Brent Staples uses his own personal anecdotes in his essay that help support his claim that he is an innocent black man in America that has been a victim of racial profiling. At the beginning of his essay to pull the reader in and uses diction to create this suspenseful tone, only to end of the essay off with him fearing more of what is America’s perception of him than his “victims” fear of him. At the beginning of the essay, Staples it off by saying “My first victim was a woman - white…” This first sentence hooks the reader in and to some degree paints what the victim’s perception of him was especially when Staples describes himself as “a broad six feet two inches with a beard… seemed menacingly close.” He creates this suspenseful scene to build a false …show more content…
He makes anecdotes of all the times when people would suspect that he or his peers were going to cause trouble in a public area when all they were doing was going to a job or just simply communicating with a police officer. Because of these anecdotes, he is creating a lot of pathos in his writing. Especially halfway through the essay his tone changes to a more nonchalant response to being profiled. He gives off that nonchalant feeling when he states “...I was to become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear… On less traveled streets after dark, I grew accustomed to but never comfortable with people crossing to the other side of the street rather than pass me.” It makes the reader question why is behavior like this even acceptable as the victim of behavior like this is feeling as though this is becoming normalized. His essay also has ethos as well, as since he his writing in first person, thus giving off the impression that he is an authority figure over what he is talking about when he hits on the subject of racial profiling, as he has lived through
It gives the reader a feeling of sympathy for the African American male, while also educating them on how to handle a situation if they are put in one similar to any of these scenarios. The reader is also able to comprehend that he knows why white people fear him and that he does not think it is an irrational fear. Although this essay is a little biased, it gives the reader a view from both sides of the fence. Staples essay was one that every white male and female should read. Maybe then, the readers would not be so scared of African American
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
Touching upon one specific case of this growing problem, she incorporates “Michael Brown,” who was an “18-year old unarmed black man shot down by a white police officer.” As heartbreaking as it sounds, it has happened on several occasions to men similar to “Michael Brown.” Accordingly, Myers formulates that it “is the same story. It is just different names.” Myers logically lists the other names of several black men who unfortunately fell victim to hate crimes, (Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin), as well as flashing their images on the screen. Not only does Verna Myers use imagery in order to show that there is an evident issue with brutality and racism, but she knows it will tug on her viewers heartstrings. Likewise, this makes her audience become wary and sympathetic towards the situation at
Among all races—not just Blacks—came the flood of support that was a product of the injustice swept upon Trayvon Martin and the whole black community. Following the trial concerning Trayvon Martin’s death came a wave of other White on Black injustices such as the cases of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and other cases not portrayed on a national platform that mirror issues shown in Baldwin’s “Going to Meet the Man.” In Baldwin’s story, Black people who had been protesting for the freedom to register to vote are treated terribly in prison by police because “they [are] animals, they [are] no better than animals, [and] what else could be done with people like [them]?” (231) Jesse—the police sheriff in the short story—kicked and beat the “ringleader” until blood was draining from the many orifices his face possessed. (232) While in the
He also shares some other situations women have feared the worst from him, but he does not blame them for being careful from the street when watching violence. Moreover, he is mistaken for a burglar when he run to his newspaper office in a late night with a deadline story in his hand or the story of black male journalist is convinced as the killer, and a woman lets her dogs out when he was at a jewelry store. After all problem above, Staples is trying to get the message across to the reader about how people have some misconceptions about African-Americans. He shows the perspective of himself who encounters public racism on a daily basis, and the prejudice based on the appearance.
In the writing “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples, located on www.learning.hccs.edu and published in 1986, the writing tells of a black man at the age of twenty-two who is viewed as a convict due to the prejudice wave consuming the United States. The publication opens with the young man walking the streets of Chicago during the dusk hours. A panicked woman walking ahead of him ran away. He was a black man with a beard, standing about six-two. His appearance made people nervous. He was seen as a rapist, mugger, criminal, and much worse due to how he was seen. Through this event, the author explains how the man was viewed during this period of time. Then, the man moved to New York City. Here, he felt the same discrimination. He was
Controversial author and Professor, Anthea Butler, strongly signalled in one of her very edgy pieces the obvious weight racial labelling and stereotypes have in mass media based on a string of mass shootings and similar crimes around the United States. Her piece explicitly uncovers the underlying racism in the media clearly proving the strong influence names and labels have inside a society affecting it in a positive or negative way whether it’s in fictional literature, or in real life events.
