Black Men In Public Space Essay

The United States of America—land of the free and home of the brave—has paved a path of oppression more than it has liberated. But the most heinous illustration of American despotism lies within the howling echoes of the degradation of black citizens. Among these victims is Brent Staples, author of Black Men in Public Space. Muffling his rage throughout the piece, Staples elects his own life story as the representative of his race’s odyssey through America. Yet the effectiveness of Staples’ piece relies on one critical element of his raging style—understatement. Despite seeming contradictory to his goal of informing his audience, Staples’ understatement illustrates just how common tragedies become in black society. As commentary on the woman …show more content…
Following the anecdote of the women with bags around their chests protecting against violence, Staples casually inserts that “black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence” (par. 5). Referencing this fact, Staples diverges away from it to disguise it as a minute detail in everyday life for black men. But the truth is that black males are charged far more often than white males for the same crimes—arguably the most important comment on society in the piece. But why overlook it? Staples understands that the overrepresentation of black men in prison is a form of modern oppression, but he chooses to lessen the severity of it to illustrate that punishment has become as ordinary as a walk in the park for black men. Thus, he understates this reality not to discredit his argument but to reveal the deeper issue—that America herds blacks into inescapable oppression while white society ignores it. Although it may seem oxymoronic due to his hatred of the systematic criminalization, the understatement furthers Staples' goal of painting the tragedies as ordinary to convince his white audience that perhaps they were to blame from the