black men and public space essay

Black Men in Public Space by Brent Staples Essay

Introduction.

Brent Staples’ paper ‘Black men in public space’, addresses a wide variety of audience within the American society, to which it is targeted to. As a result, he resolves to use a very passionate appealing expression of the experience of black people’s discrimination. The story tries to portray a picture of how racism and fear of Black men especially within the elite class, by the social class of the whites was practiced. The character also gives a picture of how white females were afraid of the black men within their surroundings; making them feel further alienated. In achieving this lucid picture; the person of the character and characteristics of Staples are portrayed as, a means of getting the point home. These characteristics and character of this person are discussed below.

This character is portrayed as one who is experienced on the area of argument; as is seen from the narration of the personal experience and encounter with a white women who he comes along on his way. He gives the picture that this woman tried as much as she could to keep a wide gap between her and the character of Staples; as she even decides to run away from him. He also narrates of an instance he walked into a jeweler’s shop only to be sent away after having the owner’s dog released on him; which according to him would not be done to a white customer. From the story the character argues that he had also known and became familiar to the characteristics and language of fear, in the white people especially the women.

The character is portrayed as understanding; as he argues within the story that even despite the despised he felt, he makes the audience understand the fact that he understood the fear and fright felt by these whites; thus sympathizing with their feelings towards black men. He also expresses the feeling of the men by showing that this segregation made them feel alienated and disgusting; which was a product of the appalling view associated with them.

The characteristics of the character of being emotional and expressive is shown through the lucid picture he portrays of the extent of alienation he felt; at the moment he was being avoided due to his different color thus dissimilar treatment. From this character it is evident that he has addressed the fears and views held by the white women, black men and the general American society. From the story it is clear that he uses the pleading and expressive characters; to make the reader feel like it were happening to them at that very time, and the feeling that the discrimination vice could not be done away with easily. The character is further seen to use pathos so effectively in trying to reach his different audience. He ensure that he gets the true reaction of the audience and establishes a common ground with them; by the expressive tactics of being able to address them at an emotional level. The establishment he makes by using these characters and points of addressing the audience is that; they become more open to ideas and willful to listen, as the way he puts the ideas across strike their hearts arousing the feelings of loneliness or alienation at some point in their life.

The other characteristic of the character that is portrayed is that of being sympathetic; as he argues within the story that despite how bad it felt to see the women and whites in general keep away from him, he could understand their fears and sympathize with their feelings as they did not really know what the black men were like. He is also seen to sympathize with the discrimination black men in general were subjected to; and as a result deciding to intervene and open up the directive address of the society in general. The character is further portrayed as one who sympathizes with the general dangerousness associated with the world in general towards women; when they have to live with the weaknesses that are used against them.

The character is also seen to be ironical by nature; as he is portrayed to have such a competent way of manipulating the skill of using irony to get the point he is trying to drive across understood. He uses the skill of irony very tactically to twist the feelings and imaginative capabilities of individuals; in making the ideas of how the alienation and rejection were far-reaching.

The character is portrayed as being inspiring; in that he is capable of using an effective tone, ideas and beliefs; rhetorical appeals and personal experience to get the audience feel rather than encounter the meaning of the work. He inspiringly uses pathos to reach their emotional experience regarding the issue; which helps him make the audience more open to ideas and willful to listen and apply the experiences to their personal experience. He manages to put the ball on the court of the people who were subjecting the blacks to segregation; so as to be able to make them examine how they individually felt about the issue, rather than being exposed to what to feel.

In conclusion it is worth noting that the person puts these characters into action so effectively; that he is able to get the ideas he is driving at across without making any effort to force or impose them or his beliefs on the audience. It should also be noted that the character has applied these characters as tools in making the success he made, as he was capable of addressing the different audience even the general society.

Staples, B. (2003). Black Men and Public Space. Literature for Composition, Essay, Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Ed. Sylavan Barnet, et al. San Francisco: Longman Press.

