Black Men And Public Places By Brent Staples Summary

In Brent Staples “Just Walk On: Black Men and Public Space”, he argues that the racial stereotypes he faced when he was younger actually happen to black men all the time. Staples gives examples of several situations in which he was seen as a criminal because of the color of his skin, one of them being a time when he was “mistaken for a burglar”(Staples 396). Throughout the essay, he lets readers know how his experiences have affected him, including how he views himself, and how he deals with it. He argues that the experiences he went through actually happen frequently among men of color; that in fact “black men trade tales like this all the time” (Staples 397). He supports his argument by describing situations in which he was treated like

It is no surprise that society fear black people, or consider them as criminals. Brent Staples portrays his experiences in “Black Men and Public Spaces.” Staples explains the encounters he has, but creates the image of why people fear blacks. Consider our mindset on how some approach the image of black people, we form our opinion based off their social status, environment, and body language. We have the “ability to alter public spaces in ugly ways” (165) with our thoughts. These components create the fear some of us entail when we are around black people.

Fueled by fear and ignorance, racism has corrupted the hearts of mankind throughout history. In the mid-1970’s, Brent Staples discovered such prejudice toward black men for merely being present in public. Staples wrote an essay describing how he could not even walk down the street normally, people, especially women, would stray away from him out of terror. Staples demonstrates his understanding of this fearful discrimination through his narrative structure, selection of detail, and manipulation of language.

Whether past or present, there is no denying the fact that we humans have created an existence in which it is not uncommon to subject other breathing human beings to conditions of separateness and extreme oppression. The societies we create aid in participation of these conditions in a way that some deem acceptable, even if threatening to the moral norm. “Going to Meet The Man,” a melancholy story written by James Baldwin, sheds light on the tragic problem of racism that has afflicted our world and how this racism came to be. By examining the past and present life of a racist sheriff in a southern town, this tragic story epitomizes the terrible truth of reality and exemplifies the tragedy and problem of moral knowledge, alienation from others, and the tragedy of morally conflicting demands.

As a target of racism and prejudice, Brent Staple wrote Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space. Throughout this essay he explains his personal experience in public spaces and the stereotypes he has faced. Since society has deeply embedded their views of “blacks,” just their presence induces fear and causes unnecessary feelings and emotions to arise. Staples presents no anger in his decision to alter his actions and his appearance to ease those around him despite his skin tone. Societal views on blacks are based on reputations as a whole and not on each individual person, Staples presents this through the uses of point of view, ethos, and pathos.

The mere fact that a majority of his essay consists of personal experience, filled with details such as “I was surprised, embarrassed, and dismayed all at once” prove that Staples’ experiences are still fresh in his mind (542). He recounts having to “become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear” and going out of his way to “take precaution to make myself less threatening” (542, 544). These precautions were the result of being mistaken for a thug on several occasions. Even though he has been wrongly accused, Staples goes out of his way to acknowledge that “the danger they perceive is not a hallucination” because “black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators” (543). In conceding to this, he reveals that he is not blind to the real world; however, the application of this stereotype to all black males is not the way to handle the situation. Perhaps the most effective way of establishing ethos is through his mention of one of these occasions having happened when he “worked as a journalist in Chicago” after being “newly arrived at the University of Chicago” (544, 542). In mentioning these details, he presents himself as educated, therefore, making his argument plausible as a black educated male who has been wrongly labelled on various accounts. His personal anecdotes painted with colorful diction drive his message of unjust labels

The essay "Black Men and Public Space" written by Brent Staples displays racism and stereotyping toward black men by the way people perceive them and how they are treated in public. Staples writes how people, especially women, are scared and threatened by him by the way the act while he is around them. This essay shows how judgmental society can be and how race can affect how people treat others. I think that Staples uses his own experiences so that people can see what he goes through and to try to make people understand that everyone should be treated equally.

In the essay “Black Men and Public Space”, writer Brent Staples provides insight into a social occurrence that has developed due to racism and violence in today’s society. He was born in Chester, Pennsylvania and has received a B.A. in behavioral science from Widener University along with a P.H.D. in psychology from University of Chicago (2). Staples writes on culture and politics currently for the New York Times. In the past, he has also written articles for magazines such as the Chicago and the Down Beat. In the essay, Staples reflects back to numerous occasions he had first hand experience with racism relating to violence.

In the article “Just Walk On By”, Brent Staples describes his experience when he was young and was discriminatory treated because he is not “white”. His first shock experience that is at one late night, a white woman ran away from him when she saw him walking close to her. That woman’s reaction created a serious fear and deep anxious on him about his race from then on. Then, he shows several essays whose arguments fight against black people, and he asserts that black people are always be thought as the prime suspects in criminal cases. Due to his race, he used to be mistaken for burglar during his work and be checked by a dog when he came to a jewelry store. After that, he developed some strategies to make him less threatening.

In the short story “Black Men in Public Spaces” by Brent Staples, Brent explains his life of being an unknown black man in a public space. Brent focuses his passage on the negativity he receives from the other ethnic groups. He illuminates their reactions of anger and fear. In the short story “Strangers in The Village” by James Baldwin, Baldwin explains his amusing emotion to the prejudice comments that are being made about him. Baldwin’s emotions were positive and humorous. Though both authors encounter prejudice actions and comments about their race, their responses to the situations were different.

Should We Differentiate People Based on Race? According to Merriam-Webster.com, discrimination is defined as “the practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people”. In his article “Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples (1986) describes how a black man, has been mistaken for a criminal numerous times because of his race. The presence of black people in public spaces frightened white people. Staples provides us some examples of racism that black people received in his essay such as when he scared a young white women when he walked at night on the street.

In Brent Staples’s essay “Just walk on by”, his message is that stereotypes forced by society combined with subconscious racism are hard on those who assume and those who are assumed upon. Staples uses emotion and persona to create and convey his message of subconscious racism and the difficulties that may arise from assuming traits because of appearances. Staples uses fear to make the reader feel what he feels, what the people who assume feel, and creates a general atmosphere around the situations that he is forced into. If Staples would walk through any “dark, shadowy intersections in Chicago”, and if there were any cars stopped in front of that crosswalk, his presence would “elicit the thunk thunk thunk of the drivers [locking their doors]” - no matter their race or gender - as they frantically pound the

My first victim was a woman – white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties. I came upon her late one evening on a deserted street in Hyde Park, a relatively affluent neighborhood in an otherwise mean, impoverished section of Chicago. As I swung onto the avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried glance. To her, the youngish black man – a broad six feet two inches with a bear and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket – seemed menacingly close. After a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest.

"Now he isn't the only black person. J. is grateful. If anything goes down in this cannibal region, he thinks, she will send word, and the story of

The outdoors, which is a public space, is not comforting. As Quindlen says, “Home is where the heart is”; it is “a place of certainty, stability, predictability, [and] privacy” (193). Home is a private space surrounded by walls, making people who reside there feel secure. In contrast to Staples, Quindlen uses implicit language because it is implied that on the other hand, living in a public space can be threatening because certain public spaces are considered unsafe. Black people in the streets can be perceived as being one of the many threats, like Staples was. Ironically,