A satirical take on John Howard Griffin’s 1961 book Black Like Me

<small><cite class='h-cite via'>ᔥ <span class='p-author h-card'>Alan Jacobs </span> in Writing a Life | The Hedgehog Review (<time class='dt-published'>07/22/2021 12:15:27</time>)</cite></small>

https://hedgehogreview.com/web-features/thr/posts/writing-a-life

Jacobs suggests taking the idea of "walking a mile in another's shoes" to a higher level. He takes Herman Hesse's idea in The Glass Bead Game of the Castalian community's writing a Life in which people write an autobiography about seeing themselves placed in other times/places in history.

Similar examples he includes:

• Flannery O'Connor's story "Revelation" in which a woman chooses being remade as "white trash" or a Black woman.
• Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin (1961)
• White Like Me, a Saturday Night Live skit featuring Eddie Murphy
• Soul Sister by Grace Halsell
• Rachel Dolezal passing as black because she felt it was her identity
• John Rawls' "veil of ignorance"

Jacob suggests this could be a useful exercise for people to attempt, particularly as a senior exercise for university students.