Brent Staple Critical Analysis

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Critical Analysis Essay Scott Whitebird English 1301 Brent Staples In Brent Staples' "Black Men and Public Space", he talks to us about the stereotypes that he had to deal with being a black male and the ways he sometimes dealt with it. He uses several writing techniques to show us different things he wanted us to see or understand. In the first paragraph of this essay, Staples chooses a rather unique choice of words. When he says "My first victim" (Staples 314), the audience is led into thinking that this essay will be Staples talking about some type of criminal activity, when in fact he is leading us in a completely different direction. What is also unusual about this beginning sentence, is that Staples describes himself as an offender, even though he is the one being stereotyped. An interesting thing that he does in the second paragraph, is tell us how he thinks that being perceived dangerous by others, can be dangerous to him. "And I soon gathered that being perceived as dangerous is a hazard in itself" (Staples 314). Usually we wouldn't think that a person who is seen as threatening to others, would be in danger themselves. We would think of this person as sort of, untouchable, but Staples explains why he sees it this way. "I only needed to turn a corner into a dicey situation, or crowd some frightened, armed person in a foyer somewhere, or make an errant move after being pulled over by a policemen. Where fear and weapons meet-and they often do in urban America-there is always a possibility of death." (Staples 314). Staples tells us that by being perceived as dangerous by others, he was always just a step away from being faced with death. You don't know how people are feeling or what they're thinking when they feel endangered and you have no idea who could have a weapon. In this essay by Staples, we can see that his intended audience, is that of the

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