Extraordinarily enough, the book reads exactly as though the initial impetus was neither more nor less than claimed (and surrounding materials corroborate): an intelligent, thoughtful man’s concern that scholarly studies of African-American sociology were not providing the full story, given that black people’s answers to white researchers were so obviously - understandably - not to be trusted, and his desire to see how best he could rectify that situation.

Regardless of your stance on his conclusions, viewing his experiment 50+ years later, there’s seemingly no way to dismiss the man either as hopelessly naïve or a cynical publicity-seeker. Griffin takes his cues from the simplest of basic human compassion and curiosity. Not that this is why this review takes place so late into its 51st year, but the recent Trayvon Martin debacle did not exactly boost my confidence in my ability to pontificate on John Howard Griffin’s iconic take on racism in America, circa 1959. Like, for instance, if you’re a WASP-y middle-class Canadian woman and you find yourself staring at a review copy of Black Like Me, in the 50th anniversary edition, no less. One of the several perils of being a critic is that, with the best intentions in the world, you occasionally find yourself in over your head. John Howard Griffin, a white Texan, thought the unthinkable and did the undoable: he became a black man.”

It was one man who actually followed through. “What is it like to be the Other? A few, very few, thoughtful heroic whites… have at one time or another considered the idea.

John griffin black like me