A refreshingly clearheaded and taboo-breaking look at race relations reveals that American culture is neither Black nor White nor Other, but a mix-a mongrel. Black Like You is an erudite and entertaining exploration of race relations in American popular culture. Particularly compelling is Strausbaugh's eagerness to tackle blackface-a strange, often scandalous, and now taboo entertainment. Although blackface performance came to be denounced as purely racist mockery, and shamefacedly erased from most modern accounts of American cultural history, Black Like You shows that the impact of blackface on American culture was deep and long-lasting. Its influence can be seen in rock and hiphop; in vaudeville, Broadway, and gay drag performances; in Mark Twain and "gangsta lit"; in the earliest filmstrips and the 2004 movie White Chicks; on radio and television; in advertising and product marketing; and even in the way Americans speak. Strausbaugh enlivens themes that are rarely discussed in public, let alone with such candor and vision: - American culture neither conforms to knee-jerk racism nor to knee-jerk political correctness. It is neither Black nor White nor Other, but a mix-a mongrel. - No history is best forgotten, however uncomfortable it may be to remember. The power of blackface to engender mortification and rage in Americans to this day is reason enough to examine what it tells us about our culture and ourselves. - Blackface is still alive. Its impact and descendants-including Black performers in "whiteface"-can be seen all around us today.

This comprehensive edition explores the life of John Howard Griffin as well as the issue of race as presented in his most famous work, Black Like Me, which details Griffin's experiment darkening his skin to pass as a black man during the Jim Crow era. This volume also presents modern perspectives on race in twenty-first-century America, with commentators asserting that while progress has been made, racism is still a significant issue.

“The baby’s cute . . . why don’t you adopt her?” “If her own mother doesn’t want her, why would I?” This conversation took place between two nurses in the delivery room right aft er I was born to a 16-year old unmarried mother. This was a precursor of the kind of struggle my life would be unti l I stood up and shouted, “I AM SOMEBODY!” Why did it take me so long??? I don’t want you to think I am harping on the bad things that happened in my life. Despite everything, I am an incredibly positi ve person, who has taken a licking and kept right on ti cking! My saving grace is mentoring, and standing up for those who just need someone to stand up for them. Maybe one of these days, I will be more able to stand up for myself. I’m getti ng there. This is just my life, honey, simply the way it is. I am telling you my story. This is a story about success, and giving back to a community that mostly kicked me in the teeth.

Presents the true story of journalist John Howard Griffin who, in the 1950s, had his skin medically darkened and traveled through the Deep South in order to experience firsthand the cruelty and injustice of segregation.