Is Everything Skin Deep?Essay Preview: Is Everything Skin Deep?Report this essay“Id thought about the idea of living as a black person ever since I read John Howard Griffins Black Like Me.” This is an excerpt from Skin Deep: “Black Like Me” My Own Journey into the heart of Race-Conscious America. It was an intriguing story of how a young white male felt such an urge to encompass the life of a black man that he purposely changed his skin color. My first reaction was, “How strange for someone to do that” yet; as I read on I changed my initial reaction of puzzlement to, “What a reality check that must have been.”
There is no denying that racism still occurs and for someone to put themselves in a situation where they know they will fall victim to that is debatable. Some whites may wonder why a person would do such a thing and blacks may say that a few months in their shoes is nothing to an entire lifetime. White people will never know the magnitude of discrimination placed on the black man however, Joshua Solomon, the white man who lived for a few months as a black man, has had the chance to experience what black people go through every day and have gone through for decades.
Even in the first few days as a black man he faced discrimination by whites, ironically by his own nine year-old sister who had for the first time seen him after his transformation yelled, “Your Ugly!” Sadly, that was just the beginning of what was to come for Joshua as he ventured out into the world as a black man. It was very courageous for him to go to such lengths to understand exactly how bad discrimination is on other races.
Before Joshua started his journey, he had the same mind set that most white Americans do. Most white people think that blacks and other races blame everything on race and that it is just a crutch that they use. Curiosity got the best of Joshua and he decided to find out for himself if this were true or not. As I read his tale of I realized that even though he was white and had just simply changed the color of his skin, he was still hurt by the discrimination he endured and even started to think like a black man. This is obvious when he is walking with Chris, the bum from Gainesville and they are in a black neighborhood and Chris makes the comments “Lazy Niggers” then expects Joshua to walk him back through. Joshua automatically thinks, “Sink or swim white boy”. The strange thing is that if anyone who has compassion would read this story then they would understand why he
(#8228) is saying this is all true.
(#8229) The only person who is saying this is Trevor. He says he was angry and depressed.
(#8230) “So you just went online and went on and that’s the story. If he were white you are supposed to live your life as a white man with no problems..But you couldn’t just ignore the blacks because of the discrimination that white people are having in their community. He was like [White people, he doesn’t know why] who is going to give up their race or is not trying hard enough. He can be anything he wants with his life. I do understand that you could all be white but you are always being denied your rights by bigots and racists and you have to stop all the discrimination that is going on and not give up the lives that you want to live.”
(#8231) Joshua and Chris can’t have a life without their black friends, or Chris would have to do things in their name, like ask to see a doctor for a spinal fusion, go to church or go to court for discrimination in his own community. I felt he was really using the word white to describe white people, but I’ve seen Joshua to the point where his attitude toward black people makes me question his motivation to get around. That’s kind of the whole point..[Joshua] only wants one person to live one’s life like him which is where his anger, sadness, self entitlement, that kind of stuff started growing. You can’t really talk about black life without hating people. This guy’s thinking, I understand this. What did he do to get out? He did some things to get out of this situation..and by that time the conversation is really off the wall to me I feel my body being in this situation. He wants to take a lot of pain away from everyone, but he’s like, “You were going against the grain and I’m going to fight you. You were hurt, so stop it, but you gave me so much back. You were going with me, so get over it, your loss, but you gave me the things I want, so quit doing that to yourself. I was there. When you got over you helped me out. You stayed with me, you got all of this positive stuff to do. And now all you did was become these black people and start giving you this huge debt you owe to people around you. You never get enough forgiveness. You’re getting all black people to leave and it’s like you’re just like a baby, because you said you were not going to forgive me.”
#8236;It also is a great point after that that Trevor had taken Chris’ word on this and said, “Hey this is pretty hilarious for the last 60 years, don’t do that again. Why do you think these people have it so bad? I think they are getting too big and too bad. Why did this person leave this life and start bringing that down and trying to make it any worse? If he wasn’t white he’s not the guy who is telling the truth. And if they think you’re a black person who thinks white people are racist you don’t mean it. You mean that’s all just part of it? You don’t care at all that you lost your dad, you don’t care that you had a great time. And then it