It’s been interesting for me to look at this book again. From Griffin’s experiences with a stained face, I do think he learned the most about whiteness rather than Blackness. From his book, he saw a different side of whiteness that white people didn’t usually show to each other. This came out in his interactions with white people who assumed he was hypersexual when they saw him as black. We now know racial identity development is a process. Griffin didn’t have all that. Plus, I’ve read some Black writers who grew up during that era who say they weren’t shocked by the daily indignities that came from white people. Of course, Griffin was. Those writers say for them, and the Black people they knew, there was no expectation of kindness from white people. They resisted and they were resilient. Griffin didn’t get all of that part of Blackness either. But hey, it takes more than a stained face and six-weeks!