The Black Man and Public Space

In the story “Black Men and Public Space” Brent Staples describes the racial discrimination, the treatment of black men in the United States. He includes some personal experience and stories of other black people. In his case, one particular occasion makes him realize that he, like many black men, is treated as a potential troublemaker even though he has always been a quiet and smart person. Staples states that black men came to this world with the inheritance-with the ability to alter public space in ugly ways. In his opening paragraph, Staples describes his first particular occasion that happened while he was walking in the dark streets of Chicago. His “first victim”, a white woman quickens her pace after her first glance at him and within seconds disappears just because he was a black guy wearing street clothes. Since Staples describes himself as a “softy” person scarcely being able to cut a raw kitchen rather than a human, he got surprised why that woman recognized at him a mugger or rapist. Furthermore, he realizes that he does not differ a lot from other black-skinned muggers, even though he is a smart and quiet person. Staples states that in the public places where black men appear, people avoid encountering them or treat them as if they are potential troublemakers. Moreover, Staples describes “the language of fear” by including some usual incidents from his personal life. He describes the behavior of drivers, immediately locking their cars when he passes near them, the behavior of people, moving to another side of the street rather than passing by him. He also points out those standard unpleasantries occurring between black men and people whose job is to prevent troubles. Furthermore, Staples gets surprised how till the age of twenty-two he has not been aware of that discriminating demeanor towards him. He mentions how he grew up as one of the good boys being scarcely noticeable in the street fights and murders. He also mentions how he saw many of his friends and relatives perished away such as his teenage cousin, brother of twenty-two and a childhood friend. Because of all of this, he decides to remain shadow-timid, but a survivor. Staples states that being perceived as dangerous is a hazard in itself. He points out that in the occasions where black men are mistaken for a burglar or mugger, they can be seriously hurt and even sometimes be errantly killed. In his occasion when the shopkeeper of the jewelry store brought the enormous guard dog, Staples had to leave the store without any resentment because he realized the damage he could have got. Additionally, he also mentions another black male journalist who was happened to arise in much unluckier occasion. He was mistaken for the killer by police officers and taken out from his car on gunpoint. Staples states that similar episodes like these are told by black men all the time. Besides Staples describes his attitude of non-aggression in some occasions in which he stayed extremely congenial when he encountered confusions especially with the police. He also describes the precautions that he had to take to make himself less threatening. In the late evenings, he tried to keep distance between him and people on subway platforms especially when he was wearing street clothes; he waited until people cleared the lobby and then entered a building so as not to seem to be following them. In conclusion, Staples found one solution to his problem that occurred during the late evening walks. He started whistling melodies written by popular classical composers. He thought and hoped that people would presume that “a mugger would not be marbling sunny selections from Vivaldi’s melodies”and would not see at him a potential troublemaker. In his story “Black Men and Public Space”, Brent Staples describes not only the racially discriminating demeanor of people towards black men in the United States, but also the perilous consequents that can be sometimes even lethal and of course, the psychological effect of that treatment on black men. Although, he does not give any complete solution, he finds the ways to get used to such life.