Just Walk On By Brent Staples Summary

In the scene described by the previous paragraph, racial stereotyping far surpassed the feeling of discomfort that many people do not want to deal with. A milder scene of a white man trying to pass through a black neighborhood demonstrates racial problems also. The egotistical attitude of the white man calling the black kids "Mo and Joe Black" ignited the teens to hose down and ruin the car. Mr. Mun Wah comments, "I think racism isn't just about giving out racial epithets. I think it's about what we don't say and what we don't see."("The Color of Fear", 3,4) Every ethnic group had their own name for each other. The three unemployed black men sitting on the corner had their own offensive name for the Koreans across the street, and the Koreans referred to the policeman with their own twist of insults. Even today the racial jokes, either out of jealousy or anger, continue to be told. Lee showed how something so insignificant could plummet into a deep problem. Lee also taught his audience that the stereotypes in his movie are all said in a habitual manner. The characters, like people of today, use common slurs out of habit. James Baldwin states his view on the subject, "I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with the pain." Perhaps people stereotype to block away the nuisances they so clearly think they can live without. In order to stop

Brent Staples, author of “Just Walk on By: Black Man in Public Space.” discusses when the white woman he comes across one day late at night was constantly turning back as if she feared him for the way he looked. Brent highlights racism that has occurred to him during the 1970s. This encounter happened in an impoverished part of Chicago; he describes himself as a “youngish black man--a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket” as he was walking late at night he did not understand why this woman was acting strange as if she feared him, and she

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.

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,

Cofer’s autobiographical essay delves into the harassment of women in society, and how men perceive race as an invitation. She uses examples of times where she was publicly humiliated when white men would break out into song, attempting to be funny by using racist remarks. Staples’s essay is similar in that it describes society’s vision of black men, but it is not about harassment. Rather, he uses instances where he felt embarrassed by the way society viewed him, such as being mistaken for a rapist in the opening paragraph.

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

The message that Brent Staples is trying to convey to the audience in his essay Just Walk On By, is that as a society we have positive and negative preconceived thoughts of other people who are of either the same or different race and gender. For Staples, this means that as a tall black man he has to deal with being seen as deadly and threatening to people who don’t know him. These people let their fear of biased opinions of black men think that all tall, black, and athletic men are going to attack them. Brent uses his stories of people’s fear and judgement of him, to allow the reader to both understand what the people were feeling and how he felt being judged.

In today's culture, people are often judged by stereotypical ideas about the color of one's skin. Brent Staples, in his article "Just Walk on By," illustrates multiple incidents where people look at him suspiciously even when he was doing nothing wrong. Staples takes on a somewhat tense yet satirical tone to inform his audience of the challenges often faced due to one's appearance even when on is just walking on by.

Since the time of slavery, racism has become a systematically integrated into the subconscious of nearly all Americans, and this subconscious bias can often go undetected by even the people who reside in it. In “The Good, Racist People,” Ta-Nehisi Coates shines a light on American on these social norms and lifestyles which many “good Americans” might not necessarily consider racism. Going beyond what most readers consider obvious, such as lynching and segregation policies, Coates brings up the real example of a deli employee falsely accusing an African-American man of shoplifting. On the basis of a mere assumption. When that African-American man was identified as Oscar winning actor Forest Whitaker, the incident caught national attention. The

Making a first impression is akin to a scientific process, albeit a biased one, in which one is put under personal microscopes and scrutinizing eyes frantically searching for a taxonomic stereotype: “black” and “white, “rich” and “poor”, “smart” and “simple”. In fact, one cannot go through a single day without being pushed and squeezed into these one-word adjectives - as if they could totally encompass the depth of an individual. In Deborah Tannen’s There Is No Unmarked Woman, women are “marked”, or judged, through such adjectives based on both the choices that they take and don’t take: from their attire, their hairstyles, their shoes, and even their relationship status. Whereas Tannen claims that women don’t have the freedom to be unmarked like men, Brent Staples’ conflict with his identity as a black man, described in his essay Just Walk on By, reveal a critical point of disagreement in which black men, like women, are also predominantly viewed as members of a stereotype; in which one realizes that - regardless of race, gender, nationality, or any other category - there is not one individual that is a stranger to being marked.

To engage a large audience, Staples appeals to readers with his use to two different points of views throughout the essay: societal views and black views. Staples tries to connect with the readers by giving examples of unconscious thoughts that run through the minds of most people when in the same situation as the “white women.” In his opening sentence, Staples calls the women a “victim.” In her own eyes, she herself was “victim” due to the influence of generalized stereotypes presented in our culture. She becomes quick to judge based on Staples appearance: his skin tone. Because of his color, his every action becomes nothing but threats and anxiety on the women. “She casted a back worried glance. To her, the youngish black- broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a

Both racism and violence are large themes of not just, Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space, but also of America during the mid-1900’s. Unfortunately, there still exists the same themes in today’s world even though the population is becoming increasingly more educated. Hate and discrimination are taught evils, not innate ones, and in order to prevent the need for stories such as Brent Staples’ to be told, society as a whole must band together to eliminate the occurrence of such a destructive, devastating

Today, racist sororities and fraternities on college campuses have grown to be a public crisis. Recently at the University of Oklahoma, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity released a video including racial slurs and lynching of African Americans (Glionna et al.). This activity shows that there is racism among Americans even in the twenty-first century. There are many other publicized cases involving racism in American society which proves that racism is not just an issue of the past. The past contains elements of racial misconduct that can be explained by James Baldwin and Brent Staples. Baldwin, a preacher and published writer, writes “Notes of a Native Son” to emphasize his experiences and actions towards racism of a different time (50-71). Staples, a reporter and columnist who wrote “Just Walk on By: Black Men in Public Spaces”, describes difficulties and stereotypes from the nation and how he suffered through, yet, another difficult time in American history (394-97). Both have a way with words in describing past racial issues. But in comparison of Baldwin and Staples, one can see that the type of racism they experience, their age and maturity, and their response to racism differ entirely by noting the different time eras of racism that each encounters.

Brent Staples, in his literary essay “Just Walk On By”, uses a variety of rhetorical strategies. The devices he uses throughout his essay effectively engage the audience in a series of his own personal anecdotes and thoughts. He specifically shifts the reader's perspective towards the unvoiced and the judged. Within the essay, Staples manipulates several rhetorical strategies, such as perspective and metaphor, in order to emphasize the damage stereotypes have caused against the mindsets and perceptions of society as a whole.

In his one of the most known articles, “Just Walk on By,” Brent Staples tries to touch readers’ hearts with his emotional words and an optimistic character. He points out an important yet normally disregarded issue of our society. He shows how a black man’s character is viewed in the society; they are mostly seen as thieves, robbers, rapists, muggers and as many other criminal personalities. However, Staples believes he is not one of those and supposes that all black men are not similar to how they are usually judged. Thus, Staples uses emotional appeal and his polite character as a way to gather audience’s sympathy towards black men.