Why are people not judged by who they are but instead what they look like? People judge people without find out who they are, what are their values, or their upbringing. Instead, they are categorized as a particular type of people based on how they appear. In Malcolm Gladwell’s essay,”Trouble Makers” he tells of how wrongful generalizations are made on a group of people or things. While in Brent Staples essay,”Just Walk on By” he tells of his personal struggled being racially profiled as an African American man. Gladwell would respond to Staples argument that he is perceived unfairly due to the generalizations that are made towards Staples.
Gladwell would agree the discriminations that Staples faced was due to the same category problems
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It is clear that often times he can not be separated from another dangerous people. Staples says,”Then there was the standard unpleasantries with police, doormen, bouncers, cab drivers, and others whose business it is to screen out troublesome individuals before there is any nastiness” (52 Staples). The keyword before is italicized to emphasized there is a generalization that is made first. In order to prevent trouble those in power unfairly assume who they believe are trouble makers. Generalizations against African Americans cause for there to be extra attention towards him because they are supposed to be the criminals that cause trouble. Gladwell talks of making the wrong kind of generalizations. Generalizations that are based on race and gender are bound to change and can lead to ineffective profiling. Gladwell takes an example to drug smugglers and the New York Police Department’s methods of trying to stop these criminals. Gladwell says,”It doesn’t work to generalize about a relationship between a category and a trait when that relationship isn 't stable -or when the act of generalizing may itself change the basis of the generalization”(59 Gladwell). A drug smuggler can be of any race, gender, or religion and generalization such as these are unstable. Stable generalizations on how they act, and if there is alarm
“People don't rise from nothing....It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't”(Gladwell 18).
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines takes place in Louisiana in the 1940’s. When a young African American man named Jefferson is unfairly sentenced to death, school teacher Grant Wiggins is sent to try to make Jefferson a man before he dies. Throughout the novel, racial injustice is shown in both Jefferson and Grant’s lives in the way other people view them.
Everyone has privilege in one way or another. People feel that privilege is give to one race more, instead of every race. The race that it’s getting more privilege is the White race and with that comes White privilege. White means the people who have a light skin color also known as Caucasian or European and privilege means an advantage over others. An example of privilege is getting away with something that someone may not get away with. So White privilege is defined as “an invisible package of unearned assets that [someone that is White] can count on cashing in each day, but about which [they were] ‘meant’ to remain oblivious” (McIntosh 1990: 1). McIntosh is saying in that quote is that Whites do not recognize that they have this privilege
Malcolm Gladwell, in order to make his argument seem credible, utilizes specific writing techniques. Gladwell frequently uses anecdotes about successful individuals as examples to further strengthen his argument. Gladwell write that, “One warm, spring day in May of 2007, the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Vancouver Giants met for the Memorial Cup hockey championships in Vancouver, British Columbia” (Gladwell 15). Frequently, Gladwell starts each chapter with a story about an individual group. These stories showcase the events and lives of successful people and are followed by Gladwell’s analysis of their success. By using specific, descriptive anecdotes, Gladwell is proving the credibility of his argument. Instead of just reciting his analysis,
For instance, Staples faces many stereotypes. He is a journalist who is consistently judged due to his appearance. In paragraph 1, “As I swung onto the avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance between us.” Staples creates an image by describing himself as a monster but his description is based on how the outside world see him. He considers his presence a cause for altering others emotion. According to Stereotypes by Rachel E, “In the United States, some of the longest-held and potentially most detrimental stereotypes are those about African Americans.” This relates to Staples crucial journey to greatness. Staples was perceived as a mugger, a murderer, and a rapist because of his outside image and how others viewed
Through his narrative structure, selection of detail, and manipulation of language, Staples demonstrates his understanding of his presence threatening pedestrians. Discrimination is not uncommon, and, sadly, this distorted world will never be rid of it. However, one should still strive to get to know someone before making assumptions about them, as the old saying goes, “Never judge a book by its cover.”
