Recitatif Brent Staples

Through Toni Morrison’s short story “Recitatif” and Brent Staples’ essay “Black Men and Public Spaces”, we see the similar topics of nonverbal communication and stereotypes. Through his use of a cowbell metaphor, and her use of handshake imagery Staples and Morrison explore the theme that nonverbal communication and stereotypes can affect how people act and are viewed in society. After living in New York for a few years, Staples learned to take precautions, so as not to seem threatening. He would leave a wide gap between himself and walking New Yorkers, or he would whistle. His reasoning for this was that “Virtually everybody seems to sense that a mugger wouldn’t be warbling bright, sunny selections from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It is my equivalent of the
He knows that if he startles them, or moves suddenly, they could turn on him like a startled bear might attack a hiker. Brent Staples hasn’t done anything to the people he comes across for them to be scared of him. They are fearful because of how he looks, walks, or reacts to the environment around him. In “Recitatif” we see another example of how nonverbal communication can affect how someone is viewed. At Twyla and Roberta’s first visit with their mothers in ST. Bonny’s, they introduce each other to their parent. Roberta’s mother is big, and religious, while “Mary [Twyla’s mother], simple minded as ever, grinned and tried to yank her hand out of her raggedy lining-to shake hands, I guess. Roberta’s mother looked down at me and then looked down at Mary too. She didn’t say anything, just grabbed Roberta with her Bible-free hand and stepped out of line, walking quickly to the rear of it” (4). The phrase “looked down at” literally means looking from higher above, but here it also means to think of someone as inferior. Roberta’s mother thinks of Twyla and Mary as inferior because of the color of their skin, and their