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Staples uses persuasion to paint a vivid depiction of the frightening misconducts of being a black man in the seventies. However, I think Staples gets caught up in the thought of stereotypes. Staples fails to recognize that most of the reactions given to him are merely due to pedestrians being in strange circumstances. Individuals exabit fear when placed in unusual situations. Notably, as humans, we cannot see the minutest of details under poor lighting. It is for this reason that we cannot predict the outcome of night time situation. This fear of the unknown hinders our rational thinking abilities. When Staples uses the words “my first victim”, he is talking more about himself being the victim compared to the woman he just scared away (Staples). Conversely, I don’t believe the woman ran from Staples because he was African American. On that night, Staples was perceived as a shady character because he went into the avenue swiftly with his hands shoved into his bulky military jacket. The woman …show more content…
Well for one, they are too young to be out late at night, Moreover, my sisters are afraid of running into an individual who might cause them harm. They fear the possibility of being in the hands of strangers with unkind intentions. Correspondingly, Staples failed to recognize that most women fear men merely because of the difference in strength. Similarly, throughout my experience working at McDonald's, I have observed cashiers, employees, and managers pay extra attention to customers of African American or Latin ethnicity. Whenever some black or Hispanic male wonders in, all employees would take extra precaution. We had no idea if they intend to vandalize the store or steal soda from the soda fountain. Conversely, we would always remain behind the counter; where the police could be contacted with the push of a button. The area we work in has a lot of drug dealers and
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.
He does so by giving personal accounts of this horrific discrimination and utilizing descriptive vocabulary that get the audience to notice a sense of knowledge within the author. He begins to discuss the judgment he faced by stating “I grew accustomed to but never comfortable with people crossing to the other side of the street rather than pass me” (Staples, 189) which allowed the audience to step into the Staples’ shoes and somewhat experience the treatment he endured on a daily basis due to his appearance. The author also justifies his credibility by giving further examples such as when he was racially profiled in a jewelry store to the point where a woman worker brought out a red Doberman pinscher. By implementing these appeals to ethos, Staples was able to effectively convince the audience that he was a credible witness regarding these unjustifiable acts by describing to the reader events that he himself experienced. He was able to put forth this example which not only various African-American males could relate to, but also one that he himself personally endured which assisted in further strengthening his argument and successfully pulling the audience towards his
There are things that are going on today where men, specifically black men, are being mixed up for being a risk towards white individuals and the final product being sent away to jail or being killed for reasons unknown by any means. Black men are being dealt with unjustifiably, than white men. On the off chance that a black man was to stroll into a store with a dark hoodie on he will be viewed as a risk yet in the event that a white man was to do precisely the same he wouldn’t appear to be identical.
“Who was the most racist in that situation? Was it the white man who was too terrified to confront his black neighbors on their rudeness? Was it the black folks who abandoned their mattress on their curb? … Or was it all of us, black and white, passively revealing that, despite our surface friendliness, we didn’t really care about one another?” He never blames the black neighbors for their disregard of the mattress because their black, but sounds aware of the stereotyping and how he comes off addressing it. He also knows how much he stands out in the community as a minority, wondering what the cops would say to him, “ ‘Buddy,’ the cops would say. ‘You don’t fit the profile of the neighborhood.” Despite his pride in his actions of disposing of the mattress, the mistreatment by his black neighbors comes off as an unfortunate, but expected, consequence, “I knew the entire block would shun me. I felt pale and lost, like an American explorer in the
In school social circles, I always find myself "The Token Black Guy." I thought of this term for my role after viewing an episode of Scrubs on TV. I started thinking about the small number of black students at my school. It is something I have always turned a blind eye to.
McDonald received support from the Minneapolis City Council Member who believed that CeCe was the victim of a hate crime and that it involved many people but she was the only one that was held by the police. He believed in this case, the hate crime itself has been completely ignored and that “murder” was the only concern. Melanie Williams for the Minnesota Daily felt that, “the attack was not about one person’s body but an attack on an entire race and entire gender.” Prosecuting attorn...
He supports his argument by beginning with an anecdote--the story of his “first victim” (Staples 394) and how she feared him and assumed he was dangerous because of his color. All of his examples are either experiences that have happened to him, or to people that he knows, but they serve as good arguments because they prove that things like that do happen to black men often. Throughout the essay, Staples provides more examples of stereotypes in action, such as when a black male journalist went to work on a story about a murderer but ended up being confused for the actual murderer (Staples 396).
