Black Like Me By: John Howard Griffin PowerPoint by Regan Smith, Sheila Garay, Keeley Flynn, Brianna Crump, and Farah Islam! Virtual Essay for…

Being white in the south offered more advantages in every aspect of living, including transportation, education, public seating, cashing checks, and even basic human rights like a fair trial.

White people had more advantages for everything, even transportation. An example of this is when the bus driver of the greyhound bus lets the white people off for the rest stop and not the blacks. “The whites rose and ambled off. Bill and I led the Negroes to the door. As soon as he saw us, the driver blocked our way. Bill slipped under his arm and walked toward the dim-lit shed building.” pg. 60 In retaliation to the bus drivers actions, one of the Negro passengers…relieves himself on the bus floor. This is an example of how unfair it was for the black people, and how cruel people will be just because they can.

One of the ways that it was an advantage to be white in 1959 was the job opportunities. No matter how much education someone of the black race had or how well they did in school, a white person would always get the job, whether they were as qualified as the black man or not. “ ‘You take a young white boy. He can go through school and college with a real incentive. He knows he can make good money in any profession when he gets out. But can a negro-in the South? No, I’ve seen many make brilliant grades in college. And yet when they come home in the summers to earn a little money, they have to do the most menial work. And even when they graduate it’s a long hard pull. Most take postal jobs, or preaching or teaching. This is the cream.’ ” pg. 39 The elderly gentleman that ran the café told Griffin this when he complained about his unsuccessful job-hunting.

Another way you can tell white people had more of an advantage than blacks occurs on page 47. Sterling hands Griffin a copy of the Louisiana Weekly that has an article about a black man not getting his rights. “Mississippi has long had a reputation of failing to punish white men accused of criminal acts against Negroes.” pg. 47 That goes to show that white men could even go so far as to kidnap and murder a negro man and they wouldn’t be punished. The article tells it’s readers that the lynching in Mississippi was overlooked. This caused quite a stir because it was unheard of for men to get no punishment for killing a man. But apparently it was perfectly fine if the man that was lynched just so happened to be black.

Another example is the fact that black people have to walk a far ways to find a place to sit and rest, because they either aren't allowed to sit in a certain place, or because the animosity towards them is so great that they don’t WANT to sit. “With perfect courtesy he said, ‘You’d better find yourself someplace else to rest.’ I took it as a favor. He was warning me so I could get out before someone insulted me. ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know we weren't allowed in here.’ Later, I told the story at the Y, and discovered that Negroes have the right to sit in Jackson Square. This individual simply did not want me there.” pg. 43 In this situation, Griffin is asked to leave the park just because a white person doesn’t want him there. This is an unfair benefit that white people have…they can sit wherever they want without having to worry about getting asked to leave.

Being able to be trusted was one advantage that whites have and blacks do not. For example, when Griffin wanted to cash a traveler’s check, he went to several stores he had went to as a white man. When he asked to cash his checks, they refused him, implying that he had stolen the checks from a white man. “I went into one store after the other along Dryads and Rampart Street. In every store their smiles turned into grimaces when they saw I meant not to buy but to cash a check. It was not their refusal-I could understand that; It was the bad manners they displayed….They would have cashed a traveler’s check without hesitation for a white man.” pg During this time, Griffin is shocked at the impoliteness that the white storekeepers show him as soon as they discover that he doesn’t want to buy anything. As soon as they realized this, they refused to cash his checks. Griffin is convinced that if he were white, they would have traded the checks without a second thought.

Basically, whites had more freedom. Black people were extremely discriminated against back then, and because of that, black people didn’t get a lot of things in life. They had poor jobs, no matter how smart they were, they couldn’t sit where they wanted to in public, people refused to cash their traveler’s checks, and bus drivers were especially spiteful.

Griffin, John Howard. Black like Me. New York: Signet, Print. Works Cited