Black Like Me: December 1, 1959—August 17, 1960

by John Howard Griffin
In the 1950s, John Howard Griffin underwent a skin-darkening procedure to investigate how he would be treated in the segregated South if people perceived him as African American. Learn these words from Griffin's harrowing investigation of race and racism.

Here are links to our lists for the book: October 28–November 8, 1959, November 10–15, 1959, November 16–29, 1959, December 1, 1959–Aug 17, 1960
40 words 145 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. haughty
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    I carried her bags to the bus and received three haughty dimes.
  2. tranquility
    a state of peace and quiet
    I took the early afternoon bus for Tuskegee, walked through a Southern town of great beauty and tranquility.
  3. commensurate
    corresponding in size or degree or extent
    In interviews here, my previous findings were confirmed: with the exception of those trained in professions where they can set up independent practice, they can find jobs commensurate with their education only outside the South.
  4. morass
    a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
    They see it also as the only possible way out of the morass in which the Negro finds himself.
  5. decry
    express strong disapproval of
    He had become just like the whites he decried.
  6. paternalism
    attitude that people should be controlled in a fatherly way
    Paternalistic—we show our prejudice in our paternalism—we downgrade their dignity.
  7. odious
    extremely repulsive or unpleasant
    Then he crimped his face as though I were odious and snorted, “Phew!”
  8. repugnance
    intense aversion
    His small blue eyes shone with repugnance, a look of such unreasoning contempt for my skin that it filled me with despair.
  9. degrade
    reduce in worth or character, usually verbally
    The driver had mastered one of the techniques of degrading the Negro. Every time a white person got off, the driver said politely: “Watch your step, please.” But whenever a Negro approached the front to get off, the driver’s silence fairly roared.
  10. courteous
    characterized by politeness and gracious good manners
    She proved herself more courteous than his white passengers and more courteous than he; and she did it without the slightest sarcasm.
  11. cliche
    a trite or obvious remark
    I showed the priest the booklet on racial justice, For Men of Good Will, written by a New Orleans priest, Robert Guste, in which most of the questions and clichés about the Negro are discounted, particularly that God made the Negro dark as a curse.
  12. atheism
    the doctrine or belief that there is no God
    He goes on to say that this kind of religion, which declines wisdom, even though it may call itself Christian, is in reality as anti-Christian as is atheism.
  13. unanimity
    everyone being of one mind
    I had arrived in Atlanta feeling that the situation for the Negro in the South was utterly hopeless—due to the racists’ powerful hold on the purse strings of whites and Negroes alike; and due to the lack of unanimity among Negroes.
  14. shirk
    avoid one's assigned duties
    Newspapers shirk notoriously their editorial responsibilities and print what they think their readers want.
  15. fallacy
    a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning
    They lean with the prevailing winds and employ every fallacy of logic in order to editorialize harmoniously with popular prejudices.
  16. reprisal
    a retaliatory action against an enemy
    They also keep a close eye on possible economic reprisals from the Councils and the Klans, plus other superpatriotic groups who bring pressures to bear on the newspapers’ advertisers.
  17. thriving
    very lively and profitable
    They found Atlanta a thriving intellectual center for the Negro.
  18. consolidated
    joined together into a whole
    By uniting the small power of small sums, by skillfully manipulating it, they could achieve a consolidated financial power.
  19. imbue
    fill or soak totally
    The Negro leader, the “successful” man in Atlanta, is deeply imbued with a sense of responsibility toward his community.
  20. taunt
    harass with persistent criticism or carping
    I visited the sociology class of Spelman College where Dr. Moreland (Mrs. Charles Moreland) bullied and taunted and challenged her class to think and talk.
  21. humiliation
    strong feelings of embarrassment
    The look of growing concern and perhaps humiliation on photographer Don Rutledge’s face as we moved from one scene to another—concern and humiliation to realize that these men, these scenes, these ideals were unknown to most Americans and utterly beyond the comprehension of the Southern racist.
  22. nullify
    declare invalid
    They are intent, like the other members of the community, upon doing everything within their power to nullify the picture of the loud, the brassy, the pushy and “successful” Negro
  23. uppity
    arrogant or self-important
    Whites tended to wonder, “What Negro celebrity is he?” and to presume I was uppity.
  24. correlate
    bring into a mutual, complementary, or reciprocal relation
    I had spent weeks at work, studying, correlating statistics, going through reports, none of which actually help to reveal the truth of what it is like to be discriminated against.
  25. surveillance
    close observation of a person or group
    Sickened that they would pick on a man’s mother and strike at him through terrorizing her, I immediately made calls and asked for police surveillance of both my home and my parents’ home.
  26. repercussion
    a remote or indirect consequence of some action
    When we finally met this morning, briefly, before I went on camera, I told him I was afraid that my appearance would bring severe repercussions against him from the South.
  27. resurgence
    bringing again into activity and prominence
    I looked at him with a resurgence of faith in a public figure.
  28. embroil
    force into some kind of situation or course of action
    I particularly feared he would get embroiled in a religious discussion, bring in my Roman Catholicism in a way that could embarrass the Church.
  29. aghast
    struck with fear, dread, or consternation
    From the hints he dropped (“We’ve investigated you pretty thoroughly”), I was aghast—he knew things about the trip, the names of people I had stayed with—many things I had tried to hide in order to protect the people involved.
  30. incessantly
    without interruption
    Wallace smoked incessantly and smiled at me while yelling oaths in answer to yelled instructions.
  31. pessimistic
    expecting the worst possible outcome
    I began to hope that I had been overly pessimistic, that we might be able to live in Mansfield in an atmosphere of peace and understanding after all.
  32. effigy
    a representation of a person
    “You were hanged in effigy from the center red-light wire downtown on Main Street this morning.”
  33. condone
    excuse, overlook, or make allowances for
    Did their silence condone the lynching?
  34. defiantly
    in a rebellious manner
    My dad, who had gone to town, defiantly I imagine, returned almost jubilant.
  35. laudable
    worthy of high praise
    This is laudable and tragic.
  36. desolation
    sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned
    Returning to my office in the evening, the desolation of a little town on a frightfully hot Sunday struck me.
  37. animosity
    a feeling of ill will arousing active hostility
    All of them eyed me with animosity.
  38. vulgarity
    the quality of lacking taste and refinement
    Across the pastures, the incredible vulgarity of highly amplified hillbilly music drifted from the cafe on the highway.
  39. ignorant
    uneducated in general; lacking knowledge or sophistication
    If some spark does set the keg afire, it will be a senseless tragedy of ignorant against ignorant, injustice answering injustice
  40. holocaust
    an act of mass destruction and loss of life
    a holocaust that will drag down the innocent and right-thinking masses of human beings.
Created on Tue Apr 14 20:12:38 EDT 2015 (updated Wed Sep 05 16:37:58 EDT 2018)

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