John Griffin Thesis

If you were given the chance to experience the life as a Negro for a limited amount of time, would you? Most individuals wouldn’t want to because they probably have read many stories about how terrible the life of blacks is. However, John Howard Griffin was brave enough to come in contact with the black community. John decided that he was going to live his life as a black. Now, I abundantly disagree with the one critique when they say that Griffin didn’t receive the full reality of life as a Negro. Although Griffin lived as a black for a short period, I still believe that he copiously empathized with the black race due to his countless experiences and the things he encountered. During Griffin’s Journey, he was involved in numerous rude situations. At the launch of his journey, he trekked to New Orleans. “Griffin was at Jackson Square and he was rather exhausted from strolling, so he decided to sit down and rest. A white man saw him and strutted towards him. In a kind tone he said, “You’d better find yourself someplace else to rest” (Griffin 43). Griffin took this man’s information as a courtesy. Afterwards, Griffin decided to leave the park and go to the bus stop. Griffin boarded the bus once it arrived. “After Griffin had rode on the bus for a while, he …show more content…
For instance, “The bus driver requested a Negro man and a Negro woman to sit together so the two-white woman could sit down” (Griffin 131). However, the two-white woman could’ve simply taken a seat by either of the Negros (they just didn’t want to). Also, the driver was relatively impolite to both the Negro man and woman. In fact, he said, “They don’t want to sit with you people, don’t you know that?” (Griffin 131). Every day Negros were acted upon with such repugnance. To sum up, it didn’t matter that Griffin was only a Negro for six weeks because all Negros were accounted the same and Griffin was just another one in the