Black Men And Public Space By Brent Staples Analysis

In “Black Men and Public Spaces” by Brent Staples he explains his experiences being an African American male in America. He decides to start this essay, with an influential but ironic declaration " My first victim was a white woman..." When I first read that line, I thought the worse, I thought he killed her or did something to her. When in reality he was the actual victim and not the women. Staples was a victim of her prejudgment and racist ways. She stereotyped Staples because of the way he looked so she sprinted to the closest place she believed to be safe because Staples a young black man was walking on the same street that she so happened to be walking on as well. This strong and touching introduction to the essay provides the foundation …show more content…
I feel like in the times now black people are having a hard time trying to get the true portrayal we wish to give off. In Staple’s essay, you see that he is a well-educated black man however when he walks the streets he notices that people are scared of him. As if he was a mugger, thief or even worse a rapist, just because of the color of his skin. So, because of this Staple’s chooses to change his representation of himself to make others feel safer around him. For example, he makes sure that he moves around with care especially at later times in the day, if he feels people are being nervous around him he lets them go ahead of him while he waits back so it does not seem like he is following them, and lastly but not least he whistles tunes from Beethoven and Vivaldi. This saddens me for the simple fact that people should not have to go through this just because of the color of their skin. However, because of this as a black person, I feel as you have two options, you can either embrace your blackness and prosper or you can choose to deny it and deal with the consequences that …show more content…
However for us the readers of the essay it just shows us that these people are extremely ignorant and racist. No man or woman on this planet should ever have to make changes to the way they look or the way that they are because someone makes them feel uncomfortable or less of a human being because of their skin color. Racism is still very much alive and still to this day there are stories of lynchings and police brutality like there were hundreds of years ago when slavery was in the process of being abolished. Many people try to turn their heads and pretend like it does not exist and that it is not getting worse and worse with each passing day. I choose not to close my eyes and I know that racism still exists and we all need to do something about it before it gets out of hand and something detrimental happens. So, whether you are embracing or denying your culture the black youth of this time needs to come up with different ways to change their self-representation into something that will create a real cultural identity and thrive on self-respect, honor, and dignity that moves them away from past representation created by whites and