I cannot pinpoint any particular part of the book that shocked me, saddened me, or made me laugh per se, however, there were many parts that bothered me. In a sense, I can acknowledge the importance of this book for the obvious reason that racist people will likely listen to someone who is white rather than someone who is black. Furthermore, I fully understand its sociological importance in that the ideas of the founding fathers of sociology such as social integration, organic solidarity, anomie, exploitation, verstehen, and many others, are prevalent in the text. Nonetheless, I find many problems with the book. Most of all, the reality (one that still exists in the present day), that a white person’s voice is more important than the collective suffering of the black population is what made this book discomforting to read. …show more content…
Again, while I understand how this might have changed the minds of white people in the past, it is disheartening to see white people (ie. my own classmates and others), hold Griffin to an esteemed level as if he is a “hero”, even though as a white man, his only authority is over his own experiences and while he is not black, he still speaks of the “negro race” by the use of the word “we,” despite the fact that he cannot comment on the “plight of the black man” in any other