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Just Walk On By Brent Staples Analysis

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In Brent Staples “Just walk on by” he uses ethos to show the reader that he is a kind men. Staples has been perceived dangerous because of his color. One of the first instance he recalls, “one night in Chicago a women misjudged Staples to be a mugger, leaving him with humiliated. Others thought he was dangerous. Staples later moved to New York where he had similar encounters. Staples uses words such as ‘victim’ and ‘mean’, by doing this he sets a picture in the readers head that when he came up behind this lady on the street, something was going to do happen to her. One strategy of ethos appeal that staples uses to represent himself as exactly the opposite of the negative stereotypes. He states “As a softy who is scarcely able to take a knife to a raw chicken – let alone hold it to a person's throat – I was surprise, embarrassed, and dismayed all at …show more content…

Staples use the word softly to confront the reader and to have a connecting with the reader’s emotions. Although he may be black he doesn't want to cause harm to anyone. The white woman is stereotyping him as a dangerous black man, even though she's wrong. Even though he may look like it to her when he came up behind her, he is not dangerous and does not want to harm her. As Staples continues, he begins to reveal his own emotions about the situation stating that he was made to feel guilty, and even annoyed. By changing immediately from identifying the woman as his victim to then stating how her response caused him to feel bad about himself, he starts to allow the reader to empathize with him and really involves them in the emotional state. Staples does an outstanding job in drawing a guilty sensation from the audience. "I grew accustomed to never being comfortable”. This is one of the most influential statements in this passage because it makes the reader begin to feel guilt and really put themselves in the writer's shoes, drawing a huge emotional response to

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According to West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, a study in Maryland revealed that “70 percent of those stopped and searched on a stretch of I-95 were African American- despite the fact that they represented only 17 percent of drivers on the road.” In light of this confounding statistic, it can be seen that racism and racial profiling was, and still is, an issue in society. Even so, in his essay “Just Walk on By”, Brent Staples apprises of his story as a young, black man growing up in a large city and him facing racial profiling on the city streets. Furthermore, Staples shows his message that many people are willing to judge a person and assume what that person might have done and will do by their outside appearance by using a strong sense of Pathos and showing his persona through his own portrayal of his experience.

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He proved it by using ethos, pathos, and logos on his essay he wrote called, “Black Men and Public Space.” Staples who is six feet two inches with a beard approached that several people, especially women, sees him as a mugger, a rapist, or worse. Staples begins his essay with “My first victim…” this shows that Staples sees himself as a threat to others because

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Staples shows us just how uncomfortable he is "As a softy who is scarcely able to take a knife to raw chicken let alone hold it to a person's throat-I was ...dismayed all at once. Her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny" (Staples 2). The "flight" analogy uses symbology to show that because of this racial stigma he misses out on a potential lover or friendship opportunity because of people reaction toward his skin color. It is clear that this has an impact on Staples loathing and to be seen as friendly. Staples describes his upbringing as anxious and a violent environment.

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He exhibits an understanding of different scenarios and dangers people face. Staples is able to convey a message, that people don’t always fit the stereotypes society gives them, by using Pathos to show his comprehension to the audience and he uses diction to help the audience get a better grasp on how discrimination looks from two points of view.

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Although Staples means no harm, his "broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket" (1) strike fear into the hearts of people who walk in the same street as him. They mistake him to be a "mugger, a rapist, or worse" (1) because of his tall, dark appearance. Staples believes himself to be an ordinary person who is no different from the rest. When others see him as a burglar, criminal, or a murderer, he feels offended. Towards the end of the essay he mentioned that he tries to avoid narrow streets and wears business clothes to make others feel comfortable and

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He starts to allow the reader to empathize with him by going from identifying the woman as his victim to stating how her response caused him to feel bad about himself. Staples does an excellent job in drawing a guilty sensation from the audience, which is important when gaining an emotion response. "I grew accustomed to but never being comfortable," in my opinion, this is the most influential statement because it makes the readers feel guilt and think about being in the writer 's shoes (614). He accomplishes a rhetorical goal by pulling emotion from his audience. He makes the audience see from his level that racism still exists whether society chooses to believe it or

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This is the case that is made by Danielle McGuire in At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women’s, Rape, and Resistance-A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. In this text, the author expands the discussion of the challenges that African American women contended with prior to and during the civil rights movement during the mid-twentieth century. The author argues that the rape and sexual violence that was prevalent during this era and its impact on Black women received minimal attention. The organization and activism that was fueled by women was similarly minimized (McGuire, 2010.

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That it is reality and not just a concept based off of racism. Within these anecdotes Staples uses hyperbole to create suspense and kind of overstate the real issue at hand in order to show how terrible his position truly is. Such as in the opening sentence, “My first victim was a woman - white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties…(542)”. The woman is not an actual “victim” to any physical harm. Nothing happened to her except she feared for possibly her life.

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Staples uses imagery, so the reader can picture it when reading his work, and to help create a sort of dark and lonely tone. The character uses several personal experiences which use a large amount of imagery. This is better shown when staples writes “ As a softy who is scarcely able to take a knife to a raw chicken- let alone hold it to a person’s throat……”(542), The character feels as though he is being judged for being a certain color when really he is afraid himself of getting hurt; he is also very humble and shy because he is afraid to even harm something that isn’t alive. When being treated as guilty and wrong, shame will follow; the character feels shameful that the lady is afraid of him when he has done nothing wrong.

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In his introductory paragraph, he begins his anecdote with seemingly vicious words: “My first victim was a woman” (Staples 542). This

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Staples claims that at the time, “there seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance” between the two of them. Staples quickly became aware that she did not feel the same way; she repeatedly looked back at Staples with a worried glance. Staples suggests that in her opinion, the tall, black man walking behind her was too close for comfort. Staples claims that the woman picked up her pace and that “within seconds she

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1166 Words | 5 Pages

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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By using such a unique story with eye-catching phrases as the introduction of his article, Staples evokes the emotion of fear and unsettledness that soon proceeds to a feeling of relief, yet in a way that 's melancholic.

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By using like or as, Brent Staples is comparing himself as an accomplice because the woman ran away from him: when the woman is running away from him, she is symbolizing that she is scared of him

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