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December 15, 1959
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Black Like Me, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Appearance, Identity, and Bigotry
Unity, Division, and Communication
Implicit Bias and Systemic Racism
Fear and Violence
Summary
Analysis
At an editorial meeting, George Levitan tells Griffin that he’ll only publish his story if he “insist[s].” “It’ll cause trouble. We don’t want to see you killed. What do you think? Hadn’t we better forget the whole thing?” he says, but Griffin refuses to back down now. As such, they agree that the piece will be published in March.
Now that Griffin has experienced life as a dark-skinned man in the South, he knows that he has to publish his findings, since doing so will help white people shift their perspectives and examine their own implicit biases. Although this might put him in danger, he clearly feels that what he’s found is too important to keep hidden, as this would only further enable white society to tell itself the lie that African Americans are happy with the way things are in the South.
Themes
