In “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”, Brent Staples explains the impact he has on other people just for being an African American man. Writing for an audience of black men who have experienced discrimination. With a wise, inoffensive voice, but somewhat of a neutral tone, the author uses figurative language, writing techniques and diction to explain his purpose of writing this essay to explain to his readers of his past experience of being a black man in public places and the effect it has caused in his life.…
The film Eye on the Prize: Episode IV: No Easy Walk gives an insight of African Americans and their fight for Civil Rights. The film marker exhibits the hardship African Americans and some whites in American went through to get rights for all. The film uplift the African American community to get what they wanted and not to stop until it was achieved. They wanted equal opportunity like any other whites in American and the same jobs positions as them. The film marker was sympathetic to the civil rights protesters than President Kennedy and his administration. President Kennedy did not want anything to do with the protest for Civil Rights, he left all the decision making to the Attorney General. It was his least concern and did not get involve…
Idania Ortiz Profesor Gaskin English 101- Ao6 October 01, 2017 Summary Of Just Walk On by In the essay “ Just Walk By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space,” Brent Staples shows on how throughout his life, people have discrimination against him because he's tall, and he is a journalist in a predominantly white field. For example, he started to seen how much appearance scared others, in particular a white women, he use to take late nights walks as a graduate a student. He understand that we live in a world with a lot of violence and dangerous, he feels frustrated that black men in particular are still being judged and misjudged base on their appearance.…
In this chapter we get introduced to Peter Jenkins and get know what he is doing. It takes place sometime during Peter’s journey. Tommy, Doc, and several other men in a country store in a giant blizzard first confront Peter. Tommy and the doc ask him what the devil he is doing hiking across America and Peter tells them that he is doing it to get to know the country. Tommy offers Peter to come to his house for some food, but Peter rejects. Peter calls for his dog Cooper. A thin farmer gives Peter five dollars in case he needed it. Peter and Cooper then leave the store and go into the giant blizzard. Peter then tells us how Cooper saved him one time before the walk. Peter and Cooper were hiking along an eleven-mile alternate training route when Cooper killed a snake that would probably have bitten Peter. We then get introduced to some of Peter’s background. This so-called “Walk Across America” was something that was brewing in Peter’s mind for a long time. Peter tells us that he grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. This is a town of about 60,000 with manicured homes and country clubs. It’s high level of income and social status made Peter think that he had to attend Yale or Harvard. In Greenwich, you were considered a greaser if you drove a Corvette or had a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Most people drove Country Squire Wagons or BMW’s. Peter’s problem, according to him, was that he thought that all towns in America were like Greenwich. Peter tells us that he suffers from hollowness deep inside him that does not go away. It comes back after beer, booze, or drugs wear off from a party. It didn’t go away after he skied in a chalet in Stowe, Vermont. A revival of Woodstock, which took place during the summer of his senior year in high school didn’t bring any relief either. College and being by himself made the hollowness intensify. Peter himself began to wonder what he…
After the reading the text “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space” by Brent Staples, the reader becomes immersed in the thought of the ways other people in society alter public space and the way they use that power. For instance, a student that comes into class with their headphones in their ears, listening to music at full blast where anyone can hear in a small, four-wall classroom. Yes, it is disruptive to the class; however, there are probable reasons to why that student behaves in such a manner. Perhaps they are going through deep and personal problems, so they use music at full volume as a "power" to cope so that others won't have a chance to speak to them, or it’s their norm to appear “cool” entering a classroom.…
Brent Staples’s “Just walk on by” was written to clarify how African-Americans like Staples go through stereotypes when in actually reality, shouldn’t be prejudged in the first place. He reminisces being perceived as dangerous just because of his skin color, and how this situation puts himself in endangerment. Staples arguers that people shouldn’t be so judgmentally and should get to know the person by the actions. He not only makes statements all through the text, but gives incidents of how his color and the way he looks to others tend to play in the role. He stresses about the fact that African Americans, can’t all be the same with the same intentions and wants the readers to know that as well.…
My first impression of “Just walk on By”, allowed me to have a better understanding of what African Americans and other people of color must go through. Brent Staples, the author of “Just Walk on By” seems to be making the point that judging people who are harmless can cause detrimental effect on an individual. Certain groups such as people from islamic decent are intimidating to me. There are many generalizations about these group of people and I know that not every muslim is a terrorist but these people seem to be more popularized as destructive individuals. The stereotypes made about these people have caused a majority of people to have fear towards them.…
