Black Like Me Characters, Essay Example

The main character in Black Like Me is the author, J.H. Griffin. He is a well-meaning white journalist who decides he cannot understand the experience of Blacks unless he becomes one. His decision to change his skin color is brave since the process can damage his liver and, as a Black man he faces potential violence. When people find out what he did, he faces even more danger. FGriffin is a sensitive and thoughtful narrator, but sometimes seems a little racist himself. For example, when he first sees his Black reflection in the mirror, it “glares” at him (Griffin, p. 10). Before he encounters a single person, he feels alienated just because he is now Black. Also, although his “immersion journalism” had a huge effect on the social awareness of the country, it is also true that he always knew he could go back. Real Black people have a history Griffin lacks and also have no escape from their reality.

The other characters are people Griffin encounters along the way, like the man with whom he shares a cigarette in the bathroom on his first night incognito and the whites who treat him well or badly. Sterling Williams is a very important character because he helps the author survive, but also does not reject him for his ruse the way many white people later do. George Levitan funded the project despite the danger and P.D. East is both a role model for Griffin and a foreshadowing of what will happen to him when he publishes his journal.

References

Griffin, J.H. (1996). Black Like Me. New York: New American Library.