Black Like Me

While staying at his parents’ farm in Mansfield, Texas, Griffin wonders what it is like to be discriminated against for an immutable trait such as skin color. He thinks about the wide divide between Black and white people of the South and wonders what he can do to bridge it. For this reason, he decides to impersonate a Black person and find out what it is like to be Black in America. Griffin notes the irony in the fact that despite sociologically studying issues surrounding racial tension and disparities, he knows little about the true nature of the problems that Black people experience.

Griffin consults with a friend, George Levitan, who owns Sepia, an international Black magazine, and who is known to hire a diverse range of employees. George tells Griffin that it’s a risky decision that is likely to get him killed, but knows he won’t convince Griffin to refrain, so he offers his assistance. Griffin asks for funding in exchange for giving George some content from his experiment for the magazine. Griffin also consults George’s editor, Adelle Jackson, and his own wife, who agrees to take care of their three children while Griffin undertakes what he considers an important mission. Griffin goes back to his parents’ farm and lies awake through the night, listening to the sounds of the farm and instinctively knowing that he is bound to experience severe loneliness in the coming weeks.

Griffin meets with Adelle, George, and three FBI agents to inform them of his plans. Griffin plans to be honest about his intentions if asked and to keep his name the same, only changing his skin tone. He wonders if he will be treated as himself or as an anonymous Black man, and one of the FBI agents tells him that nobody will want to know anything about him once he changes his skin.

Griffin arrives in the French Quarter of New Orleans, checks into a hotel, and begins walking the streets to take in the sights, sounds, and smells. He recalls having been in New Orleans previously, when he was temporarily blinded by a bomb in World War II and could not see any of the beautiful sights he can now. As a result, everything seems new and exciting: “Every view was magical, whether it was a deserted, lamplit street corner or the neon hubbub of Royal Street” (11). He passes restaurants, bars, and clubs and finally stops for dinner, questioning whether a Black man would be able to have the same meal. He calls a friend, who invites him to stay there rather than at a hotel.

Griffin consults a dermatologist about darkening his skin, and the dermatologist suggests medication used for vitiligo along with UV ray exposure. Griffin opts for an accelerated version of treatment, risking side effects from the medication, and begins tanning under UV light. After dinner, he rides the trolley to a part of the city that is populated mainly by Black people. The area is economically disadvantaged but rich with culture and life. Griffin wonders how exactly he can pass into this world without being noticed.

Griffin spends the next four days either under a UV lamp or visiting his doctor for medication or a blood test. His body seems to handle the procedure well, but his doctor warns Griffin that his project is likely to lead to danger and to arrange a contact in each city he visits. The doctor shares prejudiced viewpoints with Griffin, saying that “the lighter the skin, the more trustworthy the Negro” (14), and Griffin is shocked and disappointed that even a doctor would fall for such a stereotype. He argues that Black people are aware of the violence in their communities and are working to alleviate it, but the doctor seems skeptical. When Griffin meets an elderly Black shoeshiner, Sterling Williams, who seems kind and knowledgeable, Griffin considers asking Sterling to be his safety contact.

Griffin visits his doctor one last time and is warned once more about going out into the world with dark skin and where that might lead. His transformation is complete, and after many layers of stain, he looks at himself in the mirror and doesn’t recognize himself. Griffin feels uncomfortable and disconnected from himself. He knows that he will be treated differently now and wonders what lay ahead.

After being “born old at midnight into a new life” (16), Griffin doesn’t know what to do or where to go but finds the courage to step out into the streets. Griffin begins distinguishing between “white Griffin” and “Negro Griffin” (17) in his descriptions of himself. He is surprised to find that he still sweats the same way as before while he stands and waits for the trolley. When a white man appears, Griffin wonders if something is going to happen, but nothing does, and he gets on the trolley without issue. He lets the white man on first, sits at the back, and asks a Black man for directions to a hotel. Griffin gets to one hotel and meets a man there who compliments his newly shaved head, which makes Griffin feel a bit more relaxed. He takes the man’s recommendation to go to another nearby hotel, where Griffin is charged $2.85 for his room for the night. After settling in, he goes to wash up in the shared bathroom and finds two Black men inside. One is in the shower, and the other casually waits on the floor with no clothes. He starts a conversation with Griffin, and Griffin offers him a cigarette. The man in the shower lets Griffin wash his hands in the shower, and Griffin leaves the bathroom feeling less lonely than before as well as warmed by the kindness and respect that the two men showed him. It occurs to Griffin that perhaps these men are more generous to each other than average because of all of the hatred they have experienced.

