Brent Staples Essay

339 Words2 Pages
His thesis, the ability to alter public space through racial stereotypes, affected him as well as many other persons of his stature and skin color. It not only influenced lives of people like Staples, but infringed onto the “victims” of Staples and others like him. Staples explain his thesis throughout the essay through narratives of incidents in his life. He explains one encounter with a young white woman, “on a deserted street, in an impoverished section of Chicago.”She glances back at him and disappears off into the dark. In paragraph two, Staples understands her thoughts of him being a mugger, a rapist, or even a murderer; but “her flight” made him feel “like an accomplice tyranny” (Staples, 2012). I think the examples Staples mentioned in his essay was representative. Staples give example after example showing a bigoted label he obtains due to his race and sex. Staples also expound to the reader the magnitude of his thesis through his familiarity “with the language of fear.” He vividly explains, “At dark, shadowy intersections in Chicago, I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver—black, white, male, or female—hammering down the door locks” (Staples, 2012). This just show no matter how nice, smart, or kind you are, you will always be racially profiled. Yes, other examples would be convincing but they would not be necessary in his essay. Staples did a good job of making his point about how he felt being profiled in his examples. He even mentions another story, Norman Podhoretz, the writer of, “My Negro Problem—And Ours,” as an example. All the examples he gave about his life made it easy to feel like we in his shoes. This was a great essay about exemplification. References: Staples, B. (2012). Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space. In L. Kirszner G.,
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