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IvyPanda. (2021, December 14). Black Men in Public Space by Brent Staples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/black-men-in-public-space-by-brent-staples/

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Bibliography

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Black Men and Public Space: Old Essay but Timeless Issue

In his essay titled “Black Men and Public Space”, Brent Staples describes his first encounter with his “victim”, a well dressed white woman in her early twenties, as follows:

“As I swung onto the avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried glance. To her, the youngish black man-a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket-seemed menacingly close.”

Staples goes on to describe moments in his life that made him realize black men and public spaces, unfortunately, don’t mix well in America. 

Initial Publication 

Initially, Staples published the essay under the title “Just Walk On By” in 1986 in Ms. Magazine. One year later, he revised the essay and republished it in Harper’s under the title “Black Men and Public Space.”

The latter title is one that brings on flashes of recent news headlines that prove this issue is a timeless one. 

There is an acknowledgment from Staples that any woman would be o n edge when walking alone at night. But the story doesn’t end on the streets of Chicago or New York. His boogieman image follows him when he goes into jewelry stores, at lobbies, and even his own office building! 

That’s why “Black Men and Public Space” might be an older essay but it is a timeless issue. 

Brent Staples Sack #200100128

Just look at these very recent news headlines. 

“Police apologizes for helping kick black man out of yogurt shop”

A black man was sitting in a frozen yogurt shop at a table by himself. He was there to supervise a court-sanctioned outing between a mother and her son. The owner of the shop called the police to have him removed from the shop because he looked suspicious. 

“Black Man Arrested After Helping Intoxicated Neighbor”

 A black man saw that his neighbor was drunk and passed out in front of his place. He helped the neighbor to his house, but when he returned, he was questioned and detained by the police who claimed that he was the intoxicated one. 

“Black Man Handcuffed While Police Searched His Bags After Being Falsely Accused Of Stealing From Finish Line”

A black man, his friend, and his two sons were detained by police after they were falsely accused of stealing. 

And let’s not forget the infamous Starbucks case.

“Two black men were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks for doing nothing”  

Two black men were arrested and removed from Starbucks two minutes after arriving for a business meeting. One of them asked to use the restroom before police were called on them. 

This is the story of black men in public spaces in America

With the exception of the Starbucks story, all of them took place within a one week span. 

And these are the ones that had police called on.

The experience Staples describes is a stigma black men carry around with them as soon as they step outside their homes, regardless of the police being involved. It is the perpetual state of being the boogieman.

And these are the ones that ended without the lives of the black men being taken. 

“And I soon gathered that being perceived as dangerous is a hazard in itself,” writes Staples. “I only needed to turn a corner into a dicey situation, or crowed some frightened, armed person in a foyer somewhere, or make an errant move after being pulled over by a policeman. Where fear and weapons meet– and they often do in urban America–There is always the possibility of death.” 

RELATED: Black People, They’re Just Like Us! Memo to 911 Happy White People 

We know all too well about those endings 

All a person has to claim is that they felt threatened in order to take a black man’s life. And what’s a more threatening figure than a black man? Countless shootings of black men and black teens have happened in recent years, especially in states with stand-your-ground laws. 

Thirty years plus have passed since “Black Men and Public Space”, but it might as well have been written last week. The experience of black men in America is as timeless as sliced bread.

#BlackMen are 3 times more likely to get killed by Police in United States. Enough is Enough! #GunControlNow #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/59xZCrACMc — Black Excellence (@BExcelOnline) March 26, 2018

How long will this continue? 

Staples found one solution that seemed to work for him, to make his “victims” feel more at ease in his presence.

“I whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and more popular classic composers. Even steely New Yorkers hunching toward nighttime destinations seem to relax, and occasionally they even join in the tune. Virtually everybody seems to sense that a mugger wouldn’t be warbling bright, sunny selections from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It is my equivalent of the cowbell that hikers wear when they know they are in bear country.” 

What’s the cowbell we must make our black men wear, if only to save their lives? 

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"Black Men in Public Space" - Brent Staples

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Rhetorical Analysis of Black Men and Public Space by Brent Staples

• Categories: Black Men And Public Space

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Published: Oct 25, 2021

Words: 844 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Table of contents

Author's message to readers in "black man in public space", the use of repetition to catch readers attention, works cited.

