It is both a blessing and a curse that people can go their entire lives without personally experiencing discrimination. People tend to take what they have for granted and few often question it. This is partly due to our ignorance, as well as our desire not to think about such problems in our society. Few people get to the point of putting themselves in the shoes of those who suffer discrimination every day, but when they do it can come as a rude awakening. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Black Like Me follows John Howard Griffin, a man who set out to do just that. This autobiography is set in Mansfield, Texas, in 1959, and is heavily focused on the ongoing civil rights debate in the United States. John was as committed to racial justice as any African American at the time, but there was one limiting factor. John himself was white and believed that, as a white man, he was unable to fully understand the black struggle. However, instead of doing what most have done, which is simply researching, interviewing, and questioning those who have experienced discrimination, John decided to take a more extreme approach. John wanted to undergo a temporary change in skin pigmentation to become black. Understanding the risks, social repercussions and potential violence against him and his family, John decided to undergo the procedure. After undergoing the procedure, John traveled to New Orleans to start his new life. He fully expected to experience hardship and oppression, but was shocked by the extent of what happened. Everywhere John went, the term “nigger” followed him. He couldn't find a bathroom he could use, a job, and employees refused to cash his checks. A white man went so far as to try to attack John, but was chased away. John was getting his first taste of racial discrimination. After spending several days in New Orleans, Griffin decided to travel to what is considered the “Deep South.” This area is made up of Mississippi and Alabama. At that time a jury had just refused to indict a lynch mob for the murder of a young, innocent black man before he had even been tried. Throughout the Deep South, John found that conditions for blacks were much worse. Black communities seemed defeated and in ruins. At the time, preacher Martin Luther King Jr. was gaining popularity as a civil rights activist through his use of nonviolent civil disobedience. One day he looked in the mirror only to find a defeated look on his face. It was clear that the experiment was starting to take a toll on John. He even decided to briefly stop taking the drugs. However, John had an idea, for an experiment. He decided to start traveling to places first as a black man and then as a white man, to study race relations. During this experiment John discovered that, as a black man, he experienced the warmth and compassion of other blacks, but the mistrust and hostility of whites. Being a white man, blacks seemed to fear him and treated John with suspicion, but whites treated him with respect and dignity. After the conclusion of this experiment, John came to the conclusion that the races did not understand each other and that there must be a way to bridge the social gap between the two races. Today this gap is still prevalent, but has narrowed in the decades since the Civil Rights Movement. While in Atlanta, John interviewed.