Forced Bento Box... Smh
These past couple days, I think I developed insomnia.
Like a really bad version.
If you are the empty coffee mug on the corner of my desk, then this is all your fault!
So bad, in fact, that apparently some of my so-called "bedtime" was in class
...and not my actual bed (Sorry Mrs. Knudson).
I could honestly go on and on with more excuses for my sleep deprivation but long story short,
I completely forgot about this memoir assignment until today morning!!!
Yay! Procrastination! (even unintentionally)!!!
Now the million dollar question is...
Bento Box or Playlist?
Well if it isn't clear already, Playlist is obvious the correct answer and any of y'all say otherwise, I've got some news for you....
You're wrong
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Actually wait a minute....
Where'd all the songs go?
I swear on my stash of instant coffee packs. They were just here 2 minutes ago...
You know what, I'm too lazy to find the culprit.
Bento box it is then. *sighs
....
....
....
So the memoir I read these past 2 weeks is Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin.
Anyways, here is the Bento Box I was forced to make (Hmph..still mad btw).
Notebook and Pen: These items represents the fact that John Howard Griffin is a journalist, in which he mainly uses a notebook and a pen to jot down all of his observations to be released publicly in an article or a newspaper. This is the driving motive of why he underwent the experiment of changing his skin color to black so he could shed light on the disparity between races.
Sunscreen: This object represents the risks and possible peril that Griffin puts himself through in order to understand the racial segregation in his society. Griffin must actively apply sunscreen on himself as if he is exposed to the UV rays of the sun, his true identity as white may be compromised and he will receive major backlash, potentially ending his career.
Pile of Coins: These coins represent the loose change that Griffin received when he purchased a train ticket as a "black" man. One of the first incidents of racism that he faced under his masquerade is at the train station where he tried to ask a woman, who sold train fares, to buy a ticket. At first she ignored him completely before grudgingly giving him his ticket and accepting his money after multiple requests. Furthermore when he asked for his change, the woman threw his loose change (coins) at Griffin, which ended up on the floor for him to pick up. This demonstrates the treatment that most white people gave to black people in this time.
Glasses: This represents how Griffin dons a pair of dark glasses in order to further conceal his identity and moreover, his true race, which allows him to definitely pass as a black man. These glasses also allow him to observe more unbiased and authentic societal interactions with other black people and white people as they are not able to assume his race due to shielding his eyes. Glasses also represents the nature of observation, which is directly related to Griffin's job as a journalist.
Newspaper: This represents how Griffin, after the entirety of his experiment, decides to reveal his true identity and publish his observations on newspaper articles in his time. He was featured in many interviews and TV shows. These observations were viewed with mostly negative responses as they viewed Griffin's experiment as a form of racism itself, which led to him receiving death threats, an effigy of his black and white selves (half each) being burnt in a negro schoolyard. These hateful reprisals ended up being so out of hand that he had to move his entire family to Mexico.
Overall, John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me is an interesting memoir, with a reliable journalist as its main focus, who undergoes an audacious experiment that has not been performed before in its time. He does all of this just to expose the different levels of understandings that both black people and white people have for each other, which causes major tensions in their daily interactions. I personally find this a good read as it was paced very suitably to my liking (not too fast nor slow) and explains a rather unique story that Griffin went through while letting me understand racial segregation in the 1950's. It provided a very meaningful experience to me, and it really shows the extent to the mistreatment of black people and their fear toward white people, which is completely understandable by how the memoir portrays the specific incidents of racism through the eyes of Griffin.
Now, time to finally get some sleep....
Hopefully.
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