Black Men In Public Space By Brent Staples Analysis

Even though some people claim that the United States is in a “post-racial society “that could not be further from the truth. The United States still has well established and deeply rooted problems with racial profiling. Racial profiling happens within different states, cities, towns and counties, it affects people of color based on perceived notions that they may be up to something illegal. Law enforcement usually target people of color with unwarranted searches without any evidence of criminal activity all because of the person race, nationality, or religion. And although racial profiling is illegal it is still happening. The root of this problem is due to fear, whether its fear of crime or fear of violence from a person of color. Fear is the fire the fuels racial profiling. …show more content…
He also discusses how people are fearful of him when he is in public spaces. The first time this happened to him is when he scared a young white woman when he was walking at night, as she ran off Staples was convinced that the White women thought of him as a “a mugger, rapist, or worse”. Despite Staples being an intelligent man who graduated from the University of Chicago he still gets discriminated and stereotyped against because of his skin color. Even though the white woman did not know that Staples is not a rapist or mugger Staples was perceived as one because of his appearance. White women still flee in terror even though he describes himself as being relatively harmless, “As a softy who is scarcely able to take a knife to a raw chicken--let alone hold one to a person's