Black Like Me Theme of Contrasting Regions: White South vs. Black South

You know, normally contrasting regions are different places. Well, obviously Griffin doesn't like doing things normally. In Black Like Me, the contrasting regions are all in your mind. They are the exact same place, but they are seen entirely differently by black people and by white people.

Griffin makes sure that we don't forget this, and shows us the contrasts constantly. By juxtaposing the white experience in the black experience, it only highlights how different and how unequal they are. Separate but equal? Yeah right.

1. How do you think the white people in the text would describe their neighborhoods? How would the black people describe their neighborhoods? How do you think they would describe each other's neighborhoods?
2. Griffin tells us that white people and black people live far away from each other. How do you think their relationships would be different if they lived in the same neighborhoods?
3. Look at the scenes in Black Like Me where Griffin contrasts the white view of a place with the black view. What literary techniques does he use to really make us understand the differences between them?
4. When Griffin presents us with the white and black of a place, which one is right? The white one? The black one? Both? Neither?

Black people and white people in Black Like Me see things entirely differently.

It's impossible to bridge the gap of understanding between the races in Black Like Me.