HIP LIKE ME

John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me (published in 1961) describes how he altered his White appearance in such a way that it allowed him to pass as a Black man. He traveled through the American south chronicling what he experienced through the eyes of a Black man. His intent was to expose the harsh degrees of racism that Blacks encounter. One of the lessons from the book is how relevant image is in relation to our interactions with other people. Jim Schnell encountered a paralleled circumstance during 1978-1982 when he engaged in fieldwork with the hippie counterculture for his Ph.D. dissertation. He altered his appearance via long hair & hippie style clothing etc. with the intention of enhancing his access to social environments he was seeking to study. A side effect of this study was that he learned a lot about how important presentation of self is regarding how others perceive us. His topic is a soft popular culture commentary about the role of image and the presentation of self. Griffin's exposure of bold racism is a far more serious matter that has exceedingly relevant ramifications but Schnell's experience does offer relevant commentary about the role of image.