Inner City Blues Video Analysis

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.

As he pointed out in the very early part of his article, for instance Clyde Ross, resident of North Lawndale Chicago, was denied when he first tried to get a legitimate mortgage; mortgages were effectively not available to black people (Coates, June 2014). Also, just like what we talked about in class last week, Ross and many other black families were forced to live in those redlined neighborhoods with “contract house.” Basically, Ross had not signed a normal mortgage. He’d bought “on contract”: a predatory agreement that combined all the responsibilities of homeownership with all the disadvantages of renting—while offering the benefits of neither (Coates, June 2014). This is a perfect example of how these ghetto-neighborhoods were created; it was created by white supremacists and people in the government who chose to ignore “the elephant in the room.” All these black families left with no choice. They ran from the South, thinking that they could finally go the land of the free. They quickly found out that, it was no different in the North, or even the West. They were forced to stuck with the

In order to support his opinion, the author uses historical references to the enormous impact of racial inequality on African American lives. Additionally, Desmond names a set of historical data and rates of the poor African Americans in cities to enhance the reader’s understanding of this complex situation. African Americans were also more likely to get the apartment with broken furniture, windows, and other facilities that confirmed the existence of racial inequality (Desmond, 2016, p.249). To reassert his position, Desmond provides offensive statistics that millions of people are evicted from American homes, and most of them are African American (Desmond, 2016, p.293). As a matter of fact, the author proves that housing discrimination based on race is the primary cause of

The brothers who are mostly black can point to racial discrimination as a cause of their family’s poverty. Also another reason the hallway hangers reject the achievement ideology is because most of them have lived in low icome housing for as long as three decades as a result, this contributes to their feeling of hopelessness and stagnation they are pessimistic about their future. The brothers however, have resided at the Clarendon Heights neighbourhood for shorter periods of time. Some of the families of the brothers have moved from worse projects in the area, so they view this change as a step up in their social status and a sense of optimism for a fresh start. After the post modern shift from from manufacting jobs to service industry based employment many members of poorer black neighborhoods will feel the effects harder and longer then that of gentrified or white neighborhoods. Most service industry or “blue collered” jobs require some skills or education to be sucessful, as a result of neither group possesses these qualities, they are cast out as abaondoned by soceity. “The American Dream” may be but a mirage. Still, it

Henry Giroux’s “Hoodie Politics: Trayvon Martin and Racist Violence in Post-Racial America” is an opinion piece written by a renowned cultural critic. This writing is meant to draw attention to the way American society treats its poor minority youth. Giroux’s audience in this circumstance is the readers of the left-wing magazine, The Smirking Chimp. With most of his readers being liberal, he does not have to try hard to convince them that his argument regarding the mistreatment of poor minorities is correct.That being said, Giroux is attempting to get his audience to consider the wider societal issues that cause the unequal treatment of black and brown youth. Giroux employs the case of Trayvon Martin to showcase society’s bigger issues surrounding the institutionalized racism directed towards the “disposable” colored youth.

Interpretive Analysis Essay Rough Draft In “Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples addresses the difficulties of being a black man and how it affects his daily life. He stresses that the presence of black people in public spaces frightens white people because white people are not able to differentiate between a black person from a mugger or a thug. After years of fighting over the meaning of race in our country, many may think that it is not as relevant of a problem as it once was, yet this essay expresses how one must change the way he carries and presents himself due to the way that society subconsciously reacts to a man of color. Staples convinces the readers to question how their actions may contribute to this issue.

Brent Staples, author of the essay “Black Men and Public Space,” delves into what it’s like to be a black man in American society, and how racial stereotyping is still very prevalent. A common thing most black men have dealt with, is being seen as dangerous and violent in the eyes of the public. This has led to unwanted suspicion and fear towards black men. Through the eyes of Staples, we can see how this has affected his daily life, explaining how with just his presence he evoked fear in others. Staples felt extremely dehumanized by these stereotypes, because all they do is perpetuate these prejudices and constrain black men’s autonomy in society.

