Brent Staples Just Walk On By

Essayist and novelist, Brent Staples, in his essay "Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space" describes the accusatory altering effects of racial profiling and stereotyping occurring within the cities of Chicago. Staples purpose is to express to the reader the shift of the atmosphere when a black man enters a room. He creates an accusatory tone to show that he's an innocent man incriminated of committing crimes due to his ethnicity. Staples states “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways” he builds credibility by allowing readers to speculate on racial profiling through his personal experiences and appealing his readers with both logic and emotion to support his viewpoint.

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

In “Just Walk on By” by Brent Staples, the author uses pathos and ethos to get across his message on how subconscious racism and prejudice is still prevalent in today’s society. His main focus is the stereotypes, and the struggles as a result of those stereotypes, that black men have to deal with in society consistently that can affect daily life in ways that many don’t tend to consider.

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.

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.

Alexander’s main premises focuses on the large majority of African American men imprisoned today, as she reflects on the direct result of it that “young black men today may be just as likely to suffer discrimination in employment, housing, public benefits. And jury service as a black man in the Jim Crow era- discrimination that is perfectly legal, because it is based on one’s criminal record.” (Alexander, 181) Alexander points out not only how a significant portion of black men are ending up in prison, but how when released they face discrimination because of their criminal record making them unable to rehabilitate their lives and putting them back into the ghetto. Discrimination is a main factor which puts people of color in the penal system, and a main factor which when getting out keeps them from changing their lifestyle for the better.

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.

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.

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

Author and editorial writer for the New York Times, Brent Staples, skillfully uses both his educational and racial background to exemplify and reflect on the harrowing times black men faced during the mid-1900’s. Growing up the oldest of 9 in 1951, he pushed himself through primary schooling and against the predications of most, was accepted into college where he earned his B.A, and eventually, a coveted Ph.D. His anthology of literary works focus on politics and cultural issues and popularly include, Parallel Time: Growing up in Black and White, which won the Anisfield Wolf Book Award, An American Love Story, and the piece in mention, Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space.

In Brent Staples’ life, he has had many life experiences dealing with racism and has experienced racism first hand. Relaying these personal experiences is what he chose to write about in his essay. A life experience that Brent Staples shared is, “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 neighbourhood in an otherwise mean, impoverished section of Chicago…. She cast back a worried glance. To her, the youngish black man – a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into he 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. Within seconds she disappeared into a cross street.” (Staples

Similar to Dumas’ struggle in America as an Iranian, Brent Staples’ “Black Men and Public Space” details the struggle of being a black man in America. There are countless stereotypes implanted in the minds of Americans of the typical black person, aggressive, dishonest, ruthless, and overall ill intentioned. The first encounter with this racist outlook on blacks Staples had was in a wealthier area of downbeat Chicago, who began to appear worrisome and soon after proceeded to run from the author, who had done nothing intentionally to provoke fear in her. I agree that women should always place their safety as their first priority and should remove themselves from any situation in which they find themselves uncomfortable or at risk, but if blacks and whites can’t manage to walk the same streets without one race thinking the other is going to attack at any given moment due to the misconceptions floating around in their heads, then America really isn’t a land of diversity. It then becomes a land of hierarchy. As he says, Staples is too scared to even wield a knife at a chicken, let alone wield a knife at another human being, but by the color of his skin and appearance, one would never know this. Being perceived as dangerous, he writes, is a hazard in itself, and could easily land him in the back of a police car

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.

In his essay “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space”, Brent Staples argues that black men are often in danger of being victimized because of society’s perception of them as dangerous based on the stereotypes associated with them. Black men are more at risk than other races of suffering racial injustices because of stereotypes concerning crime, living conditions, and behavior.

In the essay, "Just Walk on By," Brent Staples succeeds greatly in demonstrating the current negative view of black men in America and the fact that racism is still alive today. He narrates a personal anecdote about the path he takes to understand the effect his appearance can have on his environment. Staples describes his extreme frustration at the fact that racism plays such a large role in his life. The essay illustrates that prejudice and racism are still prevalent by using many examples, his intended audience, imagery, and comparisons.