Brent Staples is a great author by acknowledging how racism is still currently a problem. Everyone is viewing a whole race the same due to ones actions. He uses pathos, an emotion by how this innocent person is being characterized. The use of pathos is significant because it creates an appeal to the reader from many different aspects. Staple tries to get at an emotion of fear because he’s trying to convey how people perceived him. “thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver-black, white, male, or female-hammering down the door locks.”Fear is being drawn from this encounter with any certain driver. Staples is letting his audience realize, how society has become. Just by seeing a black, white, or hispanic person, doesn’t mean people should keep themselves a certain distance from them. That person they’re doing that to, may cause them to feel terrible because people are scared of them. Fear is something normal a person may feel, but we shouldn’t have fear towards someone because of their skin color. This quote creates the feeling of fear and he restates it by saying, “I was to become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear.” Not only does he stick to the emotion of fear when he’s trying to get the audience's attention. He also uses sarcasm and humor. He doesn’t stick to this strong emotion, he uses humor to lighten his tone towards racism. This is very effective because it makes the reader want to read the rest of it by him setting different aspects of it. Staples establishes a very strong emotion towards fear, but he then transitions to humor to let his readers know that fear doesn’t affect him because he’s not an aggressor in any way. He expresses humor to lighten up his writing, so that he doesn’t only demonstrate a dark piece of writing towards
The confidence of the young black male is an idea that, unfortunately, is lost at a very young age. When they are young, in this society, young black males are often told harmful and inaccurate ideas which are constantly flooded into their head. They are persistently reminded of their skin color, which eventually develops a mindset where they will not amount to anything. The confidence of young black males is broken down through false ideas and statements, which as a result, corrupts their thinking to the point where they themselves block their own way to success. They themselves begin to believe the ideas they are told, that they are nothing, and they will amount to nothing.
Before the actual passage, we are provided with a brief biography of Brent Staples, the author of “Just Walk On By”. Following this, Staples begins his personal narrative with a somewhat sarcastic tone, “My first victim was a woman”. When he says “first victim”, he is actually referring to the first encounter he had with a woman who was noticeably uneasy when around him. In the midst of telling us about this experience, he adds a self description from the woman’s eyes, “A young black man- a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket.” This was the first time he realized how much of a negative impact just his appearance could make on a social situation.
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
First, the police constantly fear for their lives when dealing with situations in neighborhoods where the minorities outnumber the majority. This may cause the officers to be more likely to draw and fire their gun if they feel they have been placed in a life-threatening situation. What is the reason for this fear? Is it justified? Is there any possible way to correct this problem, or at least ensure that future generations will not succumb to the same misconceptions? These are all questions that must be answered before a conclusion is reached.
Betty Owens was kidnapped on her way to a school formal, raped repeatedly by four white males, and worse might have happened it it had been for her friends getting help from a young white police officer (Lecture 4/13 ). Officer Joe D. Cooke Jr. was on duty when the friends of Betty Owens came running for his help, and instead of doing what many white policeman before had done, he ran to her aid (McGuire, p. 163). What is amazing about this case is the fact that not only were these men arrested and jailed by a white man but that they were threatened on the seen with being shot for their offenses against miss. Owens (McGuire, p. 163). The fact that the white boys were arrested on the spot and spent the days leading up to their trial in jail was also something that this case had happened that had never occurred prior in Southern states. This all being said Miss. Betty Owens was extremely lucky that officer Cooke was on duty and not the chief of police since it was common knowledge that the only reason why he stayed in power was by igniting race tensions (McGuire, p. 161). In Florida this case was the first of it’s kind in that it was the first all white jury to convict a white man, let alone four, of raping a Black woman, this was yet another important step in the Civil Rights Movement but more importantly a step in the right direction for the feminist movements. Rape of white women had always been such an outrage and meant death for the perpetrator, but with each of these very public cases the outrage against any man who committed violence against women, of any race grew, culminating with the Joan Little case which broke down the last of remnants of the Jim Crow law (Lecture
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).
The media would perceive to market African American men and women to be horrendous animals. Also, the media would promote the ignorant individuals that are African Americans. In this society, citizens would base their opinions on other’s physique and the color of their skin.