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Comparison Of Just Walk On By: Black Men And Public Space

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Judith Cofer and Brent Staples both express their experiences of being judged and stereotyped in the public sphere. Cofer’s essay, “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria,” explains how she was typically stereotyped as an uneducated Latina. In Staples’ essay, “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space,” elaborates on how he is seen as a threat in the community due to his race. Although both essays express similar material based on judgement, each essayist presents their write up differently. Cofer has an aggrieved tone and uses experiences where she responds actively to being mistreated to express how she feels, whereas Staples’ tone is much more passive and he utilizes his experiences of mistreatment with humbleness. …show more content…

Throughout her essay, she recalled some of the many experiences of being stereotyped as a Latina in the wrong way such as being mistaken for a waitress during one of her events. In response to that, she expresses how she feels by reading to the woman who mistook her as a waitress and glared at her until the women felt embarassed. Cofer’s approach to this situation of being misjudged has an aggrieved tone to the passage. By feeling mistreated and offended, she responds back in a somewhat aggressive manner. Cofer also responds to another experience of being mistreated when a drunk guy sings Cofer “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” and “La Bamba,” in which she responded by telling his daughter not to ask what he does in the army. Cofer’s response can be interpreted as an aggrieved tone, yet she handled the situation well without bursting with anger. With that, Cofer’s approach in sharing her story is written with a lot of imagery from her experiences. Her essay is much more interesting than Staples’ essay because she lists multiple experiences of being misjudged and stereotyped from encountering a lot of different incidents that relate to being a Latina. Cofer elaborates on being misjudged based on her cultural beliefs, the traditions they practice, the type of clothing they wear, how she looks, and the stereotype of latinas being waitresses. She explores multiple areas of being misjudged rather than focusing on one

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