With all of the flak that James Frey is getting about his book, what about writers in the past whose work was, IMO, a total hoax? I recently re read John Griffin’s Black Like Me and even though I had read it back in the 60s and believed every word of it, I cannot think how nobody questioned the veracity of this author’s ridiculous claim that he had actually made himself black somehow, and passed in that role until his kidneys began to squawk from the effects of the ‘mixture that he ingested’ to darken his skin color.
Perhaps more cynical now as an adult reading this book, the whole endeavor sounds so implausible that I wonder how I, and an entire nation, was suckered in by something so unlikely. The subject was so timely back when it was written that the world was ripe for just that kind of a story, but I am surprised that no-one ever thought to come forward and question it. Griffin made a lot of ough on that book, too, and I’m not saying he wasn’t a brilliant guy for thinking the whole thing up, but jeez, it just seems unfair, is all.
Anyone think of any more similar potential hoaxes?
As far as I know, “Black Like Me” was a true story, and Griffin actually did darken his skin and pass as a black man. Do you have an evidence that it wasn’t?
Although a few people continue to question John Griffin’s book, I don’t know of anyone in more than four decades that has ever come up with any real evidence against it.
Snopes has an account of the skin-darkening process. The bit about it causing damage to his kidneys or contributing to his death is wrong in every way.
Of course, nobody can verify that every incident in his book actually happened the way he said it did. This is true for all memoirs and most other nonfiction. Rather than libel the man, however, provide some evidence that he didn’t do what he said he did.
I find your opinion about John Griffin amazing. Here’s a little info from Snopes about him, that includes stuff about the treatment and his doctor. Looks like there’s a book about the book, referenced on Snopes, that may interest you.
I’m not sure if it counts as a hoax, as such, but many organizations were quite happy to, shall we say, under-emphasise, the fictional nature of Go Ask Alice.
I remember photos of him in the book (at least I think it was in the book - it might have been in a Look or Life magazine story of the time) as a black man and he looked believable.
First of all, I didn’t think he passed for black well AT ALL. His features were just so caucasian. Also, I cannot believe that no one at any time ever wanted to repeat the idea decades later, which would have been a very interesting experiment indeed. If someone had been black at a Hendrix concert, for example, he would have been treated much differently from Griffin’s character.
The fellow sounds like a saint according to the Snopes info, but I just don’t know. Greater secrets have been kept.
I hope he DID really do it. It was such a cool idea and a very timely one (another reason for its concept and huge public response).
It has been repeated – you just didn’t hear about it. I recall the case of a female reporter who did much the same thing, passing for black after skin darkening. I’ve seen both her and Griffiths’ before-and-after photos, and they look pretty convincing.
At first I thought that your post was tongue-in-cheek – let’s see what other books we can claim were really faked! But you seem to be taking this seriously.
Skepticism is always a good idea, but some things that might at first seem unlikely did indeed happen. Richard Burtonm passed himself off as a born-in-the-Middle East Muslim, and made the hajj to Mecca and Medina without being detected, after all.
I didn’t know about that woman. Who is she and where did this happen?
How come every tanning salon across the country isn’t cashing in on this innovative tanning method? Even with side effcts. People will go to great lengths and risk to look as though they have a ‘healthy’ tan.
So a professional actor wearing Hollywood inspired makeup passed for something else somewhere? Huge deal.
Why is my asking about similar hoaxes not a legitimate question?
When we read it in my high school in the mid 70s it was taught to us as if it had been fiction, just a good allegory for the times. I find this discussion quite interesting.
I don’t recall the woman’s name, and a quick Search didn’t find it. It was quite a few years ago.
How many requests are there to significantly darken one’s hue? I suspect that the method Griffiths used isn’t entirely without risk, in any case.
I never said it wasn’t. Asserting that something didn’t happen without proof, however, will rightly get you a request to back up your assertion.
Not that Richard Burton, this Richard Burton. Far more fascinating person.
And a much more dangerous impersonation, as he would have been killed instantly had he been found out.
Jeez – i completely missed that she hadn’t pucked up on that – I thought she was referring to some other post.
I also thought you had some evidence that “an entire nation was suckered” by John Griffin. You just asserted that because it sounded implausible? You just asserted that no one investigated his claims in 1961? You can’t just say the author of a memoir is “a brilliant guy for thinking the whole thing up” unless you can find some reason to believe he didn’t tell the truth.
Perhaps you should rephrase your question:
**Are there any other memoirs I don’t believe for no other reason than my own propensity (for whatever reason) to disbelieve them? **
Do you have much firsthand experience with people who identify themselves as black? I do, and many of them have very “caucasian” features and rather light skin. It’s quite common. They probably even have more than 50% “caucasian” blood in them, but culturally, ethnically, and politically for all intents and purposes, they are black.
And back in 1961, if a person with somewhat dark skin said they were black, noone in the white world would have dreamed of arguing with them. At that time and in our culture who on earth would self-identify as negro if it weren’t so?
This is a photo of Griffen in his black persona. In addition to darkening his skin, he also shaved his head to disguise his hair texture. I really doubt that someone who looked like Griffin in this photo would be questioned if they self-identified as black. As Qadgop says, lots of US blacks have “caucasian features.”
Well, I feel like a dummy about the Richard Burton thing, but I am still not sold on the book angle. While it may be true that back then no one would have questioned a man whose skin was black no matter what his features were like, similarly, no one would have questioned the book’s veracity, either. Society was ripe-nay hungry-for juicy antics like Griffin’s, and I still can’t help but think that the whole thing may have been someone’s brillliant scam.
Maybe I am just an old cynic, but the whole thing waxes ridiculous to me now.
When the woman did as Griffin did, what were the results? Were her experiences different from Griffin’s in any way, was she in the deep south as he was, or was she in a different location altogether?
Has anyone read Mutant Message Down Under? It was first published as non-fiction, but when it came out in paperback, the category was fiction. It seems that the author tried to palm it off as a mamoir, traveling around and giving talks etc., but then it was found out that she was full of it and that it was just a fantasy.
I think it’s safe to say that Carlos Castenada was full of it.