Racial Discrimination In Black Men And Public Space By Brent Staples

Decent Essays
In Black Men and Public Space, Brent Staples offers several of examples to present the racial discrimination he faced due to his skin color. Staples is black and due to this physical appearance, he used to considered as risky, noxious and brutal by general public. He is also imagined as murderer thanks to the stereotype of the society. For example, people will keep distance from Staples when they are walking on the street. Through providing the daily discrimination examples Staples faced, the prejudiced and unfair treatment to the black people are shown.

The quote that stood out to me the most is “Not to do so would surely have led to madness” (54). I can feel that helpless of Staples towards the racial discrimination. Racial discrimination

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The main purpose for this passage is to expose the fact that prejudice and racism still exists. Brent Staples uses his experiences as an example of want many black men face in today’s society. He reveals how he was feared in the public area by some people based on his race’s stereotypes. He uses many rhetorical devices in the passage to grab the reader’s attention and get them to see his point of view. He achieves this by using diction, pathos, a humorous writing style.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders, Brent Staples says that black men are typically perceived as a danger to society and uses personal encounters to give his idea life. The time period Staples paper was written about was an extremely divided time in our country. Segregation had been put to an end, but black people still were not yet seen as equals to most of the white population. In his article, he tells stories of how he was treated, how some of his friends were looked at, and how they were always suspected to be dangerous when they were doing nothing wrong. He started the story by telling of an encounter he had with a white woman in Chicago on one of his many sleepless nights.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Black Men and Public Spaces, by Brent Staples, is one of those articles that provide a statement so horrific and one that exists in the reality of our daily existence. He talks about him as a caring and smart human being, but in public spaces his accomplishments are overlooked, where a menacing idea approaches that describe him as more of a savage monster than that of a civilized man. Here is where Staples shows that although we are civilized and that we have evolved quite a bit we still have the ability to discriminate or judge people and put them in a specific category. And although they might see them as something dangerous to them, Brent Staples uses the persuasive appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos to prove to the audience that he, and…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Comparative Rhetorical Analysis: Staples vs Gay The false belief and fear of African Americans began once abolition became a possibility in the nineteenth century. Since then, the ingrained fear has grown to affect almost all people, regardless if they are conscious of their prejudice beliefs or not. Ross Gay, an associate professor of creative writing at Indiana University Bloomington and author of “Some Thoughts On Mercy,” shines light on the impact of racial stereotypes on African American people’s perceptions of themselves and the importance of acknowledging these fears and prejudices.…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At the commencement of the essay, Brent’s word cull was intentionally misleading. He commenced out by saying, “My first victim was a woman…” This led me to believe that the author was a malefactor. As I continued to read on, I became aware that I had made the same exact mistake many other people had. As an adolescent African American male in Chicago, Brent Staples had been misconstrued for a burglar, murderer, or simply a vicious man.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He explains that many problems exist because of social constructs such as police brutality, education, and living conditions for the black body. Black bodies are systematically oppressed. (Thesis) Police brutality plunders the black body.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences” (Audre Lorde). Immense fear of those of a different race has become such a deep-rooted part of society that it often goes unnoticed in people’s everyday lives. In Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By”, a black man ponders his power to change public space. Staples speaks of how he deals with the burdens borne by someone who sees himself and is seen by others, as an outsider.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the summer of 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a Dream” speech. He dreamed for a nation. He dreamed that America “would rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.” America, however, never reached that “sunlit path of racial justice.” And the American legal system is where many of the racial injustices still perpetuate.…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Black Men in Public Space”, Brent Staples describes his background and illustrates his rough upbringing. For example, he states that in his hometown of Chester, Pennsylvania that he scarcely stood out because of the numerous reports of “gang warfare, street knifings, and murders”. After this he says that he grew up a good-boy and that he had only been in six fights, and he attributed this to his shyness toward violence. All the facts listed served as a juxtaposition to highlight the character of the author, which is effective in setting him apart from the stereotype. In turn, the audience can understand that the typical background of African Americans is not the norm actually, and stereotypes define people…

    • 1200 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He points out facts about crime rates: “...young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of...violence.” By eliminating the statistics, Staples implies that such a statement is widely accepted—with or without the numbers. In this way, it is shown that racism and unnecessary paranoia of black men is inherently a fact. Observing that racism is too deeply ingrained for it to be eliminated promptly, Staples attempts to understand the whites’ perspective in order to find a solution to the prejudice. This logical thinking leads to a sound solution: Staples relates how he eases the concerns of nervous people; he converts tense situations into amicable ones.…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The novel, The Watson’s Go to Birmingham, was written by Christopher Paul Curtis. Curtis wrote this novel in 1963. There are two major themes that are portrayed by the author. The two themes are prejudice and discrimination. According to Merriam Webster, prejudice and discrimination are defined as an unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc.…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Black Male Discrimination

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages

    After viewing the data presented with promotion rates in mind, there is evidence of discrimination in the promotion decisions. But moreover, there also seems to be discrimination in the hiring process as well. In 2008 there were 89.06% more white employees than Black. Only 10.93% of the company makes up the Black population. Furthermore, in 2008 while applying the 80% rule, the ratio for Black employees hired for the Warehouse/Stores was only 17% and even less for promotions.…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Staples tells his past experiences on how African American does not get the same respect to someone who is…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Racism – One World, Many Colours Society had morals, and assumes something out of all humans, and once something is seen as dissimilar, society attempts to get rid of it. Racism has remained something that goes back in history, and has produced commandments to be created. Canada is a multiracial country which also consists of collective discrimination and racism. Social discrimination plays a main role in many individual’s life and likewise outlines their thoughts, personality and guidance. Racism is considered to be a type of discrimination, which is predominant in today’s generation but not everybody is racist.…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN TODAY’S SOCIETY Racial discrimination is one the provocative problems we have in our society today. Significant amount of people in our society today focus on all different racial groups of people and discuss their fairness, discrimination, and prejudice. The United States of America that is known to be one of the most diverse and freest racist countries in the world.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays