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Gender stereotypes and popular culture
Gender stereotypes and popular culture
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In “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples, he explain in the short story that the presence of black people in public spaces scare white people. It scares while people because they could not differentiate between a black person from a mugger. The time when this was happening, there was a lot of racism going in the United States. I still see this in today’s society but only racism but also sexism. In United States, women’s personal space is being altered. Especially in big cities like New York, Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, and etc. A woman can’t walk down the street or go anywhere without guys throwing comments at them. A friend of mine who lives in New York City was complaining to me how guys are always throwing sexual comments at her. Me being me I told her to just ignore the guys and walk away like noting happen. I didn’t realize how scary that is until it happen to me last year. …show more content…
I wasn’t the only who was targeted, there were a lot of other girls who were being followed by this boy. At first, I didn’t know I was being followed until a friend of mine was telling me about it. So the following day, I paid more attention to who was around me till I walked from school. I noticed a boy has followed me all the way from school to home, but I didn’t think he was following me because he minded his own business and walked along the sidewalk. The next day in morning, a friend of mine was going to give me ride so I was waiting for. While I was waiting the same boy who walked behind me the day before came up to me and asked what time is was. After I told him the time, he just stood there not moving an inch and just looking at me. Lucky, my friend pulled up, after I got in the car, my friend was yelling at me for talking to the stalker. Then at that moment I realize it’s him who’s following
The article “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples, originally published in Ms. Magazine in 1986, under the title “Just Walk on by,” depicts the existence of racism within the unconscious prejudice of people. The main idea of this article is the fact that blacks are perceived as a violent and disastrous people, and this, in turn, puts them in danger. Staples uses a detailed imagery to illustrate the stereotype of individuals based on black people. In the article, the author portrays the poignant events that black people face and uses pathos to describe his melancholy of people judging him by his skin color. He attracts the focus of audience towards the main idea of this article by using onomatopoeia as well as diction. The usage of such rhetorical strategy has successfully clarified the main idea of the article and widened the approach of this article towards public.
This essay was written in the mindset of an African American male as he examines how his skin color affects how people react to him when he is in public spaces. He feels as if the sidewalks get narrower the closer he gets to others. He knows that the by passers fear him due to the stereotypical views society
In Brent Staples “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space” (Published Version in Ms. Magazine in 1986):
In her article “From America’s New Working Class”, Kathleen R. Arnold makes clear that welfare/workfare recipients are treated like prisoners or second class citizens. Likewise, In Michelle Alexander’s article “The New Jim Crow” she describes how blacks is made criminals by a corrupt criminal justice system. Alexander also points out in her article “The New Jim Crow” that shackles and chains are not the only form of slavery. Furthermore, Alexander states that although America is thought of as the home of the free, blacks are more likely than any other race to be arrested, unemployed, or denied housing. Freedom is not an absolute value in America, as slavery is more ubiquitous than ever.
Brent Staples created a perfectly structured essay that clearly unmasked a racist and judgmental society. As explained he used methods such as word choice, literary devices, many experiences of his past and pure emotion in order to place the reader in his shoes. Each method supported the main idea in, “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space”, very strongly. It enhanced the way a reader should feel about prejudicial thoughts and not only did he descriptively share his story but made it so that the reader could feel a personal connection to this phenomenon. Some people would not understand or try to understand how it truly is to be judged as a black male, but Brent Staples portrays great points throughout his personal experiences.
In Brent Staples essay, Black Men, and Public Space the author talks about the ways he was discriminated against because of his race. In a few incidents when walking down the street many women thought because Staples was African American he must be a rapist mugger, etc. In addition, another
Day to day white people avoid the black men in fear of being attacked; this fear was not uncommon during this time and many blacks looked at it as normal. In recent times, we see that the gap of equality has narrowed drastically in the 30 years since Brent time between the black and white communities. We see more and more black Americans becoming doctors, lawyers, and even one becoming the president of the United States. But what has changed?
The eight men in The Color of Fear candidly discussed racism not only as "whites oppressing blacks," but also the less addressed sides of racial trouble in America. A white man earnestly stating that he had never oppressed anyone in his entire life, and a Hispanic man talking about being afraid of driving in front of pickup trucks with gun racks, shows how there needs to be more progress towards ending these feelings in America. Stereotypes were openly declared, from Asians as "the model minority" to blacks as "lazy, violent, and dangerous." So the first issue is mainly a white culture problem; white people like to categorize those who do not look white and put the non whites into groups based on the color of their skin. Whites like to group together things that they do not understand.