The next article, “Black Men and Public Space.”, is about a man, Brent Staples, coming home and following behind a white woman. He describes how scared the woman gets when she notices the man behind her and goes into great detail how race, gender, and class play a big role in society and government. Mr. Staples also gives a strong ethical statement. “As a softly who is scarcely able to take a knife to a raw chicken-let alone hold one to a person’s throat-I was surprised, embarrassed, and dismayed all at once.” The quote before states, “… it was in the echo of that terrified woman’s footfalls that I first began to know the unwieldy inheritance I’d come into-the ability to alter public space in ugly ways. It was clear that she thought herself the quarry of a mugger, a rapist, or worse. Suffering a bout of insomnia, however, I was stalking sleep, not defenseless wayfarers.” This quote and Brent Staples as well are trying to say that not all Negroes are rapist, let alone muggers, and that they can actually be treated as actual humans. Brent Staples also has a very strong thesis. This thesis states, “My first victim was a woman-white, well…
Although it is often ignored by those around it, discrimination is an impending problem in our towns. In the essay “Black Men and Public Space” written by Brent Staples, Staples responds to the racism he faces in various social situations. He reveals how he has “become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear” (1). As a large black man, people seem to fear Staples without a valid reason to. They do not see his character, but rather only his appearance. This reveals how people are fast to stereotype a person that they see, and not give them the opportunity to show their personalities. They are afraid of what, or who, they are afraid of, resulting in their own anxiety being created. By personifying the emotion of fear, Staples relays…
In addition, the rudimentary purpose of the police is fostered by governmental authority with the intention of protecting, and maintaining a sense of security. Therefore the death of black men in the hands of police officers is something that is common today. Coates and others did not have the ability to accommodate themselves and better their safety, because they didn’t own the streets. Consequently, “Jones was murdered by the men who should have been his security guard.” (Coates, pg 90)…
We live in a judgmental world; believe it or not that’s just how it is. People are going to judge you before even knowing you and what your intentions are. Brent Staples, who is an African American, experiences the moment of feeling like a threat to women and people based on his color of skin and the way he is dressed. Almost all black men in today’s generation are likely to be suspects or looked at as a criminals or dangers to people. This is due to the fact that colored people are usually the race that’s being placed under arrest. It is correct that colored men have the highest criminal rate, but not all colored men should be distinguished as criminals for the actions of their race. In the essay “Black Men and Public Space,” by author Brent Staples, he uses ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade his of the prejudiced nature of our society.…
Susan Ruddick highlights this in, “Constructing Differences In Public Spaces”. This article highlights that race, class and gender are interlocking systems in public spaces. Ruddick depicts the aftermath Just Desserts robbery in 1994, with other racialized crimes as prime examples of race and gender attributing towards the negative implications black people endure on a daily basis. A microaggression that can be seen here are marginalized groups being easily stereotyped from criminal incidents because of national headlines and the victims being mostly white women. In the middle of the article, Ruddick’s note of the Central Park Five case brings out the point that in the media, there is an immediate favor towards the victims, who are predominantly white women. In discussing marginalized groups, it brings the fact that black men are perceived to be a “menace to society, (Ruddick, 9)”. Towards the end of the article, Ruddick analyzes and comes up with the conclusion that in terms of public spaces, the media creates a medium that brings out local and national images of racial ethnicities which can be “constructed and contested,” (Ruddick, 10). This final point highlights that from these criminal incidents, the national media has portrayed a negative image towards minority groups, especially men of color. This article serves as one of the main components of how minority groups are marginalized and how…
In the past year there have been multiple cases of “racial discrimination” against the police, these cases have been associated with police brutality. Segregation and racial prejudice was a large part of the history in the United States but not in a positive way. Many Americans are not proud of the way the African Americans were treated by their fellow citizens. Prejudice and racial discrimination are prevalent today in both the same and different ways as when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought against it. In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” he uses periodic sentences, syntax, diction, and allusions to write about his beliefs about the immense struggles African Americans experienced to gain their rights, how he…
This essay written by Brent Staples tells of the first time the author experienced a negative reaction from someone just because he was black. He tells of how he noticed signs of fear when people saw him and realized that most of Chicago’s rapists and muggers were black and that his appearance could cause fear. He tells of how society tells us that we should be tough and shouldn’t back down and how some young men take this literally and get into…
As Staples says, Black men have a very bad reputation of being a mugger, a rapist or even worse (P115, paragraph 2). Therefore, many people are afraid of them. However, from time to time, Staples had learned a way to change his perception or level of threat to others by putting attention to his physical behavior. As Staples says, a broad six feet with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pickets of a bulky military jacket, certainly is a threat to any women walking at night. (P115, 1) However, Staples notices if he walks slower and gives the frightened people more room then it would lower the level of threat ness.…