A Woman In Black Analysis

This reflective essay is the story of an African American male and what his life is like when he goes out in public. The premise of the essay is that the author feels that because he is judged by society due to his race, he has to go out of his way to make others feel comfortable around him. He talks about how he will walk past buildings if someone is going into them and seems uncomfortable around him, or how he will whistle classical music to try to ease their nerves. The author even speaks on how he is treated differently by authoritarian figures such as the police, bouncers at clubs, and security guards, because of his race. Like the people he is surrounded by they act with extreme caution and will watch him more than they do his white

Women are constantly told from childhood to avoid people, especially men at night. Society has deemed women as delicate things that are incapable of protecting themselves against the impending violence around them, so they ingrain in them a sense of fear and caution to avoid men at night. For example, he speaks on how one women physically runs from him while he is walking at night, but if it is dark she may not even be able to see his skin color. She only knows that a man who, in his own words describe himself as “a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair” is walking behind her at night. This being said, because of his personal experiences, it is not hard to imagine why he doesn’t consider his gender to be the issue. When he talks about how people will lock their car doors when he walks by, and how police will be more wary of him and may even treat him like a criminal before he does anything, this is easy to see. His whole life his race has been society’s problem with him, so he just assumes that this is the problem in every situation he is in. Not only that but it men often don’t receive the talk that women do about the dangers in the night, so he may not even