In Brent Staples’ “Black men in public places” it highlights the theme of stereotypes. In the story he was assumed by the people he encountered in public places that because he is a black man he must be a criminal, rapist, mugger, or some other type of inhumane person. In truth he is an educated respected black man who earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Like black men in public places I also dealt with a stereotype. It differed in that I’m not a black male fighting the stereotypes of being a criminal, but because I was a new mom and the stereotype that I was happy, excited, and full of joy but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Here is the raw truth about my journey as a new mom. Remember, you can’t always …show more content…
The word postpartum means "after birth”. Postpartum psychosis which is also known as “Postnatal onset bipolar disorder” is a severe mental illness with sudden onset of psychotic symptoms following childbirth. The common symptoms of a woman with this diagnosis would be; extreme mood swings, hallucinations or having irritable outburst. I suffered from all symptoms. It’s been 3 years and 8 months since my diagnoses. I was living in a nightmare, locked in an imaginary cage; afraid of what I would do to my son if I was alone with him. I decided to seek help and was placed into an intense outpatient program called “Maternal outreach mood services” at El Camino Hospital. It is a group based program where we’d meet four days a week from eight in the morning till one in the afternoon. In the group we’d work on self-care, realistic expectations of motherhood, stress management and enhancing mother- baby attachment. I would also meet with my psychiatrist once or twice a week to discuss my progress. Throughout this journey, my husband; Jay, my mother, and my friend Paula would switch shifts with one another to stick with me so I wouldn’t be alone with my son until I was ready. Speaking from personal experience, the program saved my life. I built up the courage to talk freely about my feelings and thoughts floating around in my head because let’s face it, telling a friend over coffee that my breast pump was talking to me …show more content…
It is a rare illness that occurs in approximately 1 to 2 per 1000 women after childbirth. Its presentation is often dramatic, with onset of symptoms as early as the first 48 to 72 hours after delivery. The majority of women with puerperal psychosis develop symptoms within the first two postpartum weeks. Symptoms of postpartum physics often include delusions or strange beliefs, hallucinations, decreased need for or inability to sleep, paranoia and suspiciousness. The most significant risk factors for postpartum psychosis are a personal or family history of bipolar disorder, or a previous psychotic episode. Postpartum psychosis is different from the baby blues; 70% of new mothers experience the baby blues, which is a short-lasting condition that does not impact their daily functioning and does
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 in to 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
It can begin at any time during the first year after having a newborn and due to its severity and length it must be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.
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.
Staples starts the essay writing about how his skin color has a negative change on the public perspective. “Black Men in Public Spaces,” written in December 1986 by Brent Staples, tells about his life in Illinois as a frequent “night walker.” He starts
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.
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
Symptoms of postpartum psychosis are “delusions or strange beliefs, hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t there), feeling very irritated, decreased need or inability to sleep, paranoia, rapid mood swings and difficulty communicating at times”. (“Postpartum Psychosis”, 2009)
In "Black Men and Public Space," Brent Staples writes about how he was treated differently throughout his life due to his race by using connotative diction that invites ethos and pathos. Staples describes the problems, discrimination, and disapprovals he faces being a black man in public places. Staples explains how through his lifetime, people have discriminated against him because he is an African American man who works as a writer in a primarily Caucasian field. Brent Staples explains, the first time he understood how much his presence startled or concerned others was after an experience he had when he used to take late night walks as a graduate student. In addition to his first experience Staples describes countless other different occurrences of when he felt he had been discriminated against by other people based on his race. Staples has constantly been seen as a threat or criminal solely because of the color of his skin, leading him to have to deal with many distressing situations.
Brent Staples is an African American male, who was born in 1951 in Pennsylvania. Brent Staples’ Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space is about how he, a black male is perceived in public. One night he was walking down an empty street in a poor section of Chicago and sees a young white woman in front of him. They peacefully walk for a while until the woman turns around and sees Brent, a tall, broad black male behind her. Brent then notices that “picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest”. He then wondered why the woman ran and thought they she probably assumed that he could have been a mugger, rapist, or worse. He then became embarrassed and felt as if he was a criminal. He soon became accustomed to hearing the “click” of a car
Brent Staples “Black Men and Public Space” is a look at how people perceive black people in the 1960s. Staples explains how people would treat him on a day to day basis. Even when he was a child he would be looked at differently because of his color. He quickly establishes ethos, logos and pathos credibility tough the many examples. This article shows the injustices done to him while living in New York. Brent Staples Black Men and Public Space uses pathos, ethos, and logos effectively throughout the essay.
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.
Consequently, the treatment for postpartum depression is more intense than that for the baby blues. Among the many treatments, many mothers undergo intense counseling, take antidepressants, or even experience hormone therapy ((3)).
In Brent Staples’ personal essay “Black Men and Public Space”, he tells the readers what happen to a young black man in an urban setting. He pinpointed that people often stereotype you because of color, race, gender, culture or appearance. In addition, the author expresses to us that he notices the space between him and other people, such as women on the street. Some people may disagree that women set a certain amount of space when walking by a black man on the street. This statement is not true and public space is not about race, gender, color, culture, or appearance.
case of the mother, onset is at the period of, during or following delivery of birth. This is an