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Black Men And Public Space By Brent Staples Summary

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In the article “Black Men and Public Spaces,” Brent Staples talks about black men being stereotyped as dangerous people in the society. When there is a crime a black man was always the ones that committed the crimes. Some people see all black men as the muggers, the rapist, or the murderer. When he was headed into work with a deadline story, someone mistaken him as a burglar. He didn’t have any I.D on him, so he didn’t have any way to prove who he was. He had to hope that someone in the office to recognize him. Another time was when a reporter was mistaken for the killer when investigating a crime and the police had him at gunpoint. He was a black man as well. Even when he walked down the streets, especially at night, people get scared and …show more content…

When people saw him, they came to a conclusion that he was dangerous rather than just getting to know him as a person and judge him on the way he acts and the way he looks. He mentioned in the article that when he walked by vehicles he could hear the doors locking from the people inside the vehicle being scared. People would run across the street when they saw him coming because they didn’t want to walk beside him. However, under those situations, he couldn’t blame the people for being scared, but still it is an uncomfortable feeling. So now whenever he went out in public places he changed up the way he appears; for example, he would whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and the more popular classical composers, doing so, some people even joined in. Occasionally he would walk past them so they wouldn’t think that he was following them. This man shouldn’t have to be changing his actions and how he goes about in public just because people stereotype him as being a mugger, rapist, or a

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In his article, “Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples writes about his encounters with people during his nighttime walks in and around the city streets of Chicago and New York. He argues that, as a result of crimes committed by criminals of African American descent, people tend to quickly avoid him because they assume that he will likely mug them because of the color of his skin. Nevertheless, on the subject as to whether this article is an appropriate and good example of the reaction of others, it is quite obvious that this is a good example of the reaction of others, given how Brent Staples spent much of his time working in the city as a journalist, and that crime rates are high in inner city areas. However, despite the fact that this

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In the article, “Black Men in Public Places,” Brent Staples first grabs the reader by telling them about his first victim. This, “victim,” was not harmed by Staples at all, he only walked passed her at night, which made her incredibly uncomfortable and she was not the only person that had felt this way. Staples describes how people would lock their car doors when he would walk by, just because of his appearance, to them he looked the same as a mugger or rapist. Staples moved to New York, and faced the same racial profiling he did back in his hometown. Staples describes himself as shy and timid, while the people where he grew up were gang affiliated and were dying at young ages.

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Everyone wants to end up successful, right? Success is the only way to achieve great things with your time on this planet full of opportunities. One must have an education, and acceptable personality and make the correct decisions to create those opportunities. Fear governs critical choices in everyday life. Mistrust and fear of authority causes citizens to possess a disinclination to call the police for help.

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In “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples shows how being a young black man has affected him. He is perceived as dangerous right away as he arrives in Chicago. This is known as stereotyping. Stereotyping is a fixed idea or image made of a person. Putting a label on someone is something done everyday.

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Throwing himself on the line for others was his specialty. His first sign of carelessness for himself was when he painted himself black to impersonate the famed runner Jesse Owens. In this time era, being an African-American was a crime and in Nazi Germany, it was unheard of to even want to be one of them. “You might well ask just what the hell he was thinking. The answer is, probably nothing at all.

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Men of all ages and races are equally as likely to be perceived as a threat to women. Some argue that race is the determining factor of whether one is likely to be perceived as a threat. Brent Staples, an African American author, argues this in the essay “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Ability to Alter Public Space.” For example, he states that “Women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators

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The reality of stereotype coming from Americans, in the perspectives of the two authors, becomes more and more popular in society in general, and in America in particular. By describing the community’s thoughts, recounting their own experience, and offering solutions to the discrimination, Staples and Cofer agree with each other on how cognitive abilities among the nation should be changed. While people all use stereotypes, all the time, without noticing it, so many people feel incompatible to live in a discriminative culture. Therefore, “Black Men And The Public Space” and “The Myth of Latina Women” are written in order to fight against the belief of categorizing a certain group of people, and to encourage individuals from ethnic groups to

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The misconceptions people have about Staples because he is a young black m an is that he is a mugger, gang member or up to no good for that matter. He feels that he causes these thoughts to people especially white females because whenever he is around people with a white skin color get tense. When he walks by a women she gets nervous in which her body language shows. She tenses up, holds her purse tighter, walks faster and sometimes even crosses to the other side of the street.

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He is a hardworking man who offers help to anyone when in need. He does so without any desire to be rewarded in return. Being a black man that is disabled, he is constantly being discriminated against for his differences. He is always a victim of people’s misjudgments and unfair treatment. His generosity and willingness to help others was what eventually led him into trouble.

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W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk (1903) is a non-fiction pastiche of autobiography, sociology, and philosophy about race in the Twentieth century. Du Bois focus is on the problem of color in America; while introducing the concept of the double veil consciousness. Double veil consciousness as Du Bois defines is the “sense of always looking at one’s self through the eye’s of others,” (page 694). James Weldon Johnson’s novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912) tells the story of young, gifted protagonist who figures out he has “negro blood” in him.

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In his essay, “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”, Brent Staples uses the rhetorical strategies of anecdote and diction in order to convey his message that due to racial discrimination black people (mainly men) have to change the way they naturally conduct themselves in public for they run the risk of something terrible happening to them. Staples uses anecdotes to bring in the personal side of the message to the audience. Staples creates a persona of innocence and almost alienation in his writing. Anecdotes such as his both instances in which he accidently scared women on walks and the time in which he and another reporter were mistaken for murder suspects or robbers are used to show real life proof of his message.

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This unfortunate stereotype is still highly prevalent today. We all read about African-American men committing crimes, we see it in the news and on social media. That goes to say, not all crimes are committed solely by black men, and black men should not be treated like criminals based off of others wrongdoings. Staples recounts the events of a night he went for a walk. On this walk, he encountered a well-dressed white woman (as he so described) who instinctively mistook him for a criminal.

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Staples moves on to state that he never became comfortable with people who crossed to the other side of the street rather than pass him (183). By providing examples of people desperately trying to distance themselves from him when he didn’t exhibit any malicious intention in his actions, Staples shows that he was misinterpreted as dangerous solely because of his physical

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The women’s racism caused her reaction of “running in earnest,” “worried glances” and her eventual getaway, exemplifying the prejudice of a black male. He further demonstrates his “ability to alter public space” when just crossing “in front of a car stopped at a traffic light.” He hears the “thunk” of the driver locking their car regardless of them being “black, white, male, or female.” Staples understands the world is dangerous and people have the right to fear those around them, however, he continues to endure discrimination. But I am the person making those judgements.

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They are not all bad most of them are just walking or trying to get somewhere. Americans shouldn’t stereotype different ethnicities. People should not try to go around them because they look scary, and he shouldn’t have to whistle to make people around him conformable. What makes us think this way; well it’s because of what media says. What we see is what we think we believe from one news story on a black guy, and so we think that they all are like that

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