Joshua Solomon (c. 1974- ) was a White American university student who made himself look Black in 1994 to see what it would be like. He was going to do it for about four months and visit different parts of the country. He only lasted a week.

We know of at least three other “Black like me” cases:

1947: Ray Sprigle

Ray Sprigle 1959: John Howard Griffin

John Howard Griffin 1969: Grace Halsell

Griffin is the famous one: he wrote “Black Like Me” (1960). When Solomon read his book in high school he knew right then that he wanted to try it himself.

Solomon grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and had plenty of Black friends:

Whenever something went down, they always said it was racism. Education, jobs, crime, poverty, social misunderstandings – they blamed everything on color. “It’s a white man’s world,” they would say.

But he did not believe his black friends:

… secretly, inside, I’d always felt that many black people used racism as a crutch, an excuse. Couldn’t they just shrug off the rankings of ignorant people?

He did not believe Langston Hughes or Cornel West either.

So he went to a doctor who gave him pills to turn his white skin brown. The doctor warned him that it could lead to liver damage.

Solomon shaved the hair off his head but dressed the same, acted the same, talked the same. He had the same money and education. It was just his brown skin and bald head that were different (pictured above).

After about a month of taking pills his skin was dark enough for the doorman at his brother’s place in Baltimore to be rude and suspicious.

He travelled to Washington, DC, Atlanta and, like Griffin, Gainesville, Georgia.

As a White man he looks and smiles at White people and they smile back. But as a Black man whites look away, lock their doors, assume he is dangerous or up to no good.

Shopping while Black: One time a white person did not look away:

I went to a nearby drugstore, a white employee followed me around the store. At the drink refrigerator, I turned suddenly and stared right at her, letting her know that I knew what she was doing – shadowing me as if I were a potential thief. I’d hoped to embarrass her, but she didn’t flinch. She stared right back, hands on her hips.

The police would stop him even though he was just walking down the street minding his own business.

Restaurants would tell him they were full, even when they were not, restaurants where nearly everyone sitting down was – White.

White respect and friendliness that he took for granted was gone. Instead Whites regarded him with disdain, even fear. He met a homeless White man, blond hair, blue eyes, who had almost nothing in this world: even he looked down on Blacks!

By his second day in Gainesville he was in tears. It was just too much! He went back home to let the pills wear off and turn white again. *Clicks heels three times.*

Thanks to Matari for suggesting this post.

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