Реферат: Black Negro Essay Essay Research Paper In

he encounters white men willing to pick him up only because of

their preconceived notions of Negroes.

I must have had a dozen rides that evening. They blear

into

a nightmare, the one scarcely distinguishable from the other. It

quickly became obvious why they picked me up. All but two picked me up

the way they would pick up a pornographic photograph or book-except

that this was verbal pornography. With a Negro, they assumed they need

give no semblance of self respect or respectability. The visual element

entered into it. All of the men showed morbid curiosity about the

sexual life of the Negro, and all had, at base, the same stereotyped

image of the Negro as an inexhaustible sex-machine with over-sized

genitals and vast store of experiences, immensely varied. They appeared

to think that the Negro has done all of those “special” things they

themselves have never dared to do.3(pg.85) Griffin finds that

hitchhiking at night through Mississippi is the best way to experience

the underlying stereotypes found throughout Mississippi. A man will

open up at night because it gives him an illusion of anonymity. Griffin

can’t conceive of how these men can have such distorted concepts of

another human being. It becomes obvious that the reason these men have

such little respect for the Negroes is because they have absolutely no

understanding of them. Griffin realizes that before his travels as a

Negro in Mississippi he too knew very little about them. The Negroes

cope with this hate based upon ignorance by relying on each other.

Griffin is able to conceive the strong bond between many

Negroes, because of experiences that some Negroes share, while

he is in Mississippi. While on the bus heading for Mississippi

he notices how black strangers become instant friends

As we drove more deeply into Mississippi, I noted that