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Summary Of Black Men And Public Space By Staples

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Jacob Spigelman APEL III 21 September 2016 Black Men and Public Spaces Questions on Meaning 1. The purpose of the essay by Staples is to illustrate the hardships experienced by black men when they are in society. Staples explains this article by describing the events that he encounters countless times. Although he seems to be innocent, he is always accused of crimes due to his skin color. For example, Staples talks about how living in Brooklyn, women fear him. They cling on to their purses like their lives depend on it. (6) Another main purpose of the essay is to inform the readers about how black males are treated. This essay gives a whole new perspective on how black males are portrayed in society. Staples expresses his opinions and experiences. In Paragraph 4, Staples talks about how he became “thoroughly familiar with the language of fear”. He got used to people avoiding him or even officials pulling him over just because of his skin color. By writing this essay, not only is Staples informing us on the hardships and misconceptions of black males in public areas but he is also sharing his personal experiences …show more content…

The author sets the purpose of the passage by using victim in the essay’s first paragraph. The word victim means that they are the ones being attacked. By Staples using the word to describe the woman, he is showing that he is the one attacking her. The word victim also helps portray an innocent image of the woman. Victims are helpless and vulnerable and by Staples describing her as a victim, he shows that she is the prey under attack. Staples uses the word to get the reader’s attention about racial discrimination. The article describes how the black man is walking behind a white woman. Due to his skin color, the white woman walks at a faster pace due to previous assumptions of black men. Black men are perceived to be of danger to others, known as racial profiling. African Americans are the suspects for many events solely based on the color of their

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But back to Staples’, he once said that a woman cast a worried glance at Staples when she saw him walking down the street. Staples found this to be a little strange, and as he walks too close to the woman she seems to pick up her pace of speed after a few glimpses of Staples. In this part of the essay, Staples had a sense that a woman who barely knows him was probably Black Men in Public Page

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Empathy and Acceptance First, Brent Staples, “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space,” addresses his personal experience of being a black man but also being stereotyped throughout his life. Truthfully, he identifies and tries to understand that woman fear him to be a rapist or a violent criminal by the color of his skin: “I understand of course, that the danger they percieve is not a hallucination. Woman are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are dratsically overrepresented among the perpretators of that violence.” In fact, Staple explains in the late 1970s and early 1980s of his personal stories of people misjudging his motives in public.

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Self blame isn’t the only emotion that staples uses, but he also shows anger in his writing. For example the author explains how the character does get mad at the way that others treat him which is shown when staples says “ over the years, i learned to smother the rage i felt…” showing how the main character has learned how to obtain his anger. Also Staples shows how he gets scared, this is shown when he writes “ Being perceived as dangerous is a hazard in itself” Staples shows how he knows that he can be in danger when he is perceived as dangerous to

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Staples uses a lot of emotion in the narrative pertaining to pathos with his word choice. The emotional connection keeps the reader feeling sympathy for the author, but does not allow the audience to have empathy towards him, or the black male, due to the connection and reliability of the white woman. The empathy comes from his personal experiences, “At dark, shadowy intersections, I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, of the driver-black, white, male or female- hammering down the door locks” (Staples). With his personal experiences uses dark and shadowy two words associated with danger or has an eerie connotation to

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Staples includes this revelation in order to present the audience the fear those around him felt. He reminisces a situation when he encountered a woman of the street, demonstrating her fear by stating that “women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically

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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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Throughout his essay, Staples is able to make the audience understand what he has to deal with as a black man. Staples does this by using words and phrases such as, “...her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny” and “... I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area…” (542). By writing and describing how he (Staples) feels, the audience is able to get an inside look into how black men are treated and better understand why society’s teachings, play a vital role in how we see each other. Staples’ powerful writing also allows the reader to take a step back and see how as a society, people make judgements on others based on appearance alone.

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“Black Men and Public Spaces” Diagnostic Essay Brent Staples in “Black Men and Public Spaces,” illustrates the inescapable prejudices and stereotyping that African-American men face in America. He does this by relating to his audience through his personal experiences with stereotyping, and sharing his malcontent on how these events have made him alter his way of living. From “victimizing” woman, watching people lock themselves away, and having to whistle classical music to calm the nerves of people around him; Staples builds a picture to help people better sympathize and understand his frustration. Although Staples describes himself as a college graduate, a journalist, and a softy in the face of violence, he details that the overall public deems him a dangerous criminal.

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Author and editorial writer, Brent Staples acknowledges this issue as well as experience many situations in which people distinguish him from others. Brent Staples message in his essay titled “Just Walk On By” is conveyed to the audience through many rhetorical devices in which he suggests that stereotypes of race and gender can impact someone 's life in the easiest ways. Brent Staples use of pathos creates an emotional connection and pulls the reader into his essay, through his anecdotes and diction. His intro paragraph tells an interesting story, in a way that readers often forget what type of passage they are reading. Staples uses of phrases such as “my first victim”, “seemed menacingly close” “picked up her pace” and notably “running in earnest” (1-2).

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Americans Stereotypes: Loosening stereotypes Americans are always scared when they see a black man and think about them trying to harm them. Actually, that isn’t always the case and isn’t the case a lot of the time. Brent Staples in his writing Black Men in Public Spaces shows some of the societies stereotype issues. Americans should stop stereotyping blacks, not purposely go around them at night, and he shouldn’t have to whistle to make people comfortable around him. Americans put stereotypes on different ethnicities.

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