Black Like Me response

Black like Me

When I think about borders and boundaries I am immediately reminded of the things that keep people apart. However, there is a subtle difference in exactly who boundaries and borders separate: to me, a boundary is something that contains a similar group of people and a border separates two diverse groups. In other words, a boundary is some belief or habit that a group has in common that, if it were broken, would result in exclusion from the group, and borders are these same beliefs that groups distinguish themselves by. In Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin explores the racial, cultural, physical, and political differences between the white and black peoples in the United States, and in the process he encounters both types of lines.
Griffin writes about his experiences with what is expected of him from his "fellow race" at any given point in the story, whether at the time he is white or black. As a white man, he pushes the exclusive and supremacist boundary surrounding his own racial group by daring to show his sympathetic perspective for the black community after his experiment becomes public. Even his family is condemned by the public for maintaining a relationship with their son who "turn[ed] against his own race" (Griffin 144). As a black man, Griffin experiences hostility from the other African Americans when he accidentally attracts negative attention on the bus by inviting a white woman to sit in the empty seat next to him: clearly, he overstepped his boundary with them, though the line was unspoken and assumed (Griffin 25).
The borders in the novel are the cultural and racial stigma that separate the two races. Griffin's point is that no border exists that separates him from the black community other than the color of his skin. However, the people that he meets have fabricated all kinds of borders that become legitimate because of the ill-treatment these supposed differences cause. For example, as Griffin hitchhikes across the South, the people who give him rides take advantage of the time they have with him in order to solidify the stereotypes they have about the unbounded sexual immorality of the black community (Griffin 85-92). While these ideas are obviously unfounded, their popularity led to widespread acceptance.
Griffin's point in his experiment was to cross both the borders and boundaries of his culture and to attempt to build a bridge between the two. By dyeing his skin and becoming a part of both communities, Griffin made the point that neither side of the racism issue was completely blameless and that ultimately, there are ways to forge a connection between the two. However, people in both groups felt that Griffin had betrayed them through his affiliation with the other. This act of going public with his story brought the reality of the borders between the racial communities to light. He then broadcast his work nationally and began working on building a bridge to cross the borders between the races.