Black Like Me

I think the main point of this autobiographical memoir is the issue of Identity and how it applied to race. John wanted to experience firsthand what black people went through everyday, but in the process of doing so he learned things about himself that he didn't know before. In this book he was identified as a black man and a white man.
When he was going back and forth between races at one point, when he was black, white people were very rude to him, but the black community was very welcome. When he was white, the black community was fearful and sceptical and the white community was friendly and kind.
There is a very important element in this that is, how the importance of race as an identity in a racist society. Someones position in the world is largely predetermined by the color of their skin.
In 2009 we are getting a lot better. We just elected a black president, but this predetermined future by the color of your skin hasn't completely gone away.
Racism is something we are born with, it is something we learn, and until that stops, we will still have some prejudices and some racism.

Black Like Me

John Howard Griffin wrote Black like back in 1959 when racism was a huge problem. The story starts out in Mansfield, Texas when John (who was already very comitted to racial justice) decides to undergo a medical treatment and become a black man. Of course his wife was supportive and he made the transformation. This book is about his journey around the USA and how much he learned about the black communities and what really goes on.
When he first starts out in New Orleans he expects to find predjuide and oppression, and what he find actually shockes him more. He couldnt get a job, he was called "Nigger", clerks refused to cash his checks and there were many mean bullys. After spending several horrible days in New Orleans he decides to go to Mississippi and Alabama where apparently things are even worse for black people.
In Mississippi a grand jury refused to indict a lynch mob that murdered a black man before he could stand trial. John felt so exsausted and sad at this point. So he calls a newspaper man he knows and spends a day with him, and they discuss the way racial prejudice has been incorporated into the South's legal code by "bigoted writers and politicians."
At this point he's appalled, and notices black communities seem run-down and defeated. He even notices a look of defeat and hopelessness in himself, and this is only after only a few weeks as a black man. Imagine if you were one all your life.
In Montgomery, however, the black community is determinat and has more energy than most. This is because of one of its leaders, a preacher named Marin Luther King, Jr. Blacks in nonviolent form of refusing to comply with racist laws and rules. After he sees this John decides to alternate races. He attends somewhere as a black man and then as a white man.
Finally in Atlanta, John conducts a long series of interviews with black leaders before returning to New Orleans to make a photographic record of his time spent.
He then goes off his medication and retuns back to totally white. He writes his article and it is published in March of 1960. The rest of the world quickly attaches to his story and he does many interviews but in Texas other citizens are very hateful towards him for telling that story. The treats get so bad that eventually he moves his family to Mexico.
Before he goes he tells a little black boy that racism is "social conditioning, not any inherent quality within blacks or whites."
And I think that sums up the problem very well.

Thankful

Just a quick thought:
I just got my latest issue of Seventeen magazine and in it was an article about a small school down in Georgia that has a black prom and a white prom. They literally have two different proms depending on your race. *Side note, what if your not black or white? Which prom do you go to? They didn't address that issue but I am curious to know. I think this is absurd! I can't believe we still have segregation like this today. For goodness sakes we just elected an African American president but 60 seniors can't have a prom together. In the article, a lot of students are against it, but the school and parents make it very hard to change the tradition.
When I was done reading the article it just made me so grateful that I go to a school where we don't think twice about something like that. That people don't judge you on your race, its the way you act that counts at our school, and that is totally your choice while what race you are is not.
I love South!

There were a few polls done at the end of the article:
74% of us (teens I believe) have friends who make raciest jokes and comments

More than 1/4 of us have parents who wouldn't approve of us dating someone of another race
(thank goodness mine don't care as long as I'm happy. That's the way it should be!)

Almost 3 out of 5 of us have witnessed some kind of racism firsthand.

1 in 10 of us wouldn't take someone of another race as a date to prom (that wont be happening at south)

32% of us say having an African American becoming president has made us rethink out opinions of people of other races.

It didn't say out of how many people surveyed.