• Baker, P. (Ed.). (2010). Critical readings: Violence and the media. McGraw-Hill Education.
• Blumer, H. (1958). Race prejudice as a sense of group position. The Pacific Sociological Review, 1(1), 3-7.
• Bonilla-Silva, E. (2014). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States (4th ed.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
• Feagin, J. R. (2013). The white racial frame: Centuries of racial framing and counter-framing (2nd ed.). Routledge.
• Hooks, B. (1995). Killing rage: Ending racism. Henry Holt and Company.
• Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. One World.
• MacLeod, J. (2009). Ain't no makin' it: Aspirations and attainment in a low-income neighborhood (3rd ed.). Westview Press.
• Omi, M., & Winant, H. (2015). Racial formation in the United States (3rd ed.). Routledge.
• Tatum, B. D. (2017). Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And other conversations about race (Rev. 20th anniversary ed.). Basic Books.
• Zinn, H. (2003). A people's history of the United States. HarperPerennial.

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BRENT STAPLES Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space

(b. 1951) earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago and went on to become a journalist. The following essay originally appeared in Ms. Magazine in 1986, under the title "Just Walk On By." Staples revised it slightly for publication in Harper's a year later under the present title. The particular occasion for Staples's reflections is an incident that occurred for the first time in the mid-1970s, when he discovered that his mere presence on the street late at night was enough to frighten a young white woman. Recalling this incident leads him to reflect on issues of race, gender, and class in the United States. As you read, think about why Staples chose the new title, "Black Men and Public Space." My first victim was a woman – white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties. I came upon her late one evening on a deserted street in Hyde Park, a relatively affluent neighborhood in an otherwise mean, impoverished section of Chicago. As I swung onto the avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried glance. To her, the youngish black man – a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket – seemed menacingly close. After a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest. Within seconds she disappeared into a cross street. That was more than a decade ago, I was twenty-two years old, a graduate student newly arrived at the University of Chicago. 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. As a softy 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. Her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny. It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto. That first encounter, and those that followed, signified that a vast, unnerving gulf lay between nighttime pedestrians – particularly women – and me. And I soon gathered that being perceived as dangerous is a hazard in itself. I only needed to turn a corner into a dicey situation, or crowd some frightened, armed person in a foyer somewhere, or make an errant move after being pulled over by a policeman. Where fear and weapons meet – and they often do in urban America – there is always the possibility of death. In that first year, my first away from my hometown, I was to become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear. At dark, shadowy intersections, I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver – black, white, male, or female – hammering down the door locks. On less traveled streets after dark, I grew accustomed to but never comfortable with people crossing to the other side of the street rather than pass me. Then there were the standard unpleasantries with policemen, doormen, bouncers, cabdrivers, and others whose business it is to screen out troublesome individuals before there is any nastiness. I moved to New York nearly two years ago and I have remained an avid night walker. In central Manhattan, the near-constant crowd cover minimizes tense one-on-one street encounters. Elsewhere – in SoHo, for example, where sidewalks are narrow and tightly spaced buildings shut out the sky – things can get very taut indeed. After dark, on the warrenlike streets of Brooklyn where I live, I often see women who fear the worst from me. They seem to have set their faces on neutral, and with their purse straps strung across their chests bandolier-style, they forge ahead as though bracing themselves against being tackled. I understand, of course, that the danger they perceive is not a hallucination. Women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence. Yet these truths are no solace against the kind of alienation that comes of being ever the suspect, a fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact. It is not altogether clear to me how I reached the ripe old age of twenty-two without being conscious of the lethality nighttime pedestrians attributed to me. Perhaps it was because in Chester, Pennsylvania, the small, angry industrial town where I came of age in the 1960s, I was scarcely noticeable against a backdrop of gang warfare, street knifings, and murders. I grew up one of the good boys, had perhaps a half-dozen fistfights. In retrospect, my shyness of combat has clear sources.

