When completing open-ended responses, remember to use
RATE.
Prompt:
Going from her “all-white” world into the world with the
Boatwrights presented many revelations for Lily. Read this short bit about John
Griffin’s experience as a white man AND as an African American man.
Lee Harper wrote the famous line, “You never really
understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until
you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it” in the hugely famous To
Kill A Mockingbird in 1960.
Less than a year earlier, John Howard Griffin, a white
journalist, literally walked around in the skin of a Southern African American.
For a year, Griffin experienced the South’s African American and white
reactions to his skin color, mannerisms, and stereotypes.
At the age of 39, Griffin had already undertaken similar
experiments. Once, he became temporarily blind and lived in New Orleans. When
offered this new skin pigmentation experiment as a reaction to the alarmingly
high suicidal tendencies among the Southern African American population,
Griffin jumped on the unique opportunity.
After five days of skin pigmentation and exposure to sun
lamps, Griffin was shocked at the results. After looking in the mirror for the
first time he wrote, “The completeness of this transformation appalled me. It
was unlike anything I had imagined. I became two men, the observing one and the
one who panicked, who felt Negroid even into the depths of his entrails. I felt
the beginnings of great loneliness, not because I was a Negro, but because the
man I had been, the self I knew, was hidden in the flesh of another.”
Having walked through the New Orleans streets and ridden
the bus as a white man and an African American man, Griffin experienced a
variety of emotions. From the shoe shiner to the very same man who served him
coffee, Griffin realized “the real story is the universal story of men who
destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really
understands.”
Thanks to his column and his book, Black Like Me, John
Howard Griffin opened the world’s eyes to the racism that surrounds us all.
Response
Requirement:
• How did
this article about John Griffin open your eyes to the experience of racism?
• Consider
this unit title “Cultural Chasms to Cross”—what “chasms” has Lily crossed in
her life?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of anyone doing what John Griffin did. It astounds me that anyone would go to that level of extreme to experience another one’s pain. I've always thought that white people who lay out in the sun to change their skin pigment to the darkest color possible are hypocrites if they happen to be racist too. John Griffin’s experiment is different than tanning. He wanted to see what it was like to be hated every day. In the article, it says, ““The completeness of this transformation appalled me. It was unlike anything I had imagined. I became two men, the observing one and the one who panicked, who felt Negroid even into the depths of his entrails.” He goes on to explain how everyone from his shoe shiner to the man who served him coffee treated him differently. Griffin wonders “why?” The article ends with him realizing, “the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.” This article opened my eyes to the experience of racism because it is one thing to ask African Americans what it feels like to be them in a racist world. It is another to step into their shoes as an experiment and really feel what it’s like. This is experience. John Griffin crossed many cultural chasms.
ReplyDeleteLily has also crossed many cultural chasms in her life. The only white person in Lily’s life that supported her was her teacher, Mrs. Henry. Mrs. Henry told Lily, “Do you have any idea how smart you are? You could be a professor or a writer with actual books to your credit.” (Page 16) Lily’s love for writing is encouraged by Mrs. Henry, but other than Mrs. Henry, the other white people in Lily’s life make her life awful. From the beginning of the book, Lily is different from most people in the south. She judges people by how they act, not by how they look. She even wants Rosaleen to be her mother. She dreams about living somewhere where it would be more acceptable. On page 12, Lily thinks, “Once in a while I had us living in a foreign country like New York, where she could adopt me and we could both stay out natural color.” This is one of the cultural chasms that Lily has crossed. It is supported again with Lily’s interactions with June. June pretends at first that she doesn’t want Lily to stay because she is a runaway. She says as much on page 86. “We can’t keep a runaway girl here without letting somebody know.” Later, June admits on page 87, “But she’s white, August.” Lily seems to both literally and figuratively be crossing chasms. She has left her old life and has begun a new one, like John Griffin. She feels as if she is part of the black family that she is living with. Lily desires a new identity and finds it with the Boatwrights.
If a black man walks onto an elevator, someone might flinch. They might clutch their belongings closer to them as if they expect that the man might hurt or rob them, simply because of skin color. If a white man walks onto an elevator, nobody bats an eye. Nobody will become uncomfortable. This is what racism is. I was already aware of everything mentioned in this article, but it taught me even more. The experience of John Griffin, one man who only changed his outwards appearance, is astounding. He was the same person; same personality, same morals, same on the inside… Yet, he was treated as less just because his skin became darker. It’s disgusting, and it’s ridiculous to even think that it happens.
ReplyDelete“I’ve just never imagined a negro lawyer,” Lily had said that one day while sitting under the tree with Zach. A lot has changed since then for her. She thinks and sees people differently. She even felt racism first hand when she overheard June saying why she didn’t want her here. “But she’s white, August.” June had argued. That may have been a breakthrough for Lily. She realized just how ridiculous it was to dislike someone just because of the color of their skin. Lily is closing the gaps being races, and instead of looking at them as someone lower, she’s embracing them.
