In “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”, Brent Staples explains the impact he has on other people just for being an African American man. Writing for an audience of black men who have experienced discrimination. With a wise, inoffensive voice, but somewhat of a neutral tone, the author uses figurative language, writing techniques and diction to explain his purpose of writing this essay to explain to his readers of his past experience of being a black man in public places and the effect it has caused in his life.…
For long, the black Race has existed in America but being prejudged by the white race has caused loss of many black lives and created a feeling of insecurity in the black society.…
From the time African American men were introduced to America, they were treated wrong: seen as a treat and abused. Black men have gotten the worst of it all. People stereotype black men as being violent and criminals. However they are not seen for who they really are. Young black men are more likely to be seen this way simply because of their age and color of skin. In the piece Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space by Brent Staples, Staples talks about his experience being stereotyped of the color of his skin. Black men have always been wrongfully stereotyped as being a threat because of their appearance.…
There are more than seven billion people that live in this world; therefore, you have more than 7 billion different types of culture. The diversity-religion, language, race, politics, etc- greatly vary amongst us all. Say a girl grew up in family that had everything work out well for her and she had life pretty good. Now place her in a different family situation. The things that go on in her life and the way she turns out to be can be completely different than right now. Her education she received and economic class she is in easily could have changed. The tradition she carries and the food, including the way she eats, could have been unlike the way it is today. She could have grown up speaking differently and dressing differently than she…
Staples starts his story by making the reader feel as though he is a criminal when he states "My first victim was a woman" and making us feel compassion for this woman. Upon reading however, we come to understand that it is Staples who falls victim to this woman's racism. She ran in fear that he was a murderer or rapist following her, simply because of the color of his skin, which made him feel embarassed and dismayed. Staples also writes about being chased through his place of work when his own office manager called security, believing him to be a burglar. At the time, these people who were being racist and judging him for being black felt like the victims, but Staples shows us the other side of racism. The true victims' side of racism, where shame and embarassment are all too familiar.…
In 1986, in Brent Staples memoir Parallel Time: Growing Up Black and White, he wrote a selection called Black Men and Public Space. Throughout the essay Staples talks about the injustice and racial profiling that he receives as a black man in society. This causes him to change certain aspects that he does on a daily basis to make the people around him feel less threatened. Unconsciously, Staples presents ways on how he and society systematizes him and other black males.…
In Brent Staples story, "Just Walk on By", the author underlines how black men are casualties of discrimination. First, he recalls his realization of how much his presence terrified other people, essentially a white woman, when he used to go out for strolls during the evening around the town. In spite of the fact that he understand that the world is seen to be progressively brutal and hazardous, he feels disappointed that African-American guys, particularly, are as yet being judged and misconstrued taking into account by their appearances. The author notice two cases where somebody misinterpreted him for a hoodlum and a companion who was a writer was flawed mistaken for a killer. These events, he states, are not uncommon. Presently so as to…
They accounted for about 61% of robbery arrest in 87’ as well as 55% of homicide arrests, though they only accounted for 11% of the general population (Sampson 348). As astonishing as those numbers are, they represented the problems which were engulfing the country. Consequently, this violence was causing even more of a racial divide than there was before. For instance, minorities were struggling with money and instead of turning to the path of education and seeking social mobility, most went down the so-called “easy” path. This path leads to drugs, violence, death and general unhappiness. As Sampson continues to explain, “Race is one of the strongest predictors of major social dislocations in American cities. Black communities are characterized by disproportionately high rates of drug addiction, welfare dependence, out-of-wedlock births, teenage pregnancy, and families headed by females (Sampson 348).” The image of the black body at this time was one of savagery, foolishness, and senselessness. Coates was always in fear for his body, he did not know whether someone could take it from him, “I remember being amazed that death could so easily rise up from nothing of a boyish afternoon, billow up like fog (Coates 20).”…
In the first half of the story “Looking at Emmett Till” by John Edgar Wideman, I learned interesting things about what it was like back then to be African American. In the story, Wideman first starts off discussing when he first saw the picture of Emmett Tills face. Jet was a once a week newspaper that was established to some as “the Black Dispatch”, was stories for the black community. This newspaper was the source of where Wideman first saw the picture of Emmett Till. “A blurred, grayish something resembling an aerial snapshot of a landscape cratered by bombs or ravaged but natural disaster. As soon as I realized the thing in the photo was a dead black boys face, I jerked my eyes away. But not quickly enough.” Reading this shocked me on many levels. At first, it shocked me because of the fact that this kids face was so distorted and destroyed that at first sight someone thought it was a landscape of craters. It also made me feel disappointed and uneasy of the fact that people could do an act like this. Having that much hatred toward another race to me is unbelievable. “Emmett Till’s murder was an attempt to slay an entire generation.” This quote opened my eyes to the same fact. My eyes were open even more so to know that people were okay with showing that they wanted an entire race wiped out. This article showed me hatred and opened my eyes towards the madness that was present in the past. However this story also helped me to appreciate how times have changed and there is now respect and a new sense of safety for different races.…
Although it is often ignored by those around it, discrimination is an impending problem in our towns. In the essay “Black Men and Public Space” written by Brent Staples, Staples responds to the racism he faces in various social situations. He reveals how he has “become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear” (1). As a large black man, people seem to fear Staples without a valid reason to. They do not see his character, but rather only his appearance. This reveals how people are fast to stereotype a person that they see, and not give them the opportunity to show their personalities. They are afraid of what, or who, they are afraid of, resulting in their own anxiety being created. By personifying the emotion of fear, Staples relays…
I found out that this article was originally published in Ms. Magazine in 1986 under the title “Black Men and Public Space.” Staples says, "I'm writing about universal themes--family and leaving home and…
The author quotes Norman Podhoretz’s essay, “My Negro Problem – And Ours.” Do people still feel there is a negro (and minority) problem?” The author quotes a line from Podhert’z essay, written in 1963 about his experiences growing up during the depression and prior to the Second World War, that describes his fear of the negro boys in his neighborhood who often terrorized and assaulted him, his family and his neighborhood. Podhertz’s shares the several incidents where he was robbed, or assaulted by individuals or gangs of…
Not everyone has a special power to alter public space, but if you were different from your surrounding, then you would probably have a very good sense about what I am talking about. In "Black Space", Brent Staples claims that he is black man who whenever in public is meet with fear from his surrounding because of his races stereotype. He clearly points out one can easily change physical behavior and dressing in order to alter public space in a good way or bad way.…
My fellow English 101 class mates do you believe that there is still racism going on out in the world today? People say that there is not really that much racism. That it has almost disappeared, but there is this story that will show you different. In the essay Black Men and Public Spaces you are shown how there is still racism going on in today's society. The essay will show you one black man's story about how he was treated differently and had to come through the struggles of being black.…
In this Chapter, the author introduces his backstory and the way people react around him despite the fact that he is a Harvard professor. Many of the residents in his building get nervous because he is black when he rides the elevator with them. However, despite the fact that he is discriminated against when he is out of his suits, he states that he cannot blame them for being nervous around him. Due to the criminal and violent history that African Americans have today, as well as the media portrayal of African Americans, many people get a pre conceived racist notion of how all black males are. Wilson thoroughly explains that because of the changing society, racial inequality has continued. “In the last several decades, almost all of the improvements in…