Not everyone has a special power to alter public space, but if the surroundings were different then people would probably have a very good sense about what is being said. In "Black Men and Public Space," Brent Staples claims that he is a black man who whenever in public is met with fear from his surroundings because of his racial stereotype. He points out that one can easily change physical behavior and dressing in order to alter public space in a good way or bad way. As Staples says, “Black men have a very bad reputation of being a mugger, a rapist or even worse” (336). Therefore, many people are afraid of them.
African Americans are often portrayed as flashy drug lords or homeless fiends. Once again this is an exaggerated miss representation that doesn’t stand up to the truth. “In fact, blacks are no more likely than are whites to use drugs; and more whites than blacks are arrested on drug charges.”(9) With that said the media over represents African Americans in regards to crime, illegal drug activity, and poverty. These three aspects are the foundation upon which the faulty African American stereotype stands. The media’s portrayal of African American’s is both inaccurate and highly degrading.
He continues, when Mexican authorities arrested the Nuevo Laredo smuggling conduit. Furthermore, he cites the high incidence of drug related murders in New York City of 1988. He suggests that ratcheting up law enforcement is counterproductive and markets, without exception, the black market, are self-correcting. He claims that the unsatisfied demand for illicit drugs will drive up the price then entice new dealers to the trade. And continues to close his argument with the beseech to be wary if when a mature market’s status quo is
Lydia Tawney Mrs. Swift APL 2 22 April 2013 Brent Staples argues in his essay, “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space,” he argues that black men are perceived as threatening, but that’s not the only case. At night, on the street, alone, personally I would be more afraid of black guy walking down the street behind me than a black woman, but I’d be more afraid of the black woman than a white one. Race definitely has an impact on how threatening. Black people are more threatening; a sketchy looking Latina is more threatening than a Caucasian.
The Theme of Black Men in Public Space Theme is the central message and idea of a particular story. In “Black Men in Public Space,” written by Brent Staples, the main point revolves around appearance versus reality. The author happens to be a harmless, African-American journalist living in New York who comes across a great deal of discrimination because of the way he looks. The theme is that people are too quick to deem someone as a threat towards society because of their appearance. Brent Staples’ appearance caused him a great deal of grief.
Famous rappers such as Snoop Dog, 50 Cent, R. Kelly, and ECT… have almost planted these racial slurs into our minds through there “trashy rap”. Imus in morning was not only reprimanded for his comments but later let go, due to the uprising of the black community. Rappers, Movie Stars, Comedians and even Gangsters have been giving black woman and negative name calling them “items, hoes, and even bitches.” This is not even in the privacy of their home it is in public on movies and even cd’s. Earl believes that this is due to the fact that these black celebrities are giving an ok to everyone to degrade woman of their own race. He states that “The same
Journal #1 Why Blacks Get Mad- Cecil Foster 1.What exactly is Celcil Foster's thesis? Cecil Foster's thesis was to get the point that racism was still a huge problem and people weren't noticing how bad it was actually getting. He mentioned that the Rodney King verdict triggered the worst outbreak of violence since the Watts riots. The Rodney King riot began because an African-American known as Rodney King was badly beaten by the Los Angeles police officers. After this problem had occurred, Rodney became the main focus for how bad race issues were.
Marissa Donaldson Ms.Gentile English Section D 16 December 2008 A War Between The Same Race Where does racsim derive from? Racism is though to derive from colored differences. However, that is not the case racism derives from cultural construct, economic status, and social status. Hurston does this by placing a character in a different way effected by racism. A black man does not have to only be racist against a person of the different race but also can be racist to someone of his own race.
Stuart Hall argued in his writing of ‘Policing the Crisis (1978) where he dealt with the stereotypical image of a black youth that was presented by the media with their uneven amount of attention which they paid to certain varieties of crime. The media however tend to radicalise, dramatic and decontextualised crime, such as presenting the riots in the 1980’s as tremendously ‘black riots’ (Campbell, 1993; Gilroy, 1987), not to reject the major involvement of young blacks being the offenders of certain crimes, and not labelling the criminalisation (Keith 1993). Such as the vast array of evidence that the victims of crime are committed by black offenders which are usually living in the same area (Burney, 1990). This should not be seen as ‘black on black crime’ as the media mostly describes it to be but should be seen as neighbour on neighbour, youth on youth and poor on poor. Youth crime is normally seen as something they usually will get bored of and grow out of where they normally stop as they grow up and eventually starts to build a family of their own and settling down.
Victimization is a consistent theme that is first demonstrated through the character Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson faced a great amount of abuse by the citizens of Maycomb. During his rape trial, Tom Robinson was discriminated against while he took the stand. “ ‘Strong enough to choke the breath out of a woman and sling her to the floor?’ ” (Lee, 196). Mr. Gilmer, the prosecutor, used Tom’s race and physical strength to imply that Tom was just another stereotypical black man who targeted a fair skinned female.