There’s a long history in America of white people imagining black people’s lives - in novels, in movies, and sometimes in journalism. In 1969, Grace Halsell, a white journalist, published a book called Soul Sister.
It was her account of living as a “black woman” in the United States. Lyndon Johnson provided a blurb for the book, and it sold over a million copies.
Halsell was inspired by John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me, which came out in 1961. That was inspired by an even earlier book in the 1940’s.
It’s hard to imagine any of these projects happening now. It seems like a kind of journalistic blackface. But Halsell’s book raises a lot of questions that are still relevant today - about race, and the limits of empathy.
This episode is a collaboration with NPR’s Code Switch.
Weasel’s Diary, Revisited
The Last Civil War Widows
The Border Wall (Updated)
Strange Fruit (Updated)
Busman’s Holiday
The Working Tapes – Part 4
March of the Bonus Army
The Song that Crossed Party Lines
The Working Tapes – Part 3
The Working Tapes – Part 2
The Working Tapes – Part 1
The Working Tapes – A Preview
From Flint to Rio
Contenders: The Veep
Contenders: Say it Like You Mean it
Contenders: Women Who Fought for the White House
Majd’s Diary: Two Years in the Life of a Saudi Girl
A Mother, Then and Now
Radio Diaries Turns 20!
The Man in the Zoo
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Criminal
Ear Hustle
Song Exploder
The Truth
the memory palace