He gives examples from walking down the street at night and women grabbing their bags tighter to walking across the cross walk and people locking their car doors. Staples tells a personal story where he had his first bad encounter with a woman as he was walking through the park behind a woman innocently and because he was a tall, black, and suspicious looking man she was scared and instantly ran away, “it was in the echo of that terrified woman’s footfalls that I first began to know the unwieldly inheritance I’d come into-the ability to alter public space in ugly ways.” (1). Staples didn’t realize what he was getting himself into when he lived in these new areas, and especially him being
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).
Well Part of the reason lies in how our community defines sexual harassment in public areas. At work, there is a government-approved definition, which basically states that sexual comments are not allowed & there are punishments given to people who don’t follow the rules. But on the streets, people feel that the rules are almost nonexistent or blurred. This causes men too think that it’s okay to make a girl feel uncomfortable or threatened. I personally feel that this issue of Street Harassment has turned into a Global problem, and it definitely seeks more attention.
05/03/2012 Black Men and Public Space In his essay “Black Men and Public Space”, Brent Staples attempts to use some strategies which have really captured my mind. He starts by telling us of how her first encounter with a white woman was, even if Staples does not tell us of his race this is clear evidence that racial prejudice played a role. Based on his race (Staples 404) he ironically demonstrates he wants their guilty to stay with them thus excluding him from the white. Staples says “my first victim’’ (197), was walking down the street but she was not comfortable with the surrounding just because he saw a black man, she soon began running down the street with an intention that she will be robbed but in the real sense Staples was taking a walk just as she was. Definitely this woman figured out that if a black man walked in that neighborhood he was mostly likely up to something.
As the result, the poverty was inherited to next generation repeatedly. Roger represents the group of the poor black men. His face was “dirty” and he was “frail and willow-wild” in his clothes. In addition, he tried to steal money from Mrs. Jones illegally. About these problems, the writer tried to enlighten the poor black men through Mrs. Jones’ words although it is faint and indirect.
Over the past 40 years Brent Staples has come to understand and accept his ability to alter public space in negative ways and has written about his experiences in the essay “Black Men and Public Space.” Staples describes the range of emotions he has felt as a result of the misinterpretations of him by the people he encounters on a day to day basis. Able to move past his feelings of shock and embarrassment, Staples realized the potential danger he was in and decided to modify his behavior to make himself appear less threatening. Shock was the first emotion Staples felt after realizing that people, women in particular, consider him a threat. It is not clear to Staples how he was able to reach his early twenties before realizing the negative impact his presence has on those he comes into contact with. Staples attributes this to growing up in a small town in the sixties where he was known as one of the “good boys” of the neighborhood, surrounded by a bunch of gang activity and violence.
Nick Salamone June 9th, 2009 Theme Analysis To Kill A Mockingbird is set in Alabama before civil rights cases were properly exposed of justices and cases against African-Americans were considered open. You find out that society can hurt innocent individuals who have littler power because of who they are. Through this novel, you put on the shoes of a small girl, Scout, and walks through a town where they learn of social inequality, coexistence of good and evil, and racism by seeing it through her father and life experiences. Race is a central issue in this time period. People aren't willing to accept change and theirs not much you can do in the 1930's to change that because it was "sociality acceptable" not to.
New York City has a reputation for crime, mugging to be exact, especially by young black men. This comment was in literature written by two essayists’, Norman Podhoretz and later by Edward Hoagland. He remains an avid night walker. Again the walks are to combat insomnia. Although he is a large man, he is a gentle man.
Martinez 1 Miriam Martinez Professor Wallace English 1000 “Effects on Prejudice” In the essay Brent Staples published, “ Black Men and Public Spaces”, has a great deal of prejudice towards him with people he comes into contact throughout his years living in the suburbs in Chicago and New York. Prejudice is based off generalized thoughts and placing characteristics on a human being only because he or she is a part of a certain group or like in Brent Staples case his race. The types of prejudices found in our society varies, from gender, to ethnicity, class and race just to name a few related to the Brent Staples’ story. What effects can, being prejudice have on our society? The effects can have an overwhelming impact on a person’s ego, race comes into effect, and sets boundaries to what a person can or wants to do in life, also it limits experiences from those who are showing prejudices.
Bridget’s speech on the increasing human deterioration with increasing wealth and revelation of the pleasures they enjoyed during their days of severe economic depression encompasses the major part of the essay. The author employs his unique style of versatility, humor, and insight to help convey his message. Charles Lamb occupies a special place in the history of the English prose because of his unique style. Though some people have criticized his style because he imitates the Elizabethan prose writers. However, readers do not notice this unoriginal style.