Young Black Male

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 “Black Men and Public Spaces”, Brent Staples is in his early twenties and is faced with the menacing crime of being a black man in the 1970’s. As Staples likes to walk the streets at night due to his insomnia, every stranger that comes close enough to realize that he’s a tall black man lets their fear take control of them as they avoid him to the point of fleeing. To the eyes of people (mainly women) at night, he was no different from any other thug or criminal who prowls the street. Having moved to New York, and growing accustomed to being perceived as a threat, Staples learned to properly give people their space to intimidate them less as he walks the streets. Despite being a journalist, he has even had security called in on him at a

In his Essay “Black Men and Public Spaces,” Brett Staples’ illustrates the way black men are stereotyped, and seen as muggers, rapists, or worse. His purpose was to inform readers about how black men are mistaken to be aggressive and hostile individuals, and he planned on enlightening people who are afraid of black people in order for them to not be afraid when they encounter one of them. Staples begins his essay with an anecdote to demonstrate to his readers the focus for the rest of the essay. Brett Staples frequently narrates his personal experiences, reinforcing his message, and making the audience sympathetic to his point of view. Staples wants his audience to

In the essay “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples I witness the problems that African American men must go through. Is it right to judge people by appearance alone? I don’t think it is okay for people to deal with that. In the world today racial profiling still exists, People of color must walk and talk a certain way just to appease those who are near. In this essay, Brent Staples is that man who has to adjust his behavior in public to ease the nerves of anyone who may be near to him.

Black Males vs. Equality In the essay, “Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples discusses how black men are perceived. This essay first made an appearance in 1986 in Harper’s Magazine. Staples graduated from Widener University with honors. He also earned an MA and PhD from the University of Chicago in psychology.

Throughout the story, Staples references the ideas that the world he lives in is unsafe for a young, but large black man. “They were babies, really—a teenage cousin, a brother of twenty-two, a childhood friend in his mid-twenties—all gone down in episodes of bravado played out in the streets.”, stated by Staples points towards the idea that he grew up in a rather unsafe environment, filled with violence and crime. Specifically, Brent Staples, an educated black man, clued the reader in that he was not a typical black man of the 1970's or 1980's and he worked hard to stay hidden or in the shadows so he could survive. Surviving societies misguided ideas that because of the way he looked or appeared took Staples time to learn during his life. In

The essay “Just Walk on by: Black Men and Public Places” by Brent Staples, and “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” by Judith Ortiz Cofer illustrate the prejudices some people have. They both describe how the way they look gets them discriminated by others. Brent Staples, because he is African American is perceived as a criminal; Judith Cofer is a Latina and is mistaken for a waitress while she waits in a restaurant. Both stories give numerous examples of prejudice. Also, each of these writers have a larger purpose, different reasons for writing their story: Staples’ reason for writing his essay is mainly to express to the reader how these prejudices affected him as well as other black men all over the country and how

Revealing his senses of “[surprise, embarrassment, and dismay]” when he first experiences the effects of society’s prejudice toward casual African Americans, Staples forms a connection with his readers. Elaborately recounting this initial encounter, the writer also suggests that this memory has been permanently and vividly imprinted in his mind for a reason: it pains him deeply. Tearing down the emotional wall between himself and his audience, Brent Staples presents himself as passionate about spreading awareness about the assumptions incorrectly attributed to African American males. However, the author politely attempts to comprehend the rationale behind people’s baseless fear of black men. Understanding that “[w]omen are particularly vulnerable to street violence,” Staples can perceive the reasoning behind the fear of casual passersby. Displaying open-mindedness, not only to his readers but to his opposers too, the writer exhibits his ability to genuinely respect others’ opinions: a pleasant

Staples, Brent. “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space.” 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology, Third Edition, edited by Samuel Cohen, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011, 383-386.

“Black Men and Public Space” written by Brent Staples is an essay filled with a great personal experience and literary elements. The essay is about Brent and how he grew up with racism all around him. Brent is a tall black male and many people judge him how he looks and become scared when he passes by, thinking that he will mug them. Brent explains his struggles and experiences throughout the essay using many literary elements.

When he was in high school, being one of the very few black students, he began to feel racially conscious.

Individuals should not feel compelled to remain a fixture in their respective culture or community because one has to cope with societal criticism based on the fictitious perceptions by fanatic individuals of society. In “Black Men and Public Space,” author Brent Staples demonstrates this by arguing that because of his culture, he is categorized as a criminal since he and most stereotyped criminals come from the same cultural background. Staples explains that he is a colored man who walks home but always minds his own business. But even though he does so, society views his appearance as a threat. He narrates an interaction he had with a woman where they were walking on the same side on the sidewalk, but after she noticed him, she took off and was across the street within seconds. Staples describes that he was only twenty-two years old at the time and was a college graduate of no harm whatsoever. As Staples explains to the audience how the women made him feel he describes that, “Her flight made me feel like an accomplice to tyranny. It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto” (Staples 267). Because Staples is bound to culture and his physical appearance is the same as those of criminals, the mindset of society is negative towards him without reason. Staples uses the literary device simile, a figurative comparison of two things often dissimilar using connecting words, to argue that since

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

This encounter causes him to distance himself fully from his race and his final decision to pass. The narrator gives up his dream of making music for the sake of African Americans because he does not want to be “identified with people that could with impunity be treated worse than animals.” Although, throughout the narrative, the narrator does not fully reject his African American roots he states “I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race; but I would change my name, rise a moustache, and let the world take me for what it would; that it was not necessary to go about with a label of inferiority pasted across my forehead” (Johnson 139). As the narrator life goes on, he begins to feel regretful for holding himself back from his African American roots. If he decided to not pass as a white man, he could have embraced the African American societies in which could have potentially made a difference. This racial identity crisis, of not knowing what could happen with being either or race, prevented the narrator from pursuing his dream of becoming a musician, just to be a mediocre white businessman. The narrator had given up his talent just for safety and advantageous white men had during this

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.