Many women feel fear in public spaces. In “Women’s fear and the Design of Public Space,” Gill Valentine explains what women fear in public space. Valentine stated, “Women perceive men to control public space at night. This control is achieved not only by men’s numerical appropriation of public space, but also by the way they dominate it through their appearance and behaviour” (Valentine 300). Women have more fear at night because that is when men dominate public space. Women feel like they are overpowered. Valentine included, “Unlike their daytime attire, at night men’s casual clothing provides few visual clues to their potential behaviour, and so they are perceived as unpredictable. Furthermore, because men are perceived as larger and stronger, women assume they are unable to control men who
Society is filled with prejudices often based on first impressions which are skewed by personal thoughts First impressions play a large role in how we view and judge people before we even know them. However, as people silently judge others most do not consider the impact it has on those who are judged. Both “Black Men and Public Spaces” by Brent Staples and “The Struggle” by Issa Rae exemplify the prejudices they experience as African-Americans and the misplaced expectations society places on them. The authors point of view greatly impacts the details and tone of the story. Through explicit details and clear tone, the author is able to portray their perspective and point of view.
Staples describes his experiences in Chicago of being racially profiled, for example: people locking car doors as he walked by, people crossing to the other side of the street after seeing him, or police officers assuming him to be a threat. Then, Staples moved to Brooklyn and experienced similar responses, seen as “a fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact” (136).
In Brent Staples’ "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space," Staples describes the issues, stereotypes, and criticisms he faces being a black man in public surroundings. Staples initiates his perspective by introducing the audience in to thinking he is committing a crime, but eventually reveals how the actions taken towards him are because of the fear linked to his labelled stereotypes of being rapists, gangsters and muggers. Staples continues to unfold the audience from a 20 year old experience and sheds light onto how regardless of proving his survival compared to the other stereotypical blacks with his education levels and work ethics being in the modern era, he is still in the same plight. Although Staples relates such burdens through his personal experiences rather than directly revealing the psychological impacts such actions have upon African Americans with research, he effectively uses emotion to explain the social effects and challenges they have faced to avoid causing a ruckus with the “white American” world while keeping his reference up to date and accordingly to his history.
In “Black Men in Public Spaces” the author talks about multiply situation where he was treated different for being an African American. Staples said,” I entered a jewelry store on the city’s affluent near North side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash” (161.) Then there is “Right Place, Wrong Face, which is focused on and African American man that is wrongly accused of a crime because of his race. White said, “I was searched, stripped of my backpack, put on my knees, handcuffed, and told to be quieted when I tried to ask questions” (229.) The two articles have many similarities. Both articles have two educated African America men who get treated different because of their race. Staples and White both have situations where they are being stereotyped by society because there black
In the short essay, “Black Men in Public Space” written by Brent Staples, discusses his own experiences on how he is stereotyped because he is an African American and looks intimidated in “public places” (Staples 225). Staples, an intelligent man that is a graduate student at University of Chicago. Due to his skin complexity, he is not treated fairly and always being discriminated against. On one of his usual nightly walks he encountered a white woman. She took a couple glances at him and soon began to walk faster and avoided him that night. He decided to change his appearance so others would not be frightened by his skin color. He changed the way he looked and walked. Staples dressed sophisticated to look more professional so no one would expect him to be a mugger. Whistling classical music was referred to the “cowbell that hikers wear when they know they are in bear country”(Staples 226). The cowbell is used to protect hikers from bears. But in Staples case, it was to not be stereotyped and show that he is harmless. The general purpose of Staples essay was to inform the readers that stereotypes could affect African Americans and any other races.
For black men who do not conform to these strong masculine beliefs, are reviewed as not being man enough, and being overly masculine is considered as being defiant. However, there is no clear definition as to what it means to be a man, specifically, what it means to be an African American within society. This is where gender conflict begins for many black men. Gender conflict occurs when men try and fail to meet gender role norms (e.g. providing for self, family) and they loss their connection between the real self and the ideal self that society conveys a man should be (Norwalk, Vandiver, White, & Carson 2011). Gender role conflict experiences are different for both white and black men. Ideas about masculinity are internalized and individually