John Griffin, such a sad story. To understand the immense racism back then is crazy. To think of all the people who knew the writer, then turned their back on him is more than infuriating. From the article it even says no one knows why, but racism is there, “the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.” It says it no one understands. Even the African Americans had disliked John. They saw him for who he was, not who he is or, had become. It’s amazing, rather both sides seem to dislike John, on group hates him for his color, and the other for his actions.
ReplyDeleteLily, has a crossed a cultural chasm. Lily is not a racist in the same way that the group of men that harass Rosaleen are racist, but she is racist with the naïve assumption of some prejudice and stereotypes in the beginning of the book. She assumes that all African Americans are like Rosaleen, an uneducated laborer-turned-housekeeper. Then she meets August, someone she aspirers. Also there is Zach, someone she has begun to fall in love with. It can be debated, but on page 116 “I was shocked over him being so handsome.” Also on page 120, it shows what stereotype Lily has come accustomed to “Well, you could play football for a college team and then be a professional player.” It is clear that lily only knows of athletic, African Americans.
This article about John Griffin made me realize that you never really understand someone, until you become someone. You can try to understand their pain, but you'll never truly understand it unless you experience it like John Griffin did. He experienced both sides of racism. He saw the world in a whole new light. He had felt how an colored people felt, and how they were treated. People who are being made fun of because of their race are really no different then any other person and people should understand that.
ReplyDeleteLily has crossed many chasms in her life. She has been living with no mother for years now, but in a way, she's gained four. May, June, August and Rosaleen are all her mothers in their own ways. She lived with her mean father T-ray who could care less about her. Once she ran away, she didn't need to worry about his punishments or him being mad at her. Also, her relationship with Zach, the African American boy she likes, was inappropriate.
The sun shown down on the streets of New Orleans, painting the streets and walls in subtle golden hue, like the lost city of Atlantis. John Griffin walked out of his house with dark skin for the first time. At his regular coffee shop, the normally enthusiastic vender gave him hardly a smile, while the next customer, a white man, was greeted with compliments and conversation. John Griffins story is a revelation to us all on the magnitude of racism. The article quotes to kill a mockingbird, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” John Griffin was a white man who changed his skin color to feel the effects of racism. What caught my attention the most is the little things that changed. For example, the shoe shiner wasn’t as nice, and the coffee vender was not as nice either. The accumulation of all these little things is the most disturbing. I can’t imagine a world where all the people I used to know wouldn’t even give me a smile.
ReplyDeleteLily is like the rigatoni pasta in the bowl of penny. She is not necessarily unwanted, just a surprise. For the Boatwright sisters, she is a pleasant surprise. Lily has no problem with crossing the racial chasms of the 60’s. Even though T.Ray had never supported it, and pesky reminders from people such as officer Hazelwurst. He tells lily, “I’m just saying it’s not natural, that you shouldn’t be… well lowering yourself.” This chasm was crossed by Lily, and she did so and found happiness. While Lily does not seem to be too concerned about crossing these chasms, other people will be. I predict this will be a problem later in the book.
Journal Entries: Option F
ReplyDeleteThe article about John Griffin opened my eyes to the experience of racism by informing me of how surreal and unique it was. In the article, John Griffin underwent skin pigmentation and walked around in an African American’s shoes. He experienced a variety of emotions and endured the treatment of a Negro. By living as both white, and African American, he was able to compare the different treatments and find the main cause and ignorance of racism. “From the shoe shiner to the very same man who served him coffee, Griffin realized “the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.”” When John Griffin was going into New Orleans and taking the busses there, he realized how different people treated him. This opened my eyes and showed me how different people can be just based off of their skin color. He was still the same person, but was treated differently. In the movie, Places, the main character was awfully rude to an elderly man. So the man put a curse on the main character, causing him to become older and live his life the way the old man lived. The character then, soon realized how hard it was to be an elder and learned his lesson. He broke the curse and realized how different life is once you’re in the other’s position. Like the main character in the movie, and John Griffin, both endured and realized how hard it is to live a different life.
Lily has crossed many cultural chasms throughout her life. One being how she realizes that everyone being colorless is better. And, how African Americans are like hidden royalty, denounced by society. She also crosses a cultural chasm when she sees how cultured the Boatwrights are. “… but after that I decided everybody being colorless together was a better plan.” This excerpt on page 209 shows how Lily has had a revelation on cultural boundaries and tension. The chasms she has crossed are like the bridges into understanding and acceptance. Lily has now had her eyes opened to the world and can see very clearly on how skin color means almost nothing compared to what’s really inside of someone. Like Lily, many people during the Holocaust realized how faith didn’t label somebody as being bad or good, and how high or low they were on the totem pole of life. Attributes like skin color or religion become mere factors when it comes to life. Stereotypes are meant to be broken, and chasms, and meant to be crossed.
