a bus ticket back to Mississippi and spends a few hours in New Orleans killing time, realizing that he loves the city and has formed a bond with it. During a washroom visit, Griffin finds a half-eaten loaf of bread and wonders about the position of the man who ate it. He sees a notice on the wall offering money to Black men who bring Black teenage girls for sexual favors. When another Black man walks in and sees the notice, acting unsurprised, Griffin realizes that the man has probably seen far worse. He notes the hypocrisy in white people who claim to be superior and yet behave in such degenerate ways.
Chapter 13 Summary: “November 19”
Griffin arrives in Biloxi, Mississippi, and is stunned by the beauty of the ocean and beaches there. He walks along the highway hoping to hitch a ride, and converses with a Black man who complains that although Black people pay a tax for the maintenance of the beaches, they are not allowed to use them. Griffin is eventually picked up by a white man who seems friendly, and Griffin’s hopes are lifted regarding the nature of white people in the state until he hears the man is from Massachusetts, not Mississippi. The driver comments that white people in the state seem to be decent in all ways except regarding race. After being dropped off, Griffin continues walking, scorched from the heat, and gets an ice cream but cannot sit down out of fear of the white people nearby scorning him. When Griffin happens upon a food stand, he asks to use their outhouse and is flatly denied. He notices that after nightfall, people become more willing to pick him up as he walks along the road; however, all they want to ask Griffin about, it seems, are his sexual habits and whether he lusts after white women. Griffin perceives in these men a certain depravity that they believe is embodied only in Black men and which comes out in the form of a morbid curiosity.
One young man insists that Black people are all experimental and open about their sexuality. When the man starts questioning Griffin about the size of his genitals and asks him to show them, an awkward silence follows, and Griffin realizes that the man sees him as less than human. Griffin sees an intelligence in the man despite all of this and tries to explain to him that the behavior and situations he ascribes to Black people—such as having “illegitimate children”—are not due to race, but rather environment and centuries of social conditioning. Griffin adds that white people would—and do—experience the same outcomes under the same conditions. The man tries to argue with Griffin using statistics, but Griffin refutes them, saying that a lack of education and exposure to arts and literature has had a detrimental effect. He adds that the more a person sees their situation as hopeless, the further into despair they fall, which often leads to acts of desperation. As these men are not allowed to develop self-worth, they often abandon their families, which leads to further forms of desperation by those left behind. The man seems to relent a little and listen, and by the time he drops Griffin off, he apologizes for his earlier comments.
Griffin is in Alabama now and is picked up by a Black man who offers to let him stay at his home. Griffin and the man sleep in his bed together and talk through the night about the state of race relations in the South. Griffin finds the man’s position on the matter unique, because he believes that Black people must never stop loving white people, lest they be dragged down into that same web of hatred. He believes that Black people must fight for their rights with understanding and kindness.
Chapter 14 Summary: “November 21”
During his time in Mobile, Alabama, Griffin notices the sparseness of places willing to serve Black patrons, and like the other places he has visited, the nearest available café, washroom, or glass of water seems to always be miles away. All of these things that white people take for granted, Black people struggle for on a daily basis. Griffin learns to eat when he can and take advantage of services when they’re available as a result. While looking for work, Griffin is flat out rejected, and one man even tells him that his company is slowly weeding out all Black workers in order to make the state totally white “before equality comes” (98). He adds that the idea is to make life as difficult as possible for Black people so that they leave Alabama. When Griffin came to the city in his youth, he felt it was vibrant and kind, but he wonders now if that was just the illusion of being young; now, all he sees around him is hatred and fear.
Chapters 10-14 Analysis
The Relationship Between Justice and Morality and the importance of these symbiotic concepts within the Black community become evident to Griffin. In opposition to the views espoused by white people, the Black people that Griffin talks to take direct issue with both violence and with the laws and policies that serve to oppress them. When Mack Charles Parker is kidnapped and killed by a mob the night before his trial, the news sweeps across the South, and Griffin can see the tension and anger on the faces of people he passes. Even Sterling, who is usually chipper and optimistic, adopts a darker tone. Being the person that he is, Griffin feels compelled to go directly into the storm and heads to Mississippi almost immediately. He risks his life in doing so but is motivated by the desire to find out the truth. Griffin’s friend, P.D., lives by a similar virtue, and spends his time reporting news honestly and objectively. P.D. recognizes the systemic nature of racism, arguing that lawmakers are the real issue, not the everyday racists on the street. His argument is based on the fact that the policies and decisions made by lawmakers have a direct effect on peoples’ perceptions of the world around them.
Griffin is disgusted by the hypocrisy that he sees in the white people he interacts while assuming the appearance of a Black man. In particular, the men who pick Griffin up while he is hitchhiking show Griffin that there is a darker side to the people who claim to be upstanding, Christian, and moral citizens. He interprets the way that white people look upon Black people as a certain animalism: White people see Black people not only as inferior, but also as less than human. As a result, he notes that they feel no qualms about letting their own animalistic sides show, as evidenced when Griffin is frequently questioned about his sex life and sexual habits, and even his genitalia. The entire time, Griffin feels as though his very personhood is being assaulted. This speaks to The Nature of Human Identity and how a person’s self-perception can be dramatically altered by the way they are treated. In Griffin’s opinion, white people of the South are only willing to accept Black people as “beasts of burden” (99)—as menial workers, sex workers, and similar labor-based positions.
For Griffin, being alienated and hated for his skin color is a new experience. The shock of rejection and prejudice does not wear off as days go on, in part because the discrimination is so severe, and in part because he can find no logic behind any of it. He begins to draw connections between how Black folks are treated and the behaviors that lead white people to judge them. For instance, a bus driver refuses to let Black passengers use the washroom, leading a man to urinate in the back of the bus. Christophe dreamed of becoming a priest, but resorted to a life of violence when it became clear that the world would not allow him that dream due to the color of his skin. A rage develops inside Griffin as he feels ashamed for white people and angry that they continue to act in such an illogical and hateful way. Griffin meet one Black man who believes that the answer to racial conflict is love, seeing understanding and kindness as paving the path toward equal rights, and Griffin sees validity in this when he goes to Atlanta and sees the progress being made there.
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