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Black Men in Public Space

In the brief article titled “Black Men in Public Space,” which was written by Brent Staples, the author shares his own experiences on how he is stereotyped since he is an African American and seems to be afraid in “public settings” (Staples 225). Staples is a bright young guy who is now pursuing his PhD at the University of Chicago. Because of the intricacy of his skin, he is never given fair treatment and is always subjected to discrimination. During one of his customary evening strolls, he crossed paths with a white lady. She gave him a couple of looks before quickly picking up her pace and avoiding him for the rest of the evening. He decided to alter his look so that other people would not be alarmed by the hue of his skin. He changed his appearance as well as the way he moved. This paper discusses the tribulations young black men often face due to their skin colour. It talks about how Brent Staples struggles to find a sense of belonging and acceptance in a racially biased society. Lastly, it discusses the methodologies black men may use to counter-check racial acts against them, taking Brent Staples’s examples.

Brent Staples gives a first-person account of his life as a black man living in contemporary society and his challenges. The narrative of “Black Men and Public Space” serves as a trip for the readers to accompany Staples on as he uncovers the many prejudices held against him by society just due to the colour of his skin. When Staples was twenty-two years old and out late one night on the streets of Chicago, he encountered a lady who reacted with panic when she saw him. This sets the stage for the beginning of the essay. He realized that people would automatically categorize him as a “mugger, rapist, or worse” because of his size and the fact that he was a black guy (135). Staples relates his experiences in Chicago of being racially profiled, including individuals locking their vehicle doors as he went by, people walking to the other side of the street after seeing him, and police officers presuming he was a danger because of his race. After that, Staples relocated to Brooklyn and had the same reactions there. He was seen as “a frightening apparition with whom passersby avoid establishing eye contact” (136).

Brent Staples focuses on his personal experiences, which, from his point of view, revolve around issues of racism and injustice. This viewpoint brilliantly portrays a black guy’s existence in a completely distinct way, complete with an outside appearance that directly influences how other people see him as a person. Many people who read this, including myself, have never been terrified of how Staples is regularly. When he said, “It also made it plain that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who periodically crept into the area from the adjacent slum,” it brought me the gravity of the situations he had been in. (135). Many individuals will never comprehend what it means to acknowledge that truth as a reality and embrace it. It is of the utmost significance that Staples was able to communicate this vision of the world to others for them to start the process of seeing society from a perspective that is distinct from their knowledge. In addition, he whistles a few pieces from classical music to brighten the atmosphere and make himself seem nicer. “I whistle tunes from Beethoven and Vivaldi and other well-known classical composers,” the author writes (Staples 226). Whistling caused everyone around him to feel more at ease, as shown by the fact that he writes that “sometimes they even join in the melody” (Staples 226). He altered his outward appearance to reduce the likelihood that others would categorize him according to a preconceived notion of what an African American should look like.

Annotated Bibliography

Carter, P. (2018). The black swan of trespass: Dramaturgies of public space. In Movements of Interweaving (pp. 216-236). Routledge.

In this study, we see that when two stuffed animals start talking to one other at the beginning of The Black Swan of Trespass, the little theatre inside a theatre takes on the character of a giant puppet show, and all of a sudden, no single viewpoint can be regarded as fact. The piece that was put on by Stuck Pigs Squealing Theatre has already been seen at fringe festivals in Melbourne and New York, and the plethora of prizes it has won are certainly well earned. The author’s Lally Katz and Chris Kohn have taken the literary prank perpetrated by Ern Malley in 1943 and flipped it inside out to produce a depiction of wartime Australia that is startlingly compelling, though abstract. The premise of this argument is that two young conservative soldier poets named James McAuley and Harold Stewart, who fabricated the identity and poetry of Ern Malley to mock modernist literature, did, in their act of creation; unconsciously reveal a genuine artistic response to a society that was experiencing the strain of significant social change.

Ferreira, C. A. A., & Nunes, S. C. (2022). Racial injury in public space: narratives of black students. Revista Teias, 23(69), 397-410.

