It’s ridiculous to cast John Howard Griffin as some kind of hero because he was “brave enough” to “endure” the “black experience” for less than 8 weeks. I was ready to give this book a somewhat generous review for what may be obvious reasons, but then I read some other reviews and now I’m annoyed. Others use the code word 'arrogant' and more than once, 'socialist' hasĪs long as we tolerate this quality of public discourse, we will give this Yet we have a nationally popular pundit who uses the word 'uppity'

Who challenge racism are somehow doing it for cynical political gain. ONe of the most insidious claims is that racism is not part of our world or that those Part of the reason our public discussion is such a miserable intellectual failure. We have a ridiculous excuse for public and political discussion today. Racism is amazingly strong, persistent, insidious, and all too easily accepted.Īnd if you think it magically died in the 60's you're not paying attention. and more than once was beaten by groups of my When i became a mouthy teen ager i would try to take this on myself.

since i was a very small boy, my safety became a concern Since my family was mentioned inthe book, we were threatened as well. (castration,tarring and feathering, outright murder to name a few) Lived with us for many weeks until the threats died down.

when the book came out, the Griffin family My father took Griffin to the bus station in Dallas when he started h is journey.

Jh griffin black like me