#7eleven3
4musketeers18
ReplyDeleteBoth the excerpt from The Secret Life of Bees, and the reading “My Lost Father” depict themes about the remnants of death. The excerpt emphasizes the shock that stems from the unanticipated forthcoming of death using syntax that features sentence fractures. For example, Sue Monk Kidd writes phrases such as, “I looked away. I knew then. May was dead.” Sue Monk Kidd pairs the excerpt’s disheartening tone with imagery of the scene to make the heartache in the scene tangible. Kidd also tries to convey that no matter the magnitude of one’s grief that comes from the death of another, the world does not stop in its motion. Kidd articulates this by writing, “…while mosquitoes sang in our ears and the river went on about its business, coiling off into the darkness.” The author also relates May’s death to the lives of others by writing,” This had been the thing they’d been waiting for half their lives without even realizing it.” The word ‘it’ is incorporated to be applicable to other scenarios, to show how unexpected many events in life can be. The reading, “My Lost Father”, uses figurative language such as metaphors to compare how evident regret is in those who perish. The reading then transitions from this morbid aspect of death in order to emphasize that life gives way to death. Lucille Clifton writes,” see him rise see him enter the company of husbands fathers sons.” Although both of these pieces of literature regard death, they differ because different themes of death are emphasized in both pieces.
4musketeers18
John Griffin experienced the life of an African American man and a White man. Griffin stated, “The completeness of this transformation appalled me. It was unlike anything I had imagined.” The human race has formed the idea of African Americans being of lesser value then White people. We say that we are our own worst critics. If that is so then why do we feel the need to judge others... Simply because of the pigment of their skin? Mankind is the reason for segregation and racism. We seemed to have started all of these unnecessary ideas, but we should be able to put an end to them just as fast.
ReplyDeleteLily has struggled through many things in her lifetime. You would think that being an all White American wouldn’t give you any cultural chasms. Yet Lily has experienced many diverse chasms. She has been looked at as if she is out of her mind for being with Black People by choice. On page 199 in the Secret Life Of Bees the police officer said to Lily “ Take my advice and call your aunt to come on and get you… These are colored people here.” She is seen as the black sheep of the crowd. No matter what at this point in time there was some hostility coming from the African Americans towards the Whites. This is understandable considering the horrible past the different races have had. Yet as mankind we should work together to over come the differences and accept one another.
People always say that you should look at the inside of a person, not the outside appearance. This should be told to all the racists in the world because they just look at skin color, but not the heart. This article about John Griffin opened my eyes to the experience of racism because it shows how people care about appearance over the heart. When most people saw that he was black, a switch went off in their brain to automatically treat him differently. They didn’t even give him a chance to gain their respect. It also opens my eyes because if he could turn back to white skin color in front of the people who humiliated them, they would be embarrassed and would have nothing to say, just guilt. “From the shoe shiner to the very same man who served him coffee, Griffin realized “the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.” This quote is from the article about John Griffin and it shows that people who he goes o on a daily basis treated him differently just because of his skin. It also contains a quote that is saying men destroy other men because of unreasonable reasons. There was a video that I watched of a college track meet. There was a heavy kid up next, and you could hear people laughing. They assumed that he was slow and not athletic. He turned out to win the race, disproving everyone. Racism and this runner are similar because they both were underestimated because of their appearance.
ReplyDeleteChasm can be defined as; a deep hole or opening in the surface of the Earth. If someone were to try to cross these chasms, it would be daunting and scary. For Lily, it was. A cultural chasm that Lily crossed was when she and Zach liked each other. This is a chasm because black and white people weren’t supposed to interact with each other. On page 135 Zach says, “There are people who would kill boys like me for even looking at girls like you.” This is showing how big the chasm is at this time. It is like a person trying to jump over a hole the length of a school bus. Blacks and whites were so separated, and this is why it was daunting for Lily to cross this chasm. Lily is like Rosa Parks because they both crossed cultural chasms. Rosa sat in the white section of the bus when she was black. This was scary for her because she had a chance of getting hurt. Lily liked a black boy when she wasn’t even supposed to talk to them. This was scary for her because she would have been beaten up by her father.
SK8-9
This article about John Griffin opened my eyes to racism in several ways. With Griffin’s experiment of changing his skin color from Caucasian to African-American, came many surprising results. People who Griffin interacted with every day as a white man treated him differently with his skin color change. The text states,” ‘the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.’ ” Griffin shows one that racism doesn’t really have any meaning, and it only exists because it is passed down through generations. But, as always in history, there are people who fight back against inequality, just as Griffin did. Griffin reminds me of the groups of Jews who fought back against Nazis in the Holocaust. Both Griffin and the groups were severely outnumbered, they both fought for what they believed, and even went to extreme measures to achieve their beliefs. People like this make the world the better place that it is today.
