Black like Me

What is the value of skin color?  In the biological point of view, it is worth nothing.  In the social point of view, it represents community standings, dignity, confidence or something people have never imagined. Skin color is associated with individuals’ preferences as well as their outcomes.  With some exceptions, most people prefer lighter to darker skin aesthetically, normatively, and culturally.  Film-makers, novelists, advertisers, modeling agencies, matchmaking websites – all demonstrate the power of a fair complexion, along with straight hair and Eurocentric facial features, to appeal to everyone. We grow up learning interesting thing about what kind of a person we want to be. Its hard to chose who you want to be as a person. Some people are in an undergraduate degree and are almost ready for the real world and they still don’t know who they are as a person. They also don’t know what they want to do with their life and what life has to hold for them. I personally have spent many days of my life figuring out who I am and what I want to achieve in my life. I have made a decision to pursue law enforcement because I want to represent my community in the best way possible. Growing up I actually did not know who I was. Black like me was and experience into who I am as a person. Not just who I am but who I was as a person. Today the idea of a white man darkening his skin to speak on behalf of black people might appear patronizing, offensive and even a little comical. When I started reading Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin, I had no idea what the book was going to about or what the book’s plot was. I began to read and became amazed by the idea of Griffin to place a white man in a black man’s body and live in the south as an African-American. It’s truly a great story idea. It is a very touching book that opened up my eyes wider than they were already by the significant stereotypes of people and racial slurs about all groups, but more importantly blacks. A major theme in the book that I really came to understand, was that our society doesn’t understand other cultures, races, or religions. People get too caught up only worrying about their own people or groups