In 1959 writer John Howard Griffin darkened his face, not to perform in a minstrel show or to imitate the dance moves of Michael Jackson, but to "cross the line into a country of hate, fear, and hopelessness" and gain some insight into the world of African Americans in the South.
Conversation
The result was the journey recorded in "Black Like Me." The biggest revelation was to view white people from the outside and to experience the hateful gaze that confronted him when he changed nothing but the color of his skin. And to realize what racism did to the soul of America
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"Future historians will be mystified that generations of us could stand in the midst of this sickness and never see it, never really feel how our System distorted and dwarfed human lives because they happened to inhabit bodies encased in a darker skin."
Rev. Louis Twomey, S.J., a courageous and often lonely advocate for the poor, for racial justice, for the rights of workers as early as the 1940s became friends with him and brought him to New Orleans and Loyola University for speaking engagements.
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Mr. Griffin gave a talk in Toronto sponsored by the CYO in the seventies. It was fascinating as he gave witness to the ugliness of racism. Most of the young Canadians kids, mostly white, had no idea about the depth of racism in the US. He was a great teacher that night & always.
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