ReplyDeleteLily has crossed many culture chasms in her life. She has crossed her home boundaries by standing up for herself against T-Ray, and has more importantly crossed the racial chasms that were obviously apparent in the time period. Lily lives in a house with African-American women, and has pursued a love interest in an African American boy, Zach. These actions were unheard of at the time, yet Lily broke the boundaries. Zach states in the novel, “…I’m gonna find you, and we’ll be together again.” This shows that Zach is crossing the cultural chasms by trying to develop a romantic relationship with Lily. When I think of boundary breakers like Zach and Lily, I think of Rosa Parks. She helped to break the cultural walls down by refusing to give up her seat on the bus. She was a trend-setter, just as Zach and Lily are.
How foolish humans are, to judge others when they haven’t even put themselves in their shoes. Isn’t it funny how we can judge people like the cover of a book when we haven’t even tried being like them? John Griffin’s however, recognized the cruelty African-Americans were going under because of racism. So, John decided to be like them, to truly understand the racism they have to push past every day. After undergoing a process, John went from a white man to an African-American. With that, he experiences exactly what all African-Americans went through. How funny it was though, he was the same person he was a week ago, but now he just had a different skin color. Same person, but because of the skin color, he was mistreated. As it states in the reading, “I felt the beginnings of great loneliness, not because I was a Negro, but because the man I had been, the self I knew, was hidden in the flesh of another.” This quote shows us although he was the same man, he was now hidden under a new skin color and began to feel the loneliness other African-Americans had to suffer through each day.
ReplyDeleteBack in 1964, Lily realized the harsh ways of racism and crossed through the cultural gaps that separated her from other African-Americans. She’s ignored the crevice that separated her from African-Americans and jumped right over it. On page 133 it states, “Zach, who was an impossibility. That’s what I told myself five hundred times: impossibility. I can tell you this much: the word is a great big log thrown on the fires of love.” This shows how Lily is ignored the crevice between her and Zach and focusing on her love for him, rather than the separation. Lily also crossed the chasm that separated her from African-Americans by staying with the Boatwrights.
The article about John Griffin opens my eyes to the experiences of racism. In the piece, it says that he experienced what it was like to be both African American and white. The civil rights in that time era change how it would be like to be African now. Griffin says “the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands”. What Griffin is trying to explain is: skin color mattered at that time period, it was almost considered wrong to have a skin color that isn’t white and nobody can say why. His shoe shiner, the man who served him coffee, judged him because he wasn’t the same as the others.
ReplyDeleteLily, from the book “The Secret Life Of Bees”, crosses cultural chasms. A cultural chasm is like a gap in between two races. Ever since Lily had Rosaleen, she understands that there is nothing different (mentally and physically other than color) about each other. Lily says that Rosaleen is like a mom, and later in the book, August says Deborah though of her as a mom. On page 209 Lily narrates, “I thought of that police man, Eddie Hazelwurst, saying I’d lowered myself to be in this house of colored women”. This quote shows that Lily didn’t care about the Boatwrights in a negative way, she accepted them for who they really are.
The article about John Griffin opens my eyes to the experiences of racism. In the piece, it says that he experienced what it was like to be both African American and white. The civil rights in that time era change how it would be like to be African now. Griffin says “the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands”. What Griffin is trying to explain is: skin color mattered at that time period, it was almost considered wrong to have a skin color that isn’t white and nobody can say why. His shoe shiner, the man who served him coffee, judged him because he wasn’t the same as the others.
ReplyDeleteLily, from the book “The Secret Life Of Bees”, crosses cultural chasms. A cultural chasm is like a gap in between two races. Ever since Lily had Rosaleen, she understands that there is nothing different (mentally and physically other than color) about each other. Lily says that Rosaleen is like a mom, and later in the book, August says Deborah though of her as a mom. On page 209 Lily narrates, “I thought of that police man, Eddie Hazelwurst, saying I’d lowered myself to be in this house of colored women”. This quote shows that Lily didn’t care about the Boatwrights in a negative way, she accepted them for who they really are.
The article John Griffin wrote were meant to show the differences between this "racial gap" in the time line back then. He was very curious about the skin pigmentation project and to feel the results first hand. This made me realize how harsh it was in 1960. People showing disrespect and Zero Tolerance to the African Americans. The whites thinking they were "God Almighty" compared to the other races. Whether it was on the bus, in public, in work, or in school, African Americans were being treated unfairly, not free in the land of the free.