In this study, racism encountered by black pupils in Brazilian society is brought to life in the literature. This research goes further to explain the experiences of eleven black university students in public space in terms of racial harm. We used a qualitative descriptive method to describe the situation. There are 18 questions in this semi-structured interview script, all of which deal with topics of race, gender, social class, and profession. Intersectionality between gender, race, and social class is used as an analytical category in this research because it focuses on problems of gender and race, and it analyzes students’ narratives in light of their setting. Studying samples from Brazilian media, this study aims to discover how racism against black women is reinforced via discursive practices in Brazil. Research shows that racial harm starts in the classroom with little insults and grows in the workplace in a different form. Black women in Brazil are more likely to suffer from emotional distress and racial injuries in the public sphere because of this country’s racial dynamics. There must be better respect for black people, a stronger militancy and opposition to situations of racial harm in the police station and the media, and an end to the subjectivities embedded in society’s subjects as a whole.

Honey-Rosés, J., Anguelovski, I., Chireh, V. K., Daher, C., Konijnendijk van den Bosch, C., Litt, J. S., … & Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on public space: an early review of the emerging questions–design, perceptions and inequities. Cities & health, 1-17 .

In this study, existing disparities were exacerbated by COVID-19. Minorities, the homeless, and residents of low-income areas are more vulnerable to COVID-19’s effects since they have fewer resources for health care and have a harder time self-isolating. Inequities in race, class, and neighbourhood may spill over into the public sphere. Public or private green areas, for example, are less accessible to vulnerable populations. More frequently than not, the green spaces in lower-income areas are smaller, less well-maintained, and less abundant. It is possible that COVID-19 may lead to a rise in gated communities and neighbourhoods as a result of the physical closure of streets and parks. It is crucial for the socially disadvantaged to have access to public areas, which serve a number of objectives. Public areas are sometimes the only places where low-income persons may escape their tight living quarters and get some fresh air. Having access to public places is critical for children and teenagers of all ages. The more tightly policed and “securitized” public areas become, the more undocumented immigrants and racialized minorities are likely to avoid them. The same stresses may be felt by those who are homeless. Criminal activity may decline if public areas are better protected by police and other authorities, enabling more people to utilize them.

Kuhlken, J. (2021). The Arendtian Public Space of Black Lives Matter. Southwest Philosophy Review, 37(2), 71-74.

Her article “What is Freedom?” argues that philosophy has always accepted the existence of morality only if it is predicated on the foundation of liberty. However, for Arendt, politics is the true abode of freedom. “It seems safe to conclude that man would know nothing about inner freedom if he had not experienced a situation of being free as a worldly concrete reality,” she writes. It is through our interactions with others, not our interactions with ourselves, that we first become conscious of freedom or its antithesis. Having a fresh beginning, according to Arendt, is experiencing freedom. “The freedom to call something into reality which did not exist before, which was not provided, not even as an object of cognition or imagination, and which thus, simply could not be known” is how action arises in the world when human beings work together to establish something new. This illustrates that freedom, properly understood, is not freedom of the will as, for example, when a moral principle given by reason leads the will, as in the case of the Declaration of Independence. Arendt’s premise, on the other hand, demonstrates how freedom manifests itself in the world via action.

Staples, B. (2021). Just walk on by, A black man ponders his power to alter public space. In Public Space Reader (pp. 90-95). Routledge.

Her article “What is Freedom?” argues that philosophy has always accepted the existence of morality only if it is predicated on the foundation of liberty. However, for Arendt, politics is the true abode of freedom. “It seems safe to conclude that man would know nothing about inner freedom if he had not experienced a situation of beingfree as a worldly concrete reality,” she writes. It is through our interactions with others, not our interactions with ourselves, that we first become conscious of freedom or its antithesis. Having a fresh beginning, according to Arendt, is experiencing freedom. “The freedom to call something into reality which did not exist before, which was not provided, not even as an object of cognition orimagination, and which thus, simply could not be known” is how action arises in the world when human beings work together to establish something new. This illustrates that freedom, properly understood, is not freedom of the will as, for example, when a moral principle given by reason leads the will, as in the case of the Declaration of Independence. Arendt’s premise, on the other hand, demonstrates how freedom manifests itself in the world via action.

Valasik, M., & Torres, J. (2020). Civilizing Space or Criminalizing Place: Using Routine Activities Theory to Better Understand How Legal Hybridity Spatially Regulates “Deviant Populations”. Critical Criminology, 1-21.

