Black Men and Public Spaces
Today, when a black person walks around at night, they are automatically thought of as being a troublemaker. People will often do everything possible to avoid a black person, be it walk on the other side of the street or cross a street at a different area. "Black Men and Public Space", by Brent Staples, demonstrates just what really happens to a black person when he/she is walking around at night, or even during the middle of the day. Staples uses personal experiences and stories he heard about other black men to prove his point. He leads off with an example of a woman who was walking down a street in Chicago and Staples was walking down the same street behind her. He noticed that she kept picking up her pace of walking, eventually reaching a slow running pace. Within seconds, she disappeared from his sight, all because he was a black man walking down a street at night. It was because of this one experience that he learns of his ability to alter public space in ugly ways. Staples describes himself "as a softy who is scarcely able to take a knife to a raw chicken, let alone hold one
He attributes his non-violent attitude to his childhood. In the neighborhood that he grew up in, he was scarcely noticeable against a backdrop of gang warfare, street knifings, and murders. He was one of the good boys, and he had to suffer as if he was one of the bad ones. "I saw countless tough guys locked away; I have since buried several too" (Staples 153). He has seen a teenage cousin, a brother, and a friend all lowered into the ground. Due to all of this, he chose "to remain a shadow-timid, but a survivor." to a person's throat." Many black people today, who are just like Staples, are mistaken for muggers, rapists, and murderers. He realized that being perceived as dangerous is a hazard in itself. All he needed to do was to turn a corner into a bad situation, or crowd some frightened, armed person, or make an errant move at a police officer, and he could wind up hurt or even dead. As scary as this may sound, it is the truth. Be it in a big city or one the size of Williamsport, these kinds of things happen. One could put this theory to the test. Just stand on a sidew
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Approximate Word count = 740
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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