The Essay: Thinking Black

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The Essay: Thinking Black: John Howard Griffin

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John Howard Griffin

Thinking Black

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Thinking Black, John Howard Griffin

Colin Grant examines how black people often experience invisibility in wider society.

Exploring the story of an American journalist who disguised himself as a black man, Colin Grant examines how black people often experience invisibility in society.

What does it mean to be black? 

'Thinking Black' is a series of personal essays in which writer Colin Grant explores the fascinating stories of five individuals who have each attempted, in one way or another, to transcend or challenge the boundary of race. 

In this essay, Colin explores black invisibility, interweaving his own experience with the work of John Howard Griffin and his book 'Black Like Me'. A pioneering white journalist in 1950s America with a strong sense of racial injustice, Griffin conceived of a project in which he would disguise himself as an African American in order to be able to write about black experience. Griffin wished to open the eyes of his fellow white Americans in the hope of kindling kinship between the two groups. The experience shocked him, particularly the invisibility he experienced when appearing in front of many white Americans as a newly incarnated black man.

Colin asks how successful this experiential writing can be and explores how virtual reality software has attempted to tackle the same issue today. Are either forms likely to be successful in combating the racist thinking that invisibility often evokes?

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The stories of five individuals who have each attempted to challenge the boundary of race.

Writer Colin Grant explores the fascinating stories of five individuals who have each attempted, in one way or another, to transcend or challenge the boundary of race.

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