Black like me
Publisher's description: Studs Terkel tells us in his Foreword to the definitive Griffin Estate Edition of Black Like Me: "This is a contemporary book, you bet." Indeed, Black Like Me remains required reading in thousands of high schools and colleges for this very reason. Regardless of how much progress has been made in eliminating outright racism from American life, Black Like Me endures as a great human and humanitarian document. In our era, when "international" terrorism is most often defined in terms of a single ethnic designation and a single religion, we need to be reminded that America has been blinded by fear and racial intolerance before. As John Lennon wrote, "Living is easy with eyes closed." Black Like Me is the story of a man who opened his eyes, and helped an entire nation to do likewise.
Stats for nerds
11recommend
22mentions
19people
2011–2025years
59% recommend36% neutral5% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- What is objective about a law? It still comes down to judgment calls.
First Amendment aside, I fear that restricting speech would result in a backlash from Neo-Nazi types, or worse, a national situation like The Gulag Archipelago describes.
How about teaching to think and write more accurately instead. "I would not have subjected my child to the humiliation of wearing a slave collar and manacles, and then photographing him, and then publishing the photograph. He is clearly shying away from the camera. He appears to be at a critical age developmentally. He may grow to resent this experience rather than learning anything from it."
Sending them back to high school-level English to read Roots and Black Like Me, and then write a paper might work. Framing it that way as a court-mandated punishment does not sound great on its face.
I suspect that some keyboard nazis just need to be exposed to more moderate discourse. However, that will not happen if they silo their discussions in sites like The Daily Stormer.
- Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
The premise was simple: In 1959 a white reporter used makeup to make himself have black skin. He then traveled around the southern USA. Even as a child it was easy to see how people treated him differently even though he was a white man underneath. The racism was undeniable.
Animal Farm, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 gave me even more reasons to question authority.
- >What white person has achieved this goal?
I know at least one person who has.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/27/black-like-me-...
I know it's not possible for everyone to do what John Howard Griffin did, but reading that book and living that experience vicariously can be a start.
- "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin [1]
- From Wikipedia [2]: "Griffin was a native of Mansfield, Texas, who had his skin temporarily darkened to pass as a black man. He traveled for six weeks throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia to explore life from the other side of the color line."
- Absolutely second this. Also, if race and race issues are important to you, consider Black Like Me[1] by John Howard Griffin. It's a fascinating story of a white man who spent some time roaming around the Deep South, during the Civil Rights Era, masquerading as a black man.
- A few recommedations:
1. Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me
2. More Matrix and Philosophy - William Irwin (ed) - https://www.amazon.com/More-Matrix-Philosophy-Revolutions-Re...
3. Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas Hofstadter - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach
4. The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Jim_Crow
5. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal - Ayn Rand - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0451147952/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?ps...
6. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead
7. The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect - Judea Pearl - https://www.amazon.com/Book-Why-Science-Cause-Effect/dp/0465...
8. The Education of Millionaires - Michael Ellsberg - https://www.amazon.com/Education-Millionaires-Everything-Col...
9. The Silent Corner, The Whispering Room, and The Crooked Staircase - Dean Koontz - http://www.deankoontz.com/book-series/jane-hawk
10. Godel's Proof - Ernest Nagel & James Newman - https://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6dels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/081...
11. After Dark - Haruki Murakami - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17803.After_Dark