ReplyDeleteThis article can relate to Lily Owens. She had to cross some chasms herself in the story. After escaping Sylvan she had Rosaleen as her partner throughout the journey. It was Lily's job to protect those who wanted to discriminate Rosaleen because of the color of her skin. She also lived with the Boatwright sisters, based on cop it is "... its not right for you to be living in a house filled with Negros." Her final chasm, was a man named Zach. After working with Zach, Lily has began to feel romantic feelings for Zach and vice versa. Lily and Zach were unsure about the relationship at the time because Zach thought "A man like me would get killed just for staring at a girl like you."
John Griffin showed the world the painful truths about experiencing racism and being on the receiving end of it. He opened people's eyes by sharing his experiences with racism. John Griffin literally climbed into a black man's skin when he changed the pigmentation of his skin from white to black. His experiences confirmed what I already knew, racism exists and it is painful and hurtful. It also showed me that people don't really know how someone feels until they walk in his shoes. Racism affects people because the scars it leaves run deeper than the discriminated skin it sears. It leaves them feeling isolated and lonely. John Griffin said, "I felt the beginnings of great loneliness." John Griffin shows that he was treated differently by the shoe shiner and the coffee server when Griffin became a black man, as opposed to when he was a white man. John Griffin realized, "the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands." Both the giver and receiver of racism are negatively affected by this, destroying their inner beings and changing their personalities forever. This can be seen in the picture of Hazel yelling at Elizabeth in Little Rock, Arkansas. The picture depicts Hazel (giver) morphing into an evil person while she is screaming racist remarks at Elizabeth (receiver)who looks isolated and forlorn. The differences in color between two human being's skin creates an irrational chasm that leaves a profound mark on the two opposing ends of this senseless rift.
ReplyDeleteWhen Lily goes to live with the Boatwrights, she crosses her first cultural chasm. It is unnatural for a white girl to stay with people of color. A police officer questions, "'... what are you doing here?' Here is the translation: I am completely confused what a white girl like you is doing staying at a colored house" (197). The police officer believes, "Anything would be better than you staying in a colored house" (197), but Lily knows he is wrong. Lily has never fit in better anywhere in her life than she does with the calendar sisters. Lily learns that color is only skin deep because the feeling of family comes from the inside. Lily also learns that romantic love is blind to skin color. "If he was shocked over me being white, I was shocked over him being handsome" (116).
Week 4: Option F Black Like Me
ReplyDeleteRacism was a very serious and terrible thing that has been going on for a numerous years. Many Native American people have experienced racism everywhere. It was a really big thing that went on more than sixty years ago, and is still occurring now. An article written by John Griffen stresses the idea of racism. The article surprised me greatly when he quotes, “the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.” It surprised me that just because of changing ones skin color, can automatically change people’s reaction towards you. It’s amazing how John Jay didn’t change anything about himself but the tone of his skin and people have already been making comments and changing their opinion on him. I don’t think that someone should judge you on your skin color but what’s inside. I don’t think the skin color has anything to do with someone other than the fact that they might not be the same “shade” but that doesn’t identify them as rude, polite, kind, helpful, or funny. I now realize how cruel some people can be towards someone just because of something that doesn’t even matter. It surprises me that they stress about skin color, but when someone owns an animal and one is a white cat and one is a spotted black cat it doesn’t seem to matter anyone, when it only applies to people. Griffen writes, “Having walked through the New Orleans streets and ridden the bus as a white man and an African American man, Griffin experienced a variety of emotions. From the shoe shiner to the very same man who served him coffee.” The same men that knew him treated him differently because he added a different pigment to himself. I think it is absurd that people even stress the fact to treat someone differently because they don’t have an equal skin color.
If the article title was supposed to be “Cultural Chasms to Cross” this could relate to Lily’s life because of how she stepped into the new life of spending time with Rosaleen, June and August. They are all three black women who have a conversation of how Lily is white and kind of bring racism to the table. But this time it’s not against black people but whites. Lily overhears them talking about how she’s white and then Lily is surprised that she is the one being excluded when she was so used to having black people being excluded. Besides the cultural chasms, Lily has also experienced the unknown gap between her and her mother’s relationship. The gap that she has between discovering the secrets about her mother and also the gap of not having a mother. When Lily was very young, her mother died and from then and on she has had a gap of not having a mother. This can relate to anyone who is facing difficult problems, and feel like something is missing. Chasm is another word for gap. I personally have had encountered chasms by having my parents divorce or my brother and sister move away to a different state to go to college. Sometimes we all encounter gaps in our life, but we need to learn how to either accept it or move on.
