Black Like Me

After a week of no luck in finding work, as well as growing tired of having to search for places to eat or use the washroom, Griffin realizes that his experiment isn’t getting easier. The pain of rejection is always as harsh as the time before. He believes that Black people can take comfort in the fact that these societal attacks are not against them as individuals, but as a race, and as such, they can still hold onto their own personhood. As a result of this constant tension and othering, Griffin concludes, many Black people resort to drinking or overeating as a form of distraction.

When Griffin goes out on this day, he notices an atmosphere of anger and frustration in the air. He hears from Sterling that those responsible for kidnapping and killing a Black man, Mack Charles Parker, before his trial in Mississippi were not investigated for their crimes. The lynchers were instead found to have taken the law into their own hands, and the entire event was seen by Black people as an assault upon their community and a stain on the South’s reputation. Sterling expresses his lack of faith in the justice system, and Griffin has no words to console him.