DECEMBER 9

Summary

The author resumes his Negro identity in New Orleans. The white photographer Rutledge goes around photographing Griffin at those places that he used to frequent earlier as a Negro. It is not a very easy task as the blacks do not like the idea of being photographed by a white. The author goes to the shoeshine stand to meet his friend Sterling, who is delighted to see him. This entire process comes as an eye-opener for the white photographer.

Notes

TodayÂ’s entry is about the author vividly describing the actions and reactions to him being photographed as a Negro by a white photographer friend, when they go out together to take out photographs of the authorÂ’s Negro existence. Now a Negro being photographed by a white arouses curiosity, as whites wonder, what Negro celebrity is he? It equally arouses the suspicions of the Negroes who think that every Negro should bury his head in the sand and hide away from public gaze. They distrust any Negro prominent enough to be photographed by a white photographer.

But this whole exercise is an eye-opener for the white photographer, as this takes him deep inside the problem of racism. He realizes how, as a white, he has access to any kind of facilities but Griffin now, as a Negro, does not have a right over any facilities. So he abstains.

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