Just Walk On By Black Men And Public Space Summary
Gaston Campos
AJ Ortega
English 1
5 May 2016
Just another Man From the time African American men were introduced to America, they were treated wrong: seen as a treat and abused. Black men have gotten the worst of it all. People stereotype black men as being violent and criminals. However they are not seen for who they really are. Young black men are more likely to be seen this way simply because of their age and color of skin. In the piece Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space by Brent Staples, Staples talks about his experience being stereotyped of the color of his skin. Black men have always been wrongfully stereotyped as being a threat because of their appearance. People who stereotype black men as criminals will do out of the ordinary …show more content…
In the book Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space, the author explains how a simple walk lead to a woman feeling as if she could have been mugged, raped, or even something worse. Staples wrote, “As I swung on to the Avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discrete, inflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried glance. To her, the youngest black man-Abroad 6'2" with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of the buggy military jacket seemed menacingly we close. After a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running earnest. Within seconds she disappeared into the cross street" (Staples). The woman feared him for no real reason. He was a man simply walking down the street but she believed he was walking too close to her. Woman are supposed to be careful of who is around them but because he was a black male walking in an impoverish area of Chicago, she feared he would harm her. What she did not know was that he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago but her already formed stereotyped would have never imaged that. The fear the woman had because of how Staples looked only reinforces the idea that black men have been and are wrongly
AJ Ortega
English 1
5 May 2016
Just another Man From the time African American men were introduced to America, they were treated wrong: seen as a treat and abused. Black men have gotten the worst of it all. People stereotype black men as being violent and criminals. However they are not seen for who they really are. Young black men are more likely to be seen this way simply because of their age and color of skin. In the piece Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space by Brent Staples, Staples talks about his experience being stereotyped of the color of his skin. Black men have always been wrongfully stereotyped as being a threat because of their appearance. People who stereotype black men as criminals will do out of the ordinary …show more content…
In the book Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space, the author explains how a simple walk lead to a woman feeling as if she could have been mugged, raped, or even something worse. Staples wrote, “As I swung on to the Avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discrete, inflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried glance. To her, the youngest black man-Abroad 6'2" with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of the buggy military jacket seemed menacingly we close. After a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running earnest. Within seconds she disappeared into the cross street" (Staples). The woman feared him for no real reason. He was a man simply walking down the street but she believed he was walking too close to her. Woman are supposed to be careful of who is around them but because he was a black male walking in an impoverish area of Chicago, she feared he would harm her. What she did not know was that he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago but her already formed stereotyped would have never imaged that. The fear the woman had because of how Staples looked only reinforces the idea that black men have been and are wrongly