Analysis Of Black Men In Public Spaces And Warning: Pokemon Go

Staples starts off his article with an intriguing line: “My first victim was a woman” (Staples para 1). This is a great example of a startling statement hook that interests the reader right away and makes them want to read more. The first paragraph begins by revealing a personal story from the past, of a woman in the park. Telling this story, allows the audience to understand his point of view and see what he has experienced. He organizes the sentences and paragraphs perfectly, as he switches between the past and the present very efficiently. Staples uses the paragraphs effectively to switch between personal stories and serious logical points as shown when he states: “I moved to New York nearly two years ago” (Staples para 4) versus the start of the next paragraph, “Black men have a firm place in New York mugging literature” (Staples para 5). The logic behind it is to keep the audience entertained while he inserts his arguments and logical points. By doing this, he manages to get his points across while keeping it an interesting story that people want to read.

Society, as viewed today, is not the same as it was at the end of the twentieth century, treatment of minorities was much different. Brent Staples was a writer at the time and choose to highlight this treatment in a piece titled Black Men and Public Space. Staples published this piece in Harper’s Magazine in 1986 which was an American magazine that covered politics, society, culture, and the environment. Even though the readers of the magazine were most likely aware of the culture surrounding African Americans it still was an effective piece. In Black Men and Public Space Brent Staples analysis the cultural identity of African Americans through the descriptions of personal experiences that he has had.

The outside sources he uses help get his point across as to how society has affected the perceptions of many, especially white people. Staples references two authors, Norman Podhoretz and Edward Hoagland; both of whom create a tone of fear when it comes to interacting with, or even just seeing, black men on the street, framing the group as a whole as a bunch of criminals (Staples 542). By referencing these two outside sources, Staples develops his credibility even more, bringing in a contrasting view to show just some outside perspectives that confirm what he is discussing. He talks about how society is affected in many ways, including in prejudices, when it comes to the media; meanwhile, the essay written by Podhoretz and Hoagland demonstrate exactly the type of influence that Staples is concerned about. This addition shows that as an author, Staples is credible as he has clearly done research into the topic at hand, and it also serves to relate back to the message that he is trying to promote to the audience. Also, because Staples is writing about personal experiences, he is an expert in what he is talking about, facing stereotypes and dealing with them firsthand. He knows what it’s like to be constantly avoided due to a variety of reasons, such as subconscious racism and prejudice, the effects the media and forms of entertainment have on everyday life,

In Brent Staples’ “Just Walk On By: Black Men and Public Space” he forces women to recognize the feeling of estrangement from the surrounding public that he has endured. He first took notice at the age of twenty two, when his own self-judgement resulted from scaring a woman when solely walking at night near his college, the University of Chicago. He maintained his dejected attitude when he wrote that a few years later, his own work mistook him for a thief instead of a journalist. Brent Staples heightened his frustration by mentioning a black male journalist who was blamed as a killer in a murder, instead of the writer reporting it. In portraying two versions of his story, he proves that this was a rather common and difficult occurrence for not only him, but others of his race. To attempt to resolve this, he decided to attempt to cross the street or sing classical songs to portray innocence. In this article, Staples’ forces his audience to encounter the hypocrisy in which all black men are dangerous. He concluded the essay with the realization that you can't change what people think, only attempt to show them who you are. Brent Staples appeals to the audience through his emotionally charged language with the use of his experiences with unconscious prejudice.

Through manipulation of language, Staples demonstrates his comprehension of the effect this discrimination had on innocent black males. Since he has had firsthand experience in this matter, Staples discerns his situation as an “unwieldy inheritance” with “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways.” Clearly, Staples feels as if he was cursed, for he was constantly treated like a “fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact with.” This put him in an

The black men throughout history has always had a negative perceived image of them by those in power. The idea that one’s skin give others pre-deceived notions about them. Stereotypes of black people only illustrates them as negative things in a society. The strong perpetuated stereotypes of black people create a fear based off their image. Staples states his experience “She cast back a worried glance. To her,

Over the years, our generations’ stereotypical views over the issue on young black males being viewed as dangerous has grown significantly. There are different reasons why these stereotypes occur in our society. People feel on edge when running into them in dark passageways, whenever it’s late at night. Also, while they’re sitting at red lights and notice someone walking towards their cars, they instantly initiate down the door locks. People think stereotyping black men this way keeps them safer because they assume the worst. However; other people disagree with instantly judging who they see around them, it hurts more people as well as themselves by viewing black men this way. Brent Staples, the author of “Black Men and Public Spaces,” claims that he’s considered a stereotypical black criminal. In his essay, Staples succeeds because he successfully appeals to people’s emotions, is an expert on human behavior, creates common ground and offers a logical solution.

Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of

In the short essay, “Black Men in Public Space” written by Brent Staples, discusses his own experiences on how he is stereotyped because he is an African American and looks intimidated in “public places” (Staples 225). Staples, an intelligent man that is a graduate student at University of Chicago. Due to his skin complexity, he is not treated fairly and always being discriminated against. On one of his usual nightly walks he encountered a white woman. She took a couple glances at him and soon began to walk faster and avoided him that night. He decided to change his appearance so others would not be frightened by his skin color. He changed the way he looked and walked. Staples dressed sophisticated to look more professional so no

Brent Staples is an author and editorial writer for the New York Times. His writing is mostly on political issues, cultural issues and controversies including races. In one of his essay written in 1986 which was published in Ms. Magazine “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples explains about his personal experience being black in an American society. Author wants his reader to understand that we are living in a culture with is constantly becoming violent and dangerous. Staples in his essay is gathering sympathy from his audience. He explains his thesis throughout the essay describing different incidents which took place in his life. Staples wants his audience to know how racial stereotypes has affected him as well as many other peoples like him and forced him to change so that he is not misunderstood by people and can prove himself fearless for others.

Primarily, this paper is structured as a cause and effect essay as he narrates his personal experience, reinforcing his message and making the audience realize his viewpoints. In his article, Staples takes out all of his frustrations of being treated as a criminal throughout the passage. Firstly, Staples express the fear a white woman faced when she felt a young,broad six feet two inches black man with a beard and billowing hair was menacingly close. He continues by stating more incidents he experienced as a teenager, as a journalist and so on where people (mostly women) panicked imagining him as a mugger or a rapist. Furthermore, the author

In the two essays, “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space” by Brent Staples and “I’m Not Racist But…” by Neil Bissoondath, there are both differences and similarities. The two authors differ in their opinion on the causes of racism and life experiences involving racism, but are similar in regards to the use of stereotypes in the world

Throughout life many people experience similar situations, although they are two different many different kind of people. The kind of people depends on their personality. Brent Staples is an author and writer for the New York Times. He gives two simple examples of two different people in his excerpts “Black Men and Public Spaces” and “Parallel Time” showing their differences and parallelism.

Similar to Dumas’ struggle in America as an Iranian, Brent Staples’ “Black Men and Public Space” details the struggle of being a black man in America. There are countless stereotypes implanted in the minds of Americans of the typical black person, aggressive, dishonest, ruthless, and overall ill intentioned. The first encounter with this racist outlook on blacks Staples had was in a wealthier area of downbeat Chicago, who began to appear worrisome and soon after proceeded to run from the author, who had done nothing intentionally to provoke fear in her. I agree that women should always place their safety as their first priority and should remove themselves from any situation in which they find themselves uncomfortable or at risk, but if blacks and whites can’t manage to walk the same streets without one race thinking the other is going to attack at any given moment due to the misconceptions floating around in their heads, then America really isn’t a land of diversity. It then becomes a land of hierarchy. As he says, Staples is too scared to even wield a knife at a chicken, let alone wield a knife at another human being, but by the color of his skin and appearance, one would never know this. Being perceived as dangerous, he writes, is a hazard in itself, and could easily land him in the back of a police car

Brent Staples uses vivid language and rhetorical devices to express and convey the elements of fear, anger, and violence. We all make many decisions based on past experiences. That’s how we learn to avoid touching a hot stove burner for example. It’s also about how we learn to do things that bring us pleasure. So we all develop discriminating behavior, but when that discrimination is based purely on the color on that person’s skin, or his ethnicity, without knowing anything else about that person, it becomes racism. Being a malicious looking black man, walking the streets at night may give someone the idea that you’re a rapist, killer, robber, or even a stalker. Nearly everyone has experienced these same emotions before and each has