#4musketeers13
4muskteers15
ReplyDeleteF
I always knew racism was very wicked, but never as bad as Lee Harper put it. In his book Black Like Me, they said, “The alarmingly high suicidal tendencies among the Southern African American.” In this, this shows me that most of them were killing themselves due to racism, which I was shocked when I heard that. I never would of thought they were being treated this bad as to start committing suicide. Another quote from Black Like Me, that supports me, “The real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.” This was not only shocking, but it opened my eyes to as why African Americans couldn’t stand up for themselves, and how long it took for them to do so. This explains why in The Secret Life of Bees they get beaten up, and nobody stands up to them, as stated on page 32, it states, “Did you ever see one that black?” This shows that back in the 60’s, which White people could do whatever they want, and no African Americans could stand up. This reminds me of The Little Rock 9 because in both Little Rock 9 and Black Like Me, they show how no matter what, White people will treaty you awful just because your skin color.
Lily has crossed cultural chasms in her life in the book so far. She has gone from living with White people, to living with African Americans, from thinking African Americans were not as smart as White people, to everyone being equal. One quote that supports me is found on page 72, it states, “They’ll stay here.” This shows that from living at T-Rays’ house with only White people, to living with only African Americans, Lily has crossed a cultural chasm. Another quote that supports me is found on page 142, it states, “I never thought Black people were, stupid… but I didn’t think they were as smart as us.” This shows that Lily has also been with them long enough to realize that there should not be cultural chasms, because they are all the same on the inside. This reminds me of how in the book we read in fifth grade, there was literally a line in between the town between Blacks and Whites because in both books, they learn that there is no difference, and there should be no cultural chasms.
Black, white, yellow, brown, and red are all different skin colors. It shouldn't make any difference what color you are in how you are treated in life. But is that true? Is everyone treated equally? This article, Black Like Me, opened up my eyes to the experience of racism. John Griffin was a white journalist who wanted to understand how blacks lived and were treated by whites in 1959. He knew that blacks were discriminated against and didn't have equal rights. But, did he truly understand the black world until he was submerged into it? In the article it states,"Griffin was shocked at the results. The completeness of this transformation appalled me. It was unlike anything I had imagined. I became two men, the observing one and the one who panicked, who felt Negroid even into the depths of his entrails. I felt the beginnings of great loneliness, not because I was a Negro, but because the man I had been, the self I knew, was hidden in the flesh of another.” He assumes the identity of a black man on the outside but is still a white man on the inside. He could never have imagined the horrors that he experiences just because he skin color changed. He says, "the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.” He is saying that people destroy each other for reasons that no one understands like the color of their skin. People need to treat others as they would want to be treated. This reminds me of the movie, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. In this movie, a Christian boy puts on a Jewish boy's prisoner outfit in Nazi Germany while sneaking into a concentration camp to help his friend who is Jewish. The Christian boy, Bruno, has been told stories about how great the concentration camps are by his father, a Nazi Commander. It is only until he sneaks in, that he finds out the truth. If he hadn't assumed the identity of being Jewish he never would have known the horrors of the concentration camp. This parallels, Griffin, who realizes, the horrors and the atrocities of living as a black man only after truly experiencing life as one.
ReplyDeleteJust like Griffin crossed cultural chasms in Black Like Me, so did Lily in The Secret Life of Bees. Lily is living in 1960 in South Carolina during the Civil Rights Movement. In the beginning of the book we learn that Rosaleen, her black maid, wants to register to vote. Lily can't understand the significance of this. She has not yet been able to cross this cultural chasm and understand that blacks being able to vote will give them equality. As the book progresses, Lily breaks Rosaleen out of the hospital and they flee to Virginia where she ends up living with the Boatwright sisters who are black. This is one cultural chasm she has to cross. She is a white girl who knows whites are not supposed to live with blacks. From then on, she becomes entrenched in their way of life and crosses many cultural chasms. She helps with the bees, she participates in the Lady of Chain Ceremonies, eventually touches the Black Mary's heart, and understands the importance of it to the Boatwright sisters, "I live in a hive of darkness, and you are my mother, I told her. You are the mother of thousands." She also has to cross the cultural chasm of blacks and whites being together as boyfriend and girlfriend. Zach says, "We can't be together now, Lily. Lily says, "You promise?" "I promise", says Zach. I crossed a cultural chasm when I went to Mexico. I thought all Mexican were poor until I went to Mexico City and saw all of the beautiful houses enclosed by gates. This led me to realize that I was wrong and needed be more open minded.
Did you know that America in the south during the 1960s was not the true America that it is today? When John Griffin decided to change skin colors, his story opened my eyes to how the experience of racism was in the south. The reason his story opened my eyes is because when he was a Caucasian, he was perfectly fine and in his words he was an “observer.” When he changed skin over to the skin of an African American, things changed for him. He began to feel discrimination and the racism, he couldn’t understand how people could live like this and this made me feel terrible because no one should be treated with disrespect only equal respect. This article says “Having walked through New Orleans streets and ridden the bus as a white man and an African American man, Griffin experienced a variety of emotions.” When the article says this, it makes me realize that some people can walk on to the bus with no pain at all but others walk on to a bus to only feel excruciating pain. Griffin’s story can be compared to Lily’s story in The Secret Life of Bees because Lily is a Caucasian girl but just like Griffin, she lives a life like an African American because she lives with them and cops during her story are even telling her she better watch out because living in an African American household may make her get discriminated against and feel unbearable pain as well.
ReplyDeleteLily is a girl like no other in the south while racism is still active. Lily has experienced many “chasms” during her life about racism and family. A major problem or difficulty in her life is the racism because she is currently living with an African American family and this racism haunts her because if anything bad happens to a member of the house, they will most likely be jailed. Lily can try to do something but it would most likely fail and it may even get her in trouble. It’s hard for Lily to live with these people but in the end she knows these people are polite and caring that she doesn’t care about the “chasm”: she has to go through. On page 180, Lily says “I watched the policeman put Zach and the other three boys in his car.” Off of this quote, you can infer that Lily knew Zach was going to jail even though he did nothing wrong. The policeman in this scene didn’t even let the boys state what happen which breaks amendment one of the Bill Of Rights which allows all American citizens the freedom of speech. But of course in this time period they didn’t let people like Zach speak. Lily knew it was going to be sad without him and she didn’t even know how long it was going to be for. Lily now notices there is going to be a huge “chasm” in her way which resembles racism and she knows she can’t do anything to help her fellow friends or her “new family.” Lily’s “chasm” can be related to Nicole’s “chasm” in Heroes because when their two problems occurred they were completely powerless and couldn’t do anything to stop it.
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it” This quote, by Lee Harper, has quite a lot of meaning to it. It means that in order to truly understand how someone feels, you have to take their skin and use it. In the case of John Howard Griffin, this quote applied literally. A year before this quote was written, Griffin, a white man, took on the skin of a black man. This article discusses how he felt about it. As I was reading, a few thoughts came to my mind. First of all, I realized how different it must seem, looking out of the eyes of almost a completely different person. The most important thing that came to mind, though, was about racism. Since this experiment was done around 1960, racism was still present. One can only imagine how Griffin must have felt, being a white man but being treated like he was a black man. Today, of course, that wouldn’t be a problem since everyone is treated equally, but back then, blacks were still look down upon by most. I also realized that Griffin must have also had some spectacular revelations about racism. Since he is now literally walking around in the skin of a black man, he must’ve become aware of the social differences and how hard it was being a black man back then. When Lee Harper wrote this quote, she couldn’t have nailed it any more on the head. You can’t cross the cultural chasm without living in the opposite culture.
ReplyDeleteCrossing cultural chasms is one of the main themes of The Secret Life of Bees. Lily has had to cross many of these chasms, not only cultural, but in general too. Firstly, she’s overcome the cultural barrier that almost no whites have in this time period. Not only has she befriended African Americans, but she lives with them. They have become a part of her everyday life, and she thinks nothing of it besides how kind and accepting they are of her. Further proof of how uncommon this is when on page 197 of the book, Mr. Hazelwrust is practically dumbfounded by Lily’s presence in the Boatwrights house, because of their racial differences. Another chasm that she has crossed is the psychological one inside of her. She was able to muster up the courage and strength to tell August about her past and who she really was. These chasms were huge, and Lily ran at them full speed and jumped across to the other side.
Being treated in very different ways, based on skin color is a part of John Griffin's story. He told about the effect it had on him to be a different skin color than he normally was. “The real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.” Everybody is still the same on the inside, no matter what you look like. People were just taught to treat each other unfairly based on appearance. It happens a lot, some of that time is because of different skin colors. He was treated with respect and kindness as a white man, but as soon as he was African American, the respect was gone. Its not right to treat someone differently based on what they look like. His story of how his life was for the days when he was African American was an eye opener, that it happens, people are judged because of their physical appearance.
ReplyDeleteLily crossed chasms in her life. One of the major ones, was living in the Boatwright sisters house. This is because they are African American and she is not. When the police officer is talking to Lily after May's death, he says, "I'm just saying it's not natural, that you shouldn't be... well, lowering yourself." This shows that many people were against white people and African Americans being treated the same, and being around each other. Lily doesn't care what the Boatwright sisters or Rosaleen look like, she is just happy to have found people who actually care about her. She saw herself as being one of them, not caring that she was different. So, Lily crossed over this chasm, of different races not mixing.
The topic of John Griffin’s article was a very good idea and I wonder if anybody had ever thought of it before him. A white person changing his skin color in order to see what life is like for a southern African American. It was amazing how much a simple skin color change can make people act so differently towards you. I doubt john Griffin was a racist, as a racist probably would not do this as that experiment would be “lowering themselves” (*cough* Eddie Hazelwurst). “The real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.” Nobody really understood or had a legitimate reason why white people were racist towards black people.
