Brent Staples is an author and editorial writer for the New York Times. He wrote the short story, “Just Walk on By,” in which he realizes that his appearance frightens people around him, especially the white people. He understands that we live in a culture that is very dangerous and violent. Staples is unknown because of his African American race; he is constantly judged because of his skin color. Staples illustrates this through his choices of ethos, pathos, and imagery with diction and tone, which leads to his ultimate message that rather than having a unique personality, black men are victims of discrimination. Staples uses ethos with diction order to depict how he is really a cultured and sensitive man. First of all, Staples mentions
