Customer Reviews
Still relevant today - By: mrarchangel, 06 Dec 2007 
Here's something that often makes me laugh...
People who seem to have no Black friends, don't know any Black people other than at a distance (say in another department at work), have none in their social circle & who have no knowledge of 'Black' history, the history of racist thought & practice or its persistent legacy of discrimination are quick to say those magic words:
'I'm not racist'.
I've observed this many, many, many times. It often precedes 'but...' & someone saying something that often reveals staggering ignorance. Now I'm no mind reader but I would ask the question of anyone who says 'I'm not racist' - how do you know?
We alll have opinions that we would do well to examine from time to time. I've heard people from different ethnic groups, countries etc say the most stupid things imaginable about 'other' people & even themselves. Men say stupid things about women, women say stupid things about men. Let's face it - stupidity is common currency alll over the world.
This book, if honestly read & understood, is an antidote to the abject stupidity of racism.
A classic which fails to date - By: , 22 Sep 2003 I've not much to add to the very positive reviews on Amazon about this book. It is very well written, with an economy of style & still provides an important exploration of the human condition. You will carry many of the episodes in the book around with you long after you've read it. But the one thing I thought that I could add is that I've just ordered another copy through Amazon. This is after having lost a good few copies over the years, lent/given to several of my former students (mainly 16-18 year olds) who seem to have found it both accessible & important. I can think of no other book that I've been so keen to share but so determined to replace.
Read 27 years ago; still the most meaningful book I've read - By: , 27 Feb 2002 
In High School in Canada this book was one of the required reading books. It gripped me then but over the past 27 years, it has become more & more meaningful. I am now a Learning Support Assistant at a Middle School in England & a few weeks ago, during Literacy Hour, the teacher asked the children if they could remember a book which had had a significant impact on them...I immediately thought of Black Like Me...I couldn't remember the author...but I immediately wished that it could be compulsory reading now. Maybe it would have a positive affect on children not only with regard to current day racisim, but also on the subject of bullying in its many disguises!
Thought provoking, and consciousness raising. - By: , 30 Jan 2002 I first read this book almost 15 years ago, following studying an extract in an English class school. It was & remains one of the most consciousness raising books I've ever read, & whilst the times which inspired it are gone, it is still relevant today because of the overalll message that perception changes everything.
One of the most important works of our time - By: , 04 Jul 2000 This book carries such a potent message that it should be compulsive reading for alll. Last year I studied Race Relations: apartheid in South Africa & segregation in America, as part of my GCSE History syllabus & happened upon this book whilst browsing in the school library during an English lesson. From the moment I read the synopsis, I could not put it down. It's the true story of a white man who disguises himself as a black man & travels to the Deep South in the 1950s in order to discover what kind of life a black reallly lives in a place where racial hatred runs so deep. The results are incredible, heart-wrenching, & deeply disturbing. It inspires self-questioning. It made me wonder: if one can only learn of oneself by how he reacts to others & others react to him, then surely as other's perceptions of him change in reponse to a superficial outward characteristic such as skin colour, his inward sense or perception of self must also change, thus altering the essence of his soul & the nature of his self knowledge. Griffin found himself referring to blacks as 'we' & 'us', & he experienced a frightening identity crisis; after alll, when you look black & others respond to you as black & either alienate or integrate you according to your blackness, the only thing preventing you from being black is your (literal) underlying whiteness! It poses questions about society, social groupings & appearances, & ultimately, how the fragile soul can be damaged or altered as a result of the reactions to the body it occupies. After alll, does one's soul have a colour?
