Many are unaware of the atrocities committed against African Americans after Hurricane Katrina. America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but those that lived in New Orleans were abandoned to die, making the scene look like a third world country. Once they were finally evacuated, families were separated, some were jailed, and others were put in highly guarded housing. Some saw the cruelty, birthing the idea behind the Black Lives Matter movement. Although founded in 2013, the Black Lives Matter activist movement still has momentum. One of the campaign’s focuses is police brutality and, specifically, the deaths it has caused in the African American population. Due to an unfair association with black people and crime, they become …show more content…
In Brent Staples, “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space,” the writer acknowledges the hardships of being a black man in this prejudice society. Examples of different situations that involve black stereotypes are embedded in the piece, for instance, Staples tells of a police officer who mistook a black reporter for a killer. Further, he states that black men exchange stories like this all the time, demonstrating how real unfair stereotypes are. Too often people assume that black males are criminals because of the negative stereotypes in our society. These inner judgments create a harmful environment which endangers minorities. Slavery started in America about 400 years ago, and sadly, we are still fighting racism to this day. The stereotype that black people are criminals most likely came from slavery times, as the slaveholders, to get more of a grip on their …show more content…
Too many believe that someone’s appearance, or color of skin, is the determinant for the type of person he/she is. When one thinks that he is in the presence of a criminal, he gets uncomfortable. Anyone can see the discomfort, for it is all over the news. Black people were 25 percent of those killed from police brutality, but represent only 13 percent of the population in 2017 (Lopez). Further, 39 percent of the people killed by police when not attacking were African Americans (Lopez). The police officers are uncomfortable in these situations because they have an image of what they think African Americans are, along with training that outlines them to shoot to kill. When the general public started to realize that police were involved in wrongful deaths occurring on a continual basis, my cousin joined the Police Academy. With concern for the Black Lives Matter movement, I asked how the Police Academy taught him to handle a gun. He reassured that they teach if anyone ever needs to pull out a gun, it should be because the situation has absolute need for it, meaning the criminal puts the public or other police officers in such a harmful environment that the only way to stop him/her is death. Since this is what they are taught, then it is reasonable to assume that the police officers do feel threatened, but this is the problem. The stereotype that depicts black men as threatening
Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space” is about how racial profiling has affected his life and made him think of himself as a perilous person. He supports this argument by allowing the readers to see things from his point of view during the times when he was treated like an outsider because of the color of his skin, followed by sharing how the situation made him feel confused and foreign. Staples’ wrote this essay in order to make readers become aware of how often racial profiling actually happens among men. His intended audience is primarily people of color because that is what his essay focuses on, but the intended audience is also those who are not of color because the author is trying to convince them about the
In Brent Staples’ "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space," Staples describes the issues, stereotypes, and criticisms he faces being a black man in public surroundings. Staples initiates his perspective by introducing the audience in to thinking he is committing a crime, but eventually reveals how the actions taken towards him are because of the fear linked to his labelled stereotypes of being rapists, gangsters and muggers. Staples continues to unfold the audience from a 20 year old experience and sheds light onto how regardless of proving his survival compared to the other stereotypical blacks with his education levels and work ethics being in the modern era, he is still in the same plight. Although Staples relates such burdens through his personal experiences rather than directly revealing the psychological impacts such actions have upon African Americans with research, he effectively uses emotion to explain the social effects and challenges they have faced to avoid causing a ruckus with the “white American” world while keeping his reference up to date and accordingly to his history.
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.
