Brent Staples

While surfing the web, I found out some very informative information about the life of Brent Staples. Brent Staples was an intelligent man, not just an ordinary man from Chester, Pennsylvania. He earned various degrees as different universities and colleges like a BA from Widener University in 1973, and a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1977. He was a professor of psychology at various universities in the states. Writing is one of Staples’ specialties and he has been a reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times and the New York Times. He writes editorials about culture and politics. Staples also put efforts into other things such as; periodicals, including Literary Cavalcade, Columbia Journalism Review, and the Los Angeles Times. “Among his frequent topics are race relations, the effects of the media, and the state of education. His memoir Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White (1994) won the Anisfield-Wolff Book Award in 1995. "Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space" takes a look at the effect some of his nighttime walks have had on people. This essay was first published as "Black Men and Public Space" in 1986 in Ms. Magazine.”

Knowing that Staples has had such experience in writing, and has lived in the states since 1951 when racism was a prominent issue, I understand how important his story is. I never really realized how well written his article was until now actually. Knowing all of the stuff about Staples, makes me feel like this piece of writing isn’t just some ‘sob story’ (not really what I wanted to call it but I couldn’t think of anything else) written by a man yearning for attention, but it is written by a man of experience in both life and journalistic writing. It makes the story more believable in a way I guess.

I found out that this article was originally published in Ms. Magazine in 1986 under the title “Black Men and Public Space.” Staples says, "I'm writing about universal themes--family and leaving home and