Staples was taken a gander at as a black man who needed to take or hurt somebody each time he was within the sight of a white person. Staples likewise clarified how as a young man he saw extreme folks going to prison and how he lost his sibling, high school cousin, and dear companion. He was practically expelled from an occupational building because the director had confused him with a thief. Following quite a while of being mixed up for a criminal, Staples discovered that on the off chance that he would avoid potential risk to make himself less undermining. He does that by changing his physical conduct.
Once in a while, it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to. Gladwell believes that cultural legacies are powerful forces. Cultural legacies are the customs of a family or a group of people, that is inherited through the generations. According to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, Cultural legacies is something that’s been passed down for generations to generations. It depends on what type of legacies was passed that will affect a person. If a good legacy was passed down, someone can keep that legacy going by trying hard at keeping the legacies going. If a bad legacy was passed down; I believe that cultural legacies can be altered or changed, by good working habits, determination, and a positive mindset to succeed. Culture can affect either positively or negatively, but we have the power to turn our cultural
Tal explained in the article how her family suffered in their early ages and escaped some of their problems, but when they entered a new country they were introduced to new conflicts that they eventually resolved by giving up some of their valuable time and also by teaching themselves to run a business that they have passed onto their granddaughter as a privilege. The argument of this article states that society will judge you in anyway possible because of the privileges you have, but remembering what Tal included in her article saying “My appearance certainly doesn’t tell the whole story, and to assume that it does and that I should apologize for it is insulting. ”(Fortgang 2014:16). As stated in this quote, a person’s appearance will never tell you their story, you will judge them for how they look, but that way is not the correct way to judge anyone, the only way to judge a person is to not judge them at all, because every person has challenges they have to face to become who they are today.
In a perfect world, everyone WOULD be judged based on the content of their character. But we do not live in a perfect world and humans have always pre-judged others based on physical and cultural differences. These are the first things we notice about a stranger, and first impressions are hard to forget. Racism and prejudice have caused us to make dire mistakes in the past, but we have learned from these mistakes and have bettered our society. However, society today is filled with stereotypes and prejudices about people of certain races. It is evident in all aspects of our lives, including media, culture, and even the legal system.
Life in America, spanning the entire decade of the 1960’s, categorized itself through rampant racism and discrimination that affected countless citizens. Throughout this time period, segregation created friction between white Americans and those of color. The circumstances constituted a two-sided argument between those who believed in separatism and those who embraced cohesion. Lack of governmental interference caused an uprise of leadership, particularly from people of color. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, preached the advantages of peaceful protest, whereas Malcolm X promoted the power in numbers. Malcolm focused on creating a separate black community, governed by people of color. His religion created a foundation for the rest
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
Stereotypes create misconceptions of race. People are quick to judge and can mistaken someone for who they really are. Physical appearance can change the way people conceive who you are and categorize you in a group. Staples technique’s of changing his appearance did not really adjust the way others looked at him. Brent Staples tried to convince others that he was not who they judged him to be.
Why one judges another may be due to the fact that people have been doing so for centuries and it has simply progressed over the years. In her Difference Matters book, Brenda Allen states that a “reason we might suppose that certain persons occupy particular roles… stems from a complex history in the United States of systemic, socially reproduced inequities” (2-3). The problems America faced when becoming a unified country were not easy, as many know. Though social injustices such as racial and religious discrimination, gender inequality, are not as predominant today as they used to be, the history of it remains. People are reminded of the past inequalities and continue to judge others intentionally or subconsciously. Furthermore, the connection between “identity shifts and historical cultural configurations, [suggests] that certain character types are encouraged by cultures through differential socialization practices” (Howard 7). The way people act is influenced by when, where, and who with they were raised. Someone born in the 1930s will have different surroundings, which will effect how that person acts and thinks than compared to someone born in the 2000s. Identity itself and how one perceives another individual’s identity goes hand in hand with the history of how it came to
Staples describes his experiences in Chicago of being racially profiled, for example: people locking car doors as he walked by, people crossing to the other side of the street after seeing him, or police officers assuming him to be a threat. Then, Staples moved to Brooklyn and experienced similar responses, seen as “a fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact” (136).