Black Men In Public Spaces Rhetorical Analysis

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.

In Brent Staples’ "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space," Staples describes the issues, stereotypes, and criticisms he faces being a black man in public surroundings. Staples initiates his perspective by introducing the audience into thinking he is committing a crime, but eventually reveals how the actions taken towards him are because of the fear linked to his labelled stereotypes of being rapists, gangsters and muggers. Staples continues to unfold the audience from a 20 year old experience and sheds light onto how regardless of proving his survival compared to the other stereotypical blacks with his education levels and work ethics being in the modern era, he is still in the same plight. Although Staples relates such burdens through his personal experiences rather than directly revealing the psychological impacts such actions have upon African Americans with research, he effectively uses emotion to explain the social effects and challenges they have faced to avoid causing a ruckus with the “white American” world while keeping his reference up to date and accordingly to his history.

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

Even in modern society, the simplest of things can shift the delicate atmosphere. A black man entering a room, or any space, full of white people, can automatically transform the ambiance. This ‘ability’ may not be a desired effect, but in certain situations, it becomes inevitable. Through the use of different rhetorical devices, Brent Staples is able to demonstrate his realization of his “ability to alter public space in ugly ways” simply because of his race and stature in his essay, “Black Men and Public Space.” Staples uses the rhetorical techniques ethos, logos, and pathos in order to get on the “same side” as the reader while still presenting the essence of his argument. The author is able to sympathize with his “victims” and justify their feelings, appealing to ethos. He also analogies and details about his background, such as his doctorate in psychology, and the fact that he was a reporter to appeal to logos. Additionally, by using vivid imagery and creative diction, he engages the reader by use of pathos, evoking the emotions of the reader. With the use of rhetorical devices, Staples is able to effectively describe his experiences of being perceived as a criminal, solely based on his “unwieldy inheritance” (205), while, additionally, extending this concept to be true throughout society.

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.

In Brent Staples’ essay, “Just Walk on By” the author describes his experiences, feelings, and reactions towards the discrimination he has faced throughout his life as a black man. Staples describes several different personal experiences of when he felt that he had been judged or discriminated against by other people based on the color of his skin and how that contributed to his overall appearance. Staples has continuously been perceived as a danger or criminal simply because of his skin color, leading him to have to deal with many uncomfortable situations. The author has even gone so far as to take precautions when he is on the street just so that he will not be

Racism has been a setback in this society for the past centuries and there have not been any real solutions for this issue. During the time this article was published racism and segregation in the inner-cities such as Chicago and New York were at a high tension. In his essay, "Black Men and Public Space" Brent Staples describe how he has been affected by society based of his physical appearance. Staples is an African American who was born and grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania, as he described it "the small, angry industrial town" (614). Staples uses his experiences and his feeling to connect with his audiences and other readers.

In Brent Staples essay “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space”, he tells the story of different issues such as, stereotyping, racism, and certain disapproval he faced as a black man in public spaces. He uses his own personal experiences and incidents to show this. He explains to us how extremely frustrating this is for him, especially in his line of work as a journalist, which is a predominantly white field. His audience is black men who have had similar problems and also people who do the stereotyping he is talking about. He uses plenty of literary elements to make his claim that racism is still very much alive today.

Brent Staples wrote “Black Men in Public Spaces” to educate readers on racial profiling and how it may affect innocent people. The message Staples created in his story involves prejudice towards African American men. He recalls many experiences as an adult which involved how people perceived him. As he talks about his experiences Staples discusses his mental development as an African American male living in Chicago. In the past decades many issues have arised due to racial profiling and many innocent people are no longer afraid to stand up to these unjust situations.

Just Walk on By: Black men and public space by Brent Staples show how stereotyping has worked out in recent years by personal experience. Staples talks about his first victim was a women, how Staples explains what happens make it seem as if he is about to rape someone. He goes on to describe how when he getting close to the women she speed up her pace and began to run. Staples then realize that people were scared of a twenty something black male walking the streets just because of his skin color

He gives us ( readers) a visual about how his life is, how he controls it, what he does and how he does it. He escapes the real world by having these active imaginations, things that would make him feel better about himself. He drops out of his School “ Elkton Hills “ because he says he’s surrounded by phonies and he hated it, this occured between the end of fall. He wants to kill time by wandering around the city before he goes home to his parents and tell them that he has been dropped out which he knows they’re going to freak out when he tells them the news. While he’s exploring, he tries to make new friends even though he thinks everybody is a phony, but always has bad luck with that, they seem like they don’t want to talk to him, so he always gets left alone.

He covers all the aspects of his daily routines to the people he familiarized himself with over the years. He loved writing as a child so he would write stories and create his own newspaper and hand them out to his neighbors. In memories of his childhood home, he recalls what life was like with specific details about his parents and dogs and how life was like for him back then.

In addition, the narrator uses a descriptive tone throughout the book by using phrases: “something mesmerizing” and “something fascinating” to describe different scenes. In my opinion, the narrator personality is portrayed as interesting and outgoing. The narrator speaks from an observer point of view. As the story progresses, the narrator begins to describe each action as it occurred.

This helps build to the horror effect of the setting because he starts off as a normal person but as we get farther threw the story he becomes more and more insane and crazy. This is another excellent way this author help set the scene of the story. Edgar Allan Poe did a great job at writing this story even though it was after his life and what had happen in his life.

By making himself believe that he is a righteous male, he convinces himself that his needs supersede his family's. Claiming to be an artist of emotions, he projects to the audience a facade of control and masculinity. His biggest dreams flash before his eyes on a screen in a darkened room; yet, in that little apartment he faces only the dimness. Even during his reflections on the "fire escape" he is not really separating himself because that metal frame, however sturdy, is still anchored to the apartment wall.