Griffin awakes in a dark room, forgetting for a moment that it has no windows and that it could be midday outside. He takes his bags and checks out, realizing he slept until almost noon. Griffin starts walking the streets in search of food and notices dirty sidewalks and a tense atmosphere. The bars are open in the middle of the day, and white salesmen stand in front of their shops, trying to entice Black men into their shops. Griffin stops to check on a young man who just came out of a bar, drunk and vomiting, and then finds a creole restaurant. There, he meets a friendly man who laments the state of the neighborhood and talks about how he sometimes buses into neighborhoods for white people to get a break from it. The man recommends that Griffin try the YMCA for a nicer place to stay, and the two chat for a while. Griffin claims to be a writer looking for work in town, and the man warns him: “If you stick around this town, you’ll find out you’re going to end up doing most of your praying for a place to piss” (24).

On the bus afterward, Griffin sits in the middle, and as it gets more crowded, he notices that no white people will sit beside Black passengers. When he moves to let a white woman have his seat, he can feel other Black passengers staring at him, telling him not to, and instead to let white people find a way to sit together instead. He motions for the woman to sit beside him, and she accuses him of giving her a strange look and begins ranting about Black people and their bravado to another passenger. Griffin notices that whenever she says the n-word, it “leaps out with electric clarity” amongst the rest of the dialogue (25). For the rest of the ride, Griffin feels embarrassed for not knowing how to handle the situation. Later on in a café, Griffin notices a sign that dictates seven behaviors that Black people can use to help desegregate buses, including praying for guidance and being “neat and clean” (25).

Griffin finds Sterling Williams at his shoe shining post again and introduces himself as the same white man that he shined several days before. Sterling reacts with humor and excitement at Griffin’s changed form and immediately starts giving Griffin advice about passing as a Black man. He urges Griffin to shave the light hair off his hands, and the man Sterling works for (Joe) gives Griffin a position as a shoeshiner. Griffin is also approached by a local woman who seems to be attracted to him, which Sterling finds funny. Griffin notices that the more he and Sterling talk, the more Sterling starts to refer to them as a “we,” a group of people fighting for dignity and respect in a white-dominated place. Joe cooks a rough lunch out of a can and hands it to Griffin and Sterling in milk cartons. As they eat, a man across the street stares at them, waiting for a portion of leftovers that Joe eventually gives him.

After lunch, the afternoon drags; there is little business, and Sterling naps. Griffin notices that two types of customers visit the shoeshine stand: people who see Black men as vulgar and lesser, and people who see them as nothing at all. In the evening, Griffin makes his way to the YMCA, asking for directions from white men along the way and finding them helpful. The YMCA is full, but the man working there finds a place nearby for Griffin to stay. After settling in, Griffin heads back to the YMCA to socialize at the café. One man comments that it’s pitiful that Black people seem more preoccupied with achieving the approval of white people than with working to build up the entire race. While out walking later, Griffin is stalked by a teenaged white boy who yells insults and threats at Griffin for what seems like miles. Griffin eventually manages to bluff his way out of the situation by threatening to punch the boy, and the fear and desperation of the moment is all too potent. With every hour, the distance between white and Black people becomes more and more evident to Griffin.

Griffin is moved by the unconditional kindness he experiences from Black people. One university student walks him to a theater for Black people and even offers to pick him up after, refusing to let Griffin pay him. At the café one morning, Griffin talks to the man working there, who argues that Black people refrain from seeking an education because those who do graduate university are rarely able to get a well-paying job afterward. Similarly, many become involved in gangs or other forms of violence because “what have they got to lose” (42). All of this, Griffin adds, leads white people to look down on Black people. He further notes that propaganda in newspapers adds to the problem, and one article he read recently suggested that educating Black people would only prove their inferiority. Many Americans, the man claims, view moves toward rights for Black people as a direct attack on white culture or a push toward communism. What results, reasons Griffin, is a self-contempt for one’s own skin color because of the hardships it creates.

After a long day of unsuccessfully looking for an opening for work, Griffin boards a bus to head back to his lodgings. When he tries to get off, the driver closes the door on him and refuses to let him off for another eight blocks. Griffin recalls this as the only instance of open discrimination by a transit worker that he experienced in New Orleans.