I definitely had a lot of feelings while reading this book which was exactly the point. I could not help but cringe at various parts and commiserate with others. And upon finishing, I was struck with the notion that while almost 70 years since the original experiment occurred, things are really not too much different. The problems Griffin highlights are still prevalent today and with the rising popularity of social media and wireless communication, we are able to see these problems instantly and on a global scale. An educated white man goes undercover as a Black man in the Deep South in 1959 to highlight the difference in the Black experience.

This powerful book made me think. A LOT. I wondered what it would be like to repeat the same study a decade later, 2 decades later, or 3 and see how things have changed if at all. What if we did this with a person of Asian decedent in 2020 almost anywhere in the world? Or a person who appeared to be Middle Eastern anytime after 2001? Or a woman of any color? Any person of the LGBT+ community? Would it make people stop and think?

Ok so this is a little bit more of an editorial than my normal book reviews but there’s a good reason for that. This book made me think, made me feel, made me challenge my own biases and perceptions of reality. This is a book that should be required reading so that we are forced to really evaluate ourselves and learn from the mistakes of our collective past.