The convergence of administration, civil, and criminal law has resulted in the expansion of contemporary systems for the control of crime, as well as a significant rise in the legal power and discretion afforded to officers of the law. This kind of legal hybridity has led notably to the widespread employment of spatial regulatory procedures (or spatial remedies) by law enforcement in metropolitan areas. Some examples of these practices include the use of exile policies and civil gang injunctions. While banishment policies and CGIs are examples of the reliance on legal hybridity to spatially manage “deviant” population numbers, empirical results suggest that spatial solutions steered by the theoretical foundations of prevention and broken windows perspectives are not effective at predicting observed behavioural changes. This is the case despite the fact that banishment policies and CGIs are examples of the reliance on legal hybridity to spatially manage “deviant” populations. The research suggests a critical tool for understanding insubordination to spatial remedies and suggests that routine activities theory is an adequate model to expose why these methods fail to image and gives compliance or remedy problem areas. The study also argues for a critical framework for understanding how spatial remedies can be improved.

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Black Men and Public Spaces

This reflective essay “Black Men and Public Spaces” by Brent Staples, argues about the author’s personal struggles being a black man, in his twenties, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Brent Staples was born and raised in Chester, Pennsylvania but he finished his studies and began working as a journalist in Chicago and New York City. Staples writes about some stories that gradually led him to realize over the fear of being judged by his race. In “Black Men and Public Spaces”, Staples let us become aware of his attitude and the way he perceives the situations he presents.

To begin with his story, Staples presents a white woman whom he comes across walking in the streets. He states that just by looking at him, she started to run until he could no longer see her. That first scenario made him realize  what being an African American man or what his “inheritance” (p. 336) will cause, if he was seen in a public space. This because of the stereotype black men suffer of being rapist or a thief. Later in the essay, he tells about white people’s actions in the intersections whenever he passed by a car or crossed the streets. For example, the driver will automatically put down the locks, or the pedestrians will cross in another direction.

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Also, he explains how in his own work as a journalist, his own peers had accused him for being a thief and called security. In his writing, Staples describes how he understands that young black males are constantly related to violence and other crimes and that this is why he was constantly judged. Likewise, he explains how he had seen this incident, of violence where he grew up.

As it was stated, this is a narrative essay where the author reinforces his message by expressing his personal experiences. This can make the audience understand in a sensitive way his point of view. That is, his personal stories can help to not only understand what he believes or how he sees the situation, but to understand what he feels about the discrimination. For example, he states that he has “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways”, and later on: “-I was surprised, embarrassed, and dismayed all at once” (p. 336). In other words, he describes that he had the ability to change or alter people’s reaction just because of his appearance. He also communicates to the audience how he feels about it.

Although his feelings are clear, the audience can also learn how he tries to build a clean background to prove that those judgments are not true. This is stated when he makes reference to his early life: “I grew up one of the best boys, had perhaps a half-dozen fistfights. In retrospect, my shyness of combat has clear sources.” (p. 337) He gives the reader a confident perspective that he is not what people think of him.

Consequently, the use of his vocabulary and form of writing can personally make me know more about who he is. Through his essay, he frequently uses words that are relevant to his fear from the judgements for being a violent black man. For instance, he repeats the words “mugger”, “tyranny”, “criminal” and “violence”. These types of vocabulary give a sense of understanding of what his stereotype is.

On the other hand, he mixes those words with ones that reflect his emotions about the situation such as: “embarrassed”, “terrified”, and “timid”. Although his choice of words reflects his professional appearance, Staplers also uses easy to read sentences to which I am able to relate to some kind of an emotional way. By this I mean, that he gives a very descriptive way to tell his story and it is easy to understand him.

Overall, Staplers states his dilemma of being a black man and the stereotypes he has to struggle. From his personal experiences, the author let me understand his attitude and the way he perceives his situations. The way he describes the stories help me become aware of the ways he was discriminated but also to realize his feelings towards it. Personally, I have the impression that he becomes his own victim that quietly and calmly faces the judgements and learns to accept why white people have those stereotypes toward his race. Later, this same victim decides to ease the situation by adopting new behaviors that will make him survive the judgements.

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