Culture and Race

In my sociology class right now we are on the chapter of culture. At the moment we are talking about the big bad issue of race. One comment that really stuck out to me in the chapter was that the number one place a child is influenced is their home. How does this relate to race, well it has everything to do with it. I should re-speak, racism is to me a very horrible, prejudice and outdated thing. Saying that I think racism will exist forever, or at least as long as I'm alive. Over the years its gotten better then it was but it's still not gone. It can sneak in little places, like work, walking outside or even the things people joke about. The reason I think it will last for a long time is because of the point that children are influenced most in the home aka family. It's not the media or school peers that influences the child the most. What values you learn at home are the values you tend to see as fit. And although many people say nobodys racist anymore, I still think their are a lot of closeted people who feel a certain way that may be negative towards certain races. I'm not just talking about black and white people either. Of course racism is towards any race (but our minds usually jump to black and white). I believe many children are learning from their homes that some races may be more superior to others. It could be as simple as a mom saying to her daughter that she wants her to date a white man instead of a black man. That alone is in a way saying that white men are better then black men. Although many people may not be so to speak "hard core" racist, there are still small things that are learned at home towards certain races of people and the affects children. They can bring that to school, thats also where stereotypes come in. Especially in answering the question of why are they still around. Stereotypes can be substle, or maybe not, the point is someone is believing in them and telling someone else who may believe that it's a just conclusion. I know things can be expressed and learned as an adult, but I really think that children have the most effect on this issue with race. I'm not saying it's their faults. And when I say children I'm also talking about the adults that were once children and so on. You learn and take in so much when you are young and what you are told to believe in your family has a huge impact on your outlook on life. I know that some people are the complete opposite, but in many cases, weither you want to believe it or not, the moral traits your family passes down to you tend to stay in your mind. Now weither you act on them or not is a different story.
So my conclusion is we get these notions and sometimes stereotypes from, first and formost the home (family). Of course we are also influenced by media and peers but the majority of us started out with just a family and no media or other peers and thats the time when values and beliefs are set apon any child, and they carry those beliefs (not all the time) into the world, and unfortunatly some of them we could definatly do without.

Stereotypes

Here are just a few stereotypes I can think of that have to do with race (some are positive and some are negative stereotypes).

1. Asian people have high IQs, are smart in math and very good at puzzles and technology.
2. Indians work at a deli. or own a convenient store.
3. Immigrants have poor English.
4. Jewish people are cheap.
5. Black people are in gangs and are violent
6. White people think their better than everyone else
7. Irish people are alcoholics
8. Mexican people steal
9. Italian people are in the mafia
10. People from the middle east are terrorist
11. Colombian people are drug dealers
12. Black people love kool-aid and fried chicken
13. All Mexican people are illegally here
14. Native American people live in tee pees, smoke pipes and beat drums all day
15. German people are Nazis
16. Black people don't know how to speak proper English
17. White people from the south are racist
18. All Asian people are small
19. South American people all smoke weed
20. I think all of these are ridiculous and I personally don't use these to generalize about anyone. Just because one person may be like this, doesn't mean everyone is.

Over time racism has become less of an issue, between black and white people that is. At the moment there is a bigger race barrier between Muslims and whites but also the rest of us it seems. Ever since 9/11, suspicion with Muslims (or people who resmble them) have been the target for sterio-stypes and hatered. Especially at airports there have been so many incidents where any muslim would be stopped for questioning becuase they looked suspicious. This was an outrage to the muslim community and I would be mad too. I can't imagine how it would feel to be stopped or glared at just because I looked a certain way. This point gets into sterio-types. Because these muslims looked similar to Osama Bin Laden, they must be terrorist and are carrying weapons of mass distruction. This accusation is absurd, but especially at the time following 9/11, Americans were so willing and eagar to believe these people were out there and that we should take everyone in, so they wouldn't be a threat to our country.
That's the thing with sterio-types, it only takes a few people, sometimes only one to start something that then "defines" everyone else that may share similar attributes to that person.
Many Muslim people live here in the United States, and it's a shame they have to live under the horrible accusation from 9/11. Although much time has passed since 2001, the unfriendlness between America and Muslim people still hasnt totally dissapeared. If you think about it, we could really be more welcoming to them and their culture. Hopefully we will get there one day.

(p.s the spell check wasnt working..)
:)

What about mixed people?

I am mixed with white and black. Halle Berry is mixed and so is Barack Obama. Yet all of us are considered black. It is true that are skin is darker, but that's what happens when you mix a light and a dark color together. I've never really stressed to much about the fact that I'm put in the "black" category automatically. But at this rate I think we should have our own category because mixed people (black and white) are everywhere these days! I bring up Halle Berry because back in 2001 she was the first "black woman" to win an Oscar, yet her white mother was sitting right in the audience. Barack Obama is actually mixed two, but of course he's called the first black president. Again, this doesn't bug me, it's just interesting how we label people.
Whenever I have to fill out forms for tests and jobs I never put just one race. I either put "other," or I fill in white and black. Sometimes I know your only suppose to fill out one but I don't consider myself just black. Just recently I had to fill out a scholarship and they said you had to pick out just one race to identify with. This actually made me very upset, because I can't just identify with one race. I was raised by white people and I think that really shows in the way I act. So for this question I thought well I identify more with "Caucasian" then I do "African American." But then the other thing is, if I put white and then they saw me they would probably be confused or ask why I didn't identify myself as black because of my appearance. I don't actually remember anymore which one I identified with, but it was just a bit disappointing, and my parents agreed. Fortunately the world isn't doing that as much anymore. Saying your mixed isn't a surprise, its quite normal. Mixed people of all races seems to be overpopulating the world as we speak. So hopefully some day those mixed options will pop up, so only identifying with one race will be silly.