In this story, a white lawyer in 1930s Alabama must defend an African-American man accused of raping a white woman. At first, the black man’s case doesn’t seem to stand a chance against the word of a white woman. However, as the trial goes on, it appears that Tom Robinson, the defendant, has solid evidence that he is innocent. But at the end of the trial, Tom Robinson is found guilty of a crime he did not commit, simply because of the fact that he is black. The blatant racial discrimination expressed by the jury is shocking, but unfortunately not at all unexpected. Every single trial that involved a white person against a black person in that time period was ruled in favor of the white person. It is obvious that even though the events of the novel are fictional, they are extremely realistic, and the quote by Barbara Jordan ties directly into the novel To Kill a
Victimhood is socially constructed by a dominant culture wherein racism precedes in state procedures, and the liberal principles fail to acknowledge it. Cord Jefferson highlights in “The Zimmerman Jury Told Young Black Men What We Already Knew” the discrimination against people of color specifically the injustice that occurs towards black men in America by public and state officials. Being apologetic for public fear, afraid of getting into a fight and tolerating the indignity of strangers are a few of the racist actions that black men have tolerated for years to avoid being arbitrarily beaten, arrested, or worse being shot to death. The courts and state agencies have been established on the liberal principles and due process rules. As a result,
In his article “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space”, which first appeared in the women’s magazine Ms. Magazine and later Harpers, Brent Staples explores the discrimination he faced as a black man living in Chicago and New York. In writing this piece, Brent Staples hoped to use a combination of pathos and ethos to demonstrate to the women that read Ms. Harper’s that Staples is actually the victim when the women treat him the way they do and to get these women to view him, and other black men, differently and to make them realize that they are people too. Staples use of his ethos and pathos serve well to support his position and convince others to take a new perspective. Staples uses ethos in multiple ways
He creates this tone to convey his purpose to the reader which is that prejudice is still an ongoing problem in American society, and that it will never be a thing of the past. Staples gives many personal anecdotes that are very somber; the readers are affected by this because they can emphasize and feel the prejudice that the victim, Brent Staples, faces. Although Staples is never delighted with the positions he is in, he never shows his resentment. In one part of the article, Staples said, “It is not altogether clear to me how I reached the ripe old age of twenty-two without being conscious of the lethality nighttime pedestrians attributed to me.” (Staples, 2). Staples attributes that he knows many people in American society automatically assume that he is a threat to “their” society because of
His use of humor and irony once again make the reader stop and think about what society imposed upon him. Furthermore, his persona also shows him as a forgiving man and even shows his understanding for why things are like they are. He states that “Black men have a firm place in New York mugging literature.” He goes on to site authors like Norman Podhoretz who wrote pieces such as “My Negro Problem -- And Ours,” a piece that recounts the fear that he felt, growing up in terror of black
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
Staples starts off his articles with a very strong hyperbole, “My first victim was a woman- white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties.” (Staples 309) that is referring to the first person that ever used stereotypes to judge him. The woman showed a worried glance towards Staples, she picks up her pace and disappears to avoid him. This happened to him more than a decade ago by the time he writes this article, a bad flashback affecting him. He says the way that woman thought of him was a “…mugger, a rapist, or worse.” (Staples 339). This can get to a person, being judged this hardly based off the color of your skin. This incident left him feeling “surprised, embarrassed and dismayed all at once.” (Staples 340). It can mess up a person trying to find himself. Staples makes adjustments on his day to day life in order to make other people more comfortable in her presence “ On less traveled streets after dark, I grew accustomed to but never comfortable with people crossing to the other side of the other side of the street rather than pass me” (Staples 340). Once again the author is not comfortable in his own shoes as He tries his best to avoid one-on-one confrontations on the street. He tells a story of another black male journalist “Mistaking the reporter for the killer, police officers hauled him from his car nearly at gunpoint and but for his press credentials would have tried to book