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Summary Of Just Walk On By Brent Staples

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Summary Of Just Walk On By Brent Staples
Just Walk On By In 1986, a 35 year old Brent Staples published Black Men and Public Spaces in Ms. Magazine. Through several personal experiences and analysis he discusses the causes and effects of the dangerous perception of black men. Displaying both perspectives of a white peoples’ fears, and a black man’s reaction, his essay opened the discussion for greater understanding. More importantly he reveals the mutual danger when “fear and weapons meet and they often do in urban America”, the “possibility of death” is likely for either side.
Staples introduces the problem immediately with a personal anecdote. His first encounter with this burden came notably late at 23, while studying for his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. Being a timid graduate

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