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People are always talking about the changes on Whyville from when our town was
first created... but sometimes I wonder about what changes have been made in real
life.
At school, we've been reading a book called Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
by Mildred D. Taylor. This book is about racism and segregation in 1933.
From the first chapter, where the children of a dark-skinned family are forced
to jump across a creek to avoid being run over by a white-only bus, I became
entranced.
Just yesterday my parents agreed to take me to a Chapters bookstore. After much typing,
searching, requesting and general frustration, I came across the perfect book
for me -- a non-fiction storybook, from the 1950s, called Black Like Me.
Black Like Me, written by John H. Griffin, is an amazing and eye-opening
book. Griffin is a white man -- or rather, he used to be. With help of
medication, he darkened his skin to a deep brown and shaved his head. He became a Negro, and
moved down south to experience life as the minority.
"As I looked in the mirror I expected to see myself, disguised. But a stranger
looked back at me. A Negro, large, bald, and fierce."
His journey is long and hard. His revelations are, as he says, "like the
discoveries of a child." Black Like Me is a journal of the adventure of a
lifetime.
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