John Howard Griffin Argumentative Essay

If you were given the chance to experience the life as a Negro for a limited amount of time, would you? Most people probably wouldn’t want to because they have read many stories about how terrible the life of blacks is. However, John Howard Griffin was brave enough to go through this experience. I fully disagree with the critique. Even though Griffin lived as a black for a short period, I still believe that he fully empathized with the black race. During Griffin’s Journey, he experienced many rude situations. In the beginning of his journey, he traveled to New Orleans. “Griffin was at Jackson Square and he was quite tired and he wanted to sit, but a white man came up to him and told him that Negros weren’t allowed there” (Griffin 43). The white man told Griffin this information in a kind tone, so Griffin took it as a courtesy. However, Griffin ended up figuring out that Negros were allowed in that park, the white man just didn’t want him there. Then, Griffin decided to leave the park and go to the bus stop and boarded the bus once it arrived. “Once Griffin got to his destination, he wanted to get off the bus, but the bus driver wouldn’t allow him to do that” (Griffin 44). Little did these men know that Griffin was actually a white man. Thus, these are just a couple of instances when Griffin got treated with …show more content…
For example, “Griffin wasn’t allowed to use the public restroom because blacks and whites had separate faculties” (Griffin 24). Everything was segregated. Anything that a “white” used, a black couldn’t dare use. In fact, Negros couldn’t even use the beaches. “When Griffin was in Biloxi, he found out that Negros weren’t allowed to step foot on the beach even though they paid taxes on it” (Griffin 83). No matter what Negroes did, they were never as equal as whites. Griffin didn’t experience the “law of the beach”, but all of the Negros that lived on the coast