He explains how it’s easy for people who have never seen or felt segregation to say wait but they have never got to see their vicious mob kill their mom or your brothers. They’ve never had police hit them or people drown your sister at a whim. When you must see your twenty million brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty amid an affluent society who constantly degrades them just based on the color of their skin. These explicit and emotional experiences offer an insight to people who don’t understand the pain of segregation to see what black people must deal with in their life on the

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.

Understanding that the poverty of black Americans did not just stay within the home is a big step in understanding urban poverty. Urban poverty reached outside the home, into the parks, schools and playgrounds. With poverties reach being that extensive, there was something other than adversity causing this. Louis Gates wrote an article about this called “Black America and The Class Divide.” (Jr.)

I the article Race the Power of an Illusion, Dalton Conley says, “the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s really marks both an opportunity and a new danger in terms of racial relations in America. On the one hand, the Civil Rights era officially ended inequality of opportunity. It officially ended de jure legal inequality, so it was no longer legal for employers, for landlords, or for any public institution or accommodations to discriminate based on race. At the same time, those civil rights triumphs did nothing to address the underlying economic and social inequalities that had already been in place because of hundreds of years of inequality.” (Conley pp 1). What goes on in the American ghetto is not as glamorous as Hollywood makes it out to be now, this film does a great job at depicting what life in the ghetto for black teens is really like. The ghettos in America are full of broken culture that is left behind from centuries of oppression by the white man. Most teens like those in the movie never make it out of their neighborhoods alive. Thousands of kids die every years from gang on gang violence, damaging all chances of them escaping the ghetto and making something of themselves. Death, gangs, and drugs is the more common way that young people are left with to deal with a life of poverty and survival that seems to have no escape.

The discriminating social stratification in 1950’s developed a set of servile behavior on the blacks. They were thought to be inferior to whites, and were treated accordingly. Moreover, different parts of the country had various ranges of sensitivities while dealing with the blacks. For example, in Mississippi things were particularly tense after the Parker lynch case. No black man would dare look into any white man’s eyes in fear of the repercussions. On the bus, a man warned Griffin to watch himself closely until he caught onto Mississippi’s ways. In an extreme case like this, it was vital to learn about their roles and behave accordingly.

Growing up in Baltimore is “oppression by a force is the act of ‘imposing on another or others an object, label, role, experience, or set of living conditions that is unwanted, needlessly painful, and distracts from physical or psychological well-being” (Black & Stone 104). Baltimore is a place where because of the crime, it is very hard to move into a world beyond the crime and personal struggles, and even if a person somehow finds a way “privileged status allows the privileged to remain insulated and distant from the oppressed.” (Black & Stone 97). Unlike majority of whites, blacks live in urban neighborhoods with ghettos.

This is proof that there is racial discrimination in law enforcement that affects police brutality. This also reinforces the culture of people of color being less human than white people, which takes its roots all the way back to slavery in America. When slavery was still prevalent in the United States, white people believed that black people(slaves), did not feel pain like they felt pain. After slavery was abolished, black people were still strongly regarded as inferior to white people and white people still saw them as wild creatures rather than human beings. White people saw themselves superior to every other race of people, so it was common for them to mistreat other races that weren’t white. This mindset is not as strong as it was in the past but, it is still strong enough to affect the choices police officers make during interactions with people of color. As a result of discrimination at the police level, many people have turned to court system’s to reach justice.

All of this led to an increase in the number of Americans that can own their own homes. Government rigged the housing market to encourage Americans to become property owners. The government then started to underwrite the property owning idea, and that is what brought lenders and buyers together. The episode then goes on to describe a wall that was built because the government required it to be built. On one side of the wall it was mostly white residents. That was the side that was aloud to receive loans from the government. On the other side was a neighborhood with mostly black residents and those residents were not aloud to receive loans from the government for mortgage because “African Americans were regarded as fundamentally uncredit worthy” (Cwhite2000. Safe as Houses). This incident separated the city by not only credit, but by race. Those that were in the black part of town had to pay a significantly higher interest rate than those that lived in the white part of town. These two types of borrowers were later listed as being “prime” or “subprime.” During this time, blacks were excluded from being involved in the new property owning society. This exclusion caused an increase in urban, racial violence. The violence was mostly against property due to this decision. Although there was violence caused by this decision that was made, property ownership is still a considerably good investment.