ReplyDeleteLily has crossed many Chasms in her life. She has had to overcome T-Ray. She has had to overcome the sadness of losing her mother. But perhaps most prominently is the cultural chasm that she had to cross. She had to bust through the “social norm” and live in a house with occupants who are all black. This isn’t anything today, but this was back when white people and black people were not even allowed to use the same water fountains. For her to be able to accept this even after Eddie Hazelwurst told her that she is “lowering herself” by living with black people is fantastic. The world needed more Lily Owens back in the civil rights era. It’s too bad the stories of racism always made the top stories while stories of compassion were pushed to the side. I’m glad this book talks about this topic instead of a really harsh racism story.
Skin color is a big part in racism, and judgments toward people. This article about John Griffin opened my eyes to the experience of racism because it shows that no matter whom you are or what you do it doesn't matter to anyone, unless you have the right look. As you can see in the article, everything that John ever was was gone. Racism is everything to some people. All the people that John knew, and even the ones he loved, will never look at him the same way. This article shows how racism takes over a person’s life, and puts them in a whole different position. “I am completely confused what a white girl like you is doing staying in a colored house.” I think that Johns experiment was genius and really shows how bad racism is, and how people are treated compared to the color of their skin. It’s the thing that people see immediately when they look at your face, and its something you should be proud of. You should be able to be proud of your face and the way you look. But to other people its all about the color a face appears, before the person even gets to know the other.
ReplyDeleteChasm means a major division, difference, or separation, and Lily faced it all, but keeps moving along. Lily has crossed a lot of chasm throughout her whole life. There was a chasm between her mother and T. Ray. Deborah was separating herself from her life, was in T. Ray and Lily. This was a big chasm for Lily to deal with because she needed her mother, and with her about to leave her with T. Ray was a bad plan. “The truth is, your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she’d come back to get her things, that’s all. You can hate me all you want, but she’s the one who left you.” Also, the chasm between Rosaleen and the Boatwright’s and Lily. Rosaleen and the Boatwright sisters are all black, and Lily is white. This is a very big deal in the time period of this novel. Segregation between blacks, and whites were a constant problem. Although Lily and the Boatwright sisters were comfortable with it, other people weren't. “I love you, I love you, I said in my head I LOVE YOU.” Lily loved being with them and it seemed like Lily didn't care about the chasm between them, and neither did the Boatwright sisters. I think that it’s great that they all get along, and not letting the color of their skin judge what kind of person they are. The relationship between them, Lily and the Boatwright sisters (mainly August) are unlike another. Lily feels comfortable enough to open up to August, almost like a mother and daughter relationship.
John Griffins. One year, two men. His unnatural, midnight skin tells a story much different from the truth. He is like two different people, his outside taking pain, his inside taking notes. This article about John Griffin and his studies really opened my eyes to the experience of racism. It shows the extent of how bad racism was and still can be. More specifically, Griffin’s experiment shows that racism is not only extremely hateful but also mindless. A man, who walked the streets with pale skin was treated with respect. A simple change of pigment made people deny this man basic human rights. In the article, it says, “From the shoe shiner to the very same man who served him coffee, Griffin realized ‘the real story is the universal story of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men for reasons neither really understands.’” This shows that racism is reasonless and stupid. This article made me realize that there really is no reason for it, except for someone’s rudeness and inability to be open to different people and things.
ReplyDeleteThere can be, has been, and are cultural chasms between different people and groups. These are caused by differences in people, whether it be looks, ideas, customs, or something else. These chasms can be found around racism. Lily crossed a cultural chasm in “Secret Life of Bees”. She crosses it when she goes to live with the Boatwright sisters. Lily is white, while the Boatwright’s are African American. Throughout the book, many people find it surprising that she is staying with a family of a different skin color, especially since their skin color made them “below” her (which is ridiculous). In the book, page 197, it says, “I am completely confused what a white girl like you is doing staying in a colored house.” This shows that when Lily stays with the calendar sisters, she is crossing the cultural chasm between white and black people. Lily is like a bridge between two jagged cliffs.
#oneinamillion6
This article about John Griffin was very shocking because, like most people, I have never imagined myself in another's place, someone who had different troubles then I did. Now, I can see a more clear image in my head of what it was to go through things, just because of your skin. Today, differences are celebrated, happy, and very desired, the desire to be different, to leave a mark on the world. It also made me think of how brave anyone to have stood up against this, to actually go so far as to experience it, must be. People with different skin must have had enormous amounts of courage to stand up and change the world for the better.
ReplyDeleteLily must have been either truly desperate or very brave to stay with the Boatwrights, and coming from a abusive household like she did made it much worse. She endured many hardships and many life changing moments, but in the end, she overcame them and knew how to love someone, despite their differences.