Growing up in a law enforcement family, police brutality and police race relations in the news are both something that have always made me feel uneasy. Nevertheless, in the poem “Cuz he’s Black”, I feel like Javon Johnson makes the problem of young black males being scared of the police obvious. Johnson states, “Still, we both know it’s not about able whether
Racism still exists today in this day and age. African American men are particularly stereotyped to be drug dealers, criminals, and gangsters. People have there on opinion about black men, if someone is sitting in their car, and a black man walks by they’re going to lock their door, because they’re scared there going to get robed. The stereotypes about African American men are not true. There are educated African American men just like any other race. Two articles “Black Men in Public Space” and “Right Place, Wrong Face” deal with the issue of two educated African American men that get treated differently, because of the color of their skin. The articles are focused on times when both
The black community has suffered from years of social inequality and oppression. Social issues such as the criminalization of black males is a frequent problem in society. These social issues highlight the reforms that need to be done to ensure that the nation is not consistently targeting and prejudging others based on their race, especially when dealing with legal authorities. Widespread awareness of recent deaths of black males reveals many unaddressed social issues including “justifiable homicides.” In an attempt to fight against inequality and end violence against African Americans, three women created an international activist movement using the hashtag #blackLivesMatter. This movement goes beyond the extrajudicial killings of black people;
A mixture of stereotypes, the lifestyles that come along with growing up in poor and dangerous surroundings, and other factors play a big part in why many fear black people as a race. A black male is walking near a women and crosses the street in order not to cross paths, as she spots him she sets her face on neutral, with her purse straps strung across her chest (521),gets in her car reaches over and locks her door.. You see these kind of things everyday, either on television or in real life. Mark Cuban, the owner of the nba franchise Dallas Mavericks had this to say on the subject in light of the Trayvon Martin case, "I mean, we 're all prejudiced in one way or another. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it 's late at night, I 'm walking to the other side of the street.. And the list goes on of stereotypes that we all live up to and are fearful of." Another example of this fear can be seen in the case of the black 22 year old John Crawford. While playing around with a toy gun in Walmart, a police officer gunned him down, claiming he believed it was a real gun. Would this have happened if the young man had been white, or if he had been wealthy? In the early 1900s drastic measures used to be taken because many feared that blacks would become too wealthy or accomplished. Even black people today Hangings, lynchings, kkk violence, and other violent acts would take place to stop this from happening. Some believe this still may be the root cause of today 's oppression of black people in this society. Conspiracy theorists even say the murder of Tupac Shakur, world famous rapper and black activist, was even a calculated step in order to stop black people from becoming too powerful. The same is thought of the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. While it cannot be proven, there are no facts to disprove these
In recent American culture, people have not peacefully practiced civil disobedience and have been unable to phrase their goals succinctly to the media. Marches and protests for the Black Lives Matter movement have sometimes involved violence. Because the Black Lives Matter movement is not an internationally connected movement and various people who may not practice formal civil disobedience can become involved, the movement has gained a negative reputation. The movement
Brent Staples published an article titled “Black Man in Public Spaces.” In this essay he uses a mixture of satire and frustration to emphasize issues with today's society, but also not make it as serious as it could be. Some would argue that this mix between satire and frustration could distract from the seriousness of the matter, but I believe it is important to understand that perspective. It is important for individuals to realize that those issues that were prevalent during that time period, are unfortunately still prevalent today. Not only does this bring an heir of humor to see how ridiculous these issues are, but also it bring these issues to light make them readily available, and open for discussion. With hope that newfound ideology
The author of Black Men and Public Space, Brent Staples, is an African American man who has a PhD in psychology from the University of Chicago and he is a member of the New York Times editorial board. Staples published an article that described several personal experiences in which he felt that the people around him were afraid of his presence. Staples’ purpose is to bring to light the prejudice that exists in everyday life for African Americans. In Black Men and Public Space, Staples appeals to pathos by using imagery and strong diction, and he uses a somber yet sarcastic tone to portray his message.
In Brent Staples’ essay, "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Spaces," and throughout society, races play a dominant role in perceiving a man or a woman as a menace in a public space. This type of racial segregation has been ubiquitous throughout history. In the 1850s, African Americans were frequently deprived of the basic necessities of life. In the 1940s,
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 one would expect him to be a mugger. Whistling classical music was referred to the “cowbell that hikers wear when they know they are in bear country”(Staples 226). The cowbell is used to protect hikers from bears. But in Staples case, it was to not be stereotyped and show that he is harmless. The general purpose of Staples essay was to inform the readers that stereotypes could affect African Americans and any other races.
In this narrative essay, Brent Staples provides a personal account of his experiences as a black man in modern society. “Black Men and Public Space” acts as a journey for the readers to follow as Staples discovers the many societal biases against him, simply because of his skin color. The essay begins when Staples was twenty-two years old, walking the streets of Chicago late in the evening, and a woman responds to his presence with fear. Being a larger black man, he learned that he would be stereotyped by others around him as a “mugger, rapist, or worse” (135).
degree in Behavioral Science. Staples also receive two doctoral award and later from graduated University of Chicago with his Ph.D. Degree in Psychology. In a society, black men are being discriminate because of their appearance, the way GOD created them by refereeing them by the hair texture, huge lips, dark skin and gigantic buttock and also the way they dress them self or the way they live they life, on the other hand some white see them a s criminal or rapist, and this occurs as a result of Misrecognition and Criminalization. In the article “Black Men and Public Space,” Staples deliberate about how black men of to give space to white women in public space, if not they are criminalize as
The Black Lives Matter movement has recently created a surge of support, slowly but surely throughout the passing months and years. People around the United States and even the world are tired of the abuse and violence the black community has gone through. One by one, protesters and activists are coming out of the shadows and fighting for more representation and rights for the African-American community along with the injustice toward black people. In particular, over 50,000 protesters marched in New York City seeking for an end to police brutality and racism across america. More importantly, other rallies took place across America as well such as, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Denver. Synead Nichols, a blacks rights