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Discrimination and how it affects society
The effect of discrimination on people and society
Discrimination and how it affects society
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In the 19th century, America began to distribute freedoms and rights to its multicultural population. Despite America’s new laws and anti-discriminatory prevention measures, society cannot comprehend diversity. American society continues to abide by preconceived standards created when Europeans established their home in America in the 1500s. Thus, racism is a result of society’s perception common settlers’ faces and ideas are the ideal. The unfair treatment of the different indicates their stature of not being considered individuals with distinct consciences. An accredited African American author, Brent Staples, writes about such regimens in his work, Just Walk On By, in which passers-by silently judge his character. His personal experiences …show more content…
lead him to develop a hypothesis on how to deal with such underlying yet poignant forms of discrimination. Brent Staples proposes that to mitigate racial injustices, minorities must appease concerns of oppressors by disregarding their personal dispositions thus abolishing themselves of the potential for individual identity. The author argues his proposition through the tendency appearance has to elicit automatically racist behaviors, and the ideology that claims made by authorities are deemed socially correct even if morally incorrect. Staples argues that because innate discriminatory actions against irregular appearances persist, the oppressed can only achieve hopes of freedom through submission, for oppressor’s programed mindsets are satisfied with the thought of being in control thus minimizing their avarice for more power by further discrimination.
Staples begins his piece with a flashback of his personal experiences dealing with discriminatory behavior. “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 establishment of a young boy, coming of age, to enter the real word creates a sense of compassion within the reader for the difficult transition between adolescence and adulthood applies to all. As a boy already facing this disturbance, the thought that Staples has to simultaneously balance biased inequity shows readers exactly how difficult certain minorities live life. The reason Staples is treated as a monstrosity can only be credited to his appearance of African American; since the woman didn’t linger in close enough proximity to develop other reasons. Representing the population, the women demonstrates the automatic fight or flight response elicited when close to minorities. Her second nature response signifies that unless minorities change their appearance they will always be judged. Their stagnant appearance is liable for the involuntary positions of oppression they are subjected into. The unattainable necessity to change his appearance elicits a sympathetic response from the reader. Staples desire of image modification becomes more relevant with his utilization of the personal pronoun ‘I’, which furthermore assigns the hopelessness he felt in the situation to the reader's sense of emotion. Interlacing emotions, the reader can comprehend Staples’ proposed solution in his state of hopelessness. The injustice of not being
given a choice of life due to predetermined genetics evokes indignation in the Staples’s readers also. Their anger directed towards Staples’s unjust treatment persuades the readers to want justice. Knowing aggressive confrontation and militant retaliation will not change one’s appearance of being different, the readers are ushered in the direction Staples thought to halt racism. “[He] began to take precautions to make [him]self less threatening”, such as avoiding close encounters with nervous people and singing peaceful selections to ease tensions in the atmosphere. Staples physically deflecting discrimination in this method conveys that his formulated claim is verifiable in that he has tried the solution and succeeded. The readers can trust in Staples’s argument because he not only states it but lived it to assert it. After acceptance of his position in society and formulating how to deal, Staples concludes his writing through a didactic restatement of his argument leaving an earnest recommendation. “[Songs are the] equivalent of cowbell[s] that hikers wear when they know they are in bear country.” Staples’s final sentence demonstrates to the readers that after facing discrimination, the author realises that American societal views will not change; therefore, it is the job of the minority to adjust and adapt to the world of the suppressors. Staples’s asserts that due to the underlying reality that superior’s preconceived beliefs cannot be argued and result in inarguable accusations, the oppressed have no option but to assimilate to the wishes of their superior or face punishment at the hands who hold the power. “Then there were the standard unpleasantries with police, doormen, bouncers, cabdrivers, and others whose business is to screen out troublesome individuals before there is any nastiness.” Staples’s syntax of purposefully italicizing the word ‘before’ shows that he understands the irony occurring in workplaces that have duties against discrimination yet support these wrongs. Staples’s abilities to comprehend deeper meaning are made known to the reader by his diction and syntax. His inclusion of powerful words and analyzing tone notifies the reader that Staples’s is literate and is capable of understanding his claim. Staples also attending university and being experienced as a journalist gives his argument credibility and further convinces his readers to adopt his position. Renown professions require workers to offer each customer, regardless of distinctions, their best assistance. However, their societal positions presents them with power to act in ways according to their wishes. Staples used logic to conclude that when individuals with the ability to promote equality chose to use their power to promote the opposite, there are no individuals of power remaining to preach the plea of the suppressed. If the leaders possess certain beliefs, those similar beliefs are reciprocated by society. Thus, if authorities foster discrimination, the act of discriminating becomes socially acceptable. For instance Staples introduces Norman Podhoretz, an esteemed author to demonstrate the reality in his claim. Podhoretz perceived innocent impecunious people of color as ‘“mugger[s] who [are] clearly screwing up [their] nerve to do more than just ask for money.”’ Men such as Podhoretz are held responsible for making “Black men [hold] firm place[s] in New York mugging literature”, because Podhoretz’s views written in his book reach many readers. Since Podhoretz is in an authoritative position, he has the ability to influence vast audiences’ views in conjunction to his racism views. This simulation of dictatorial leadership leaves different views aside including the views of minorities. Staples appeals to the reader’s logic by positioning his claim as the most probable method to cope with dictator like rule. His use of logical deductions make his claim more appealing as he has refuted other ways that the oppressed could try and achieve freedom though. Staples’s even demonstrates that minorities cannot alter the mindset of their oppressors to impede discrimination. The author shows that he has viewed all other possible ways of solving the issue of racism yet he believes only surrendering will result in a better life for the oppressed. Staples inserts this counter-solution by an anecdote. “An infant discovers that random flailings send the baby bottle flying out of the crib and crashing to the floor. Delighted, the joyful babe repeats those motions again and again, seeking to duplicate the feat.” Staples’s anecdote of a baby demonstrates the “consummation of the male romance with the power to intimidate.” In broad respects, the author claims that individuals when presented with power over others will continue to exert that power for the continued primitive delight it brings. The ones in power will not capitulate their authority or the principals employed in their authority for minority appeasement. The prejudices instituted by the superiors are too deeply ingrained from a young age as just to be dissipated overnight. By Brent Staples acknowledging a counter argument, he shows his audience that he is open to other possible solutions to end racism and not fixated in his argument being the only correct answer that all should arrive at. Staples negating all other solutions appeals to ethics for the refutation of the counterarguments show the readers the sincerity with which he feels about his claim. Brent Staples’s proposition for solving racial prejudice by satisfying the beliefs of superiors is effective to the extend where his claim can be applied to broader scenarios. A push is juxtaposed by a pull in the sense that a negative is balanced by a positive. This phenomenon conveys that some individuals or collection of individuals will need to forfeit accommodations in order to gain other accommodations. The principles of physics can be applied to reality for every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In broader terms, to solve any issue auspiciously, members of said encounter need to be open to receiving both unpleasant and pleasant circumstances. Only behaving for one outcome results in a less than satisfactory resolution where both sides of the debate are left unsatisfied. In opposition, when both parties of a debate compromise, each side receives a small benefit even though they may not have received complete benefit. Be content with what you are able to attain not the prospect of the attainable, for that will only leave dismay. A proverb commonly stated is half a loaf is better than none.
In the article, “A Letter My Son,” Ta-Nehisi Coates utilizes both ethical and pathetic appeal to address his audience in a personable manner. The purpose of this article is to enlighten the audience, and in particular his son, on what it looks like, feels like, and means to be encompassed in his black body through a series of personal anecdotes and self-reflection on what it means to be black. In comparison, Coates goes a step further and analyzes how a black body moves and is perceived in a world that is centered on whiteness. This is established in the first half of the text when the author states that,“white America’s progress, or rather the progress of those Americans who believe that they are white, was built on looting and violence,”
Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space” is about how racial profiling has affected his life and made him think of himself as a perilous person. He supports this argument by allowing the readers to see things from his point of view during the times when he was treated like an outsider because of the color of his skin, followed by sharing how the situation made him feel confused and foreign. Staples’ wrote this essay in order to make readers become aware of how often racial profiling actually happens among men. His intended audience is primarily people of color because that is what his essay focuses on, but the intended audience is also those who are not of color because the author is trying to convince them about the
Ever since the abolition of slavery in the United States, America has been an ever-evolving nation, but it cannot permanently erase the imprint prejudice has left. The realities of a ‘post-race world’ include the acts of everyday racism – those off-handed remarks, glances, implied judgments –which flourish in a place where explicit acts of discrimination have been outlawed. It has become a wound that leaves a scar on every generation, where all have felt what Rankine had showcased the words in Ligon’s art, “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background” (53). Furthermore, her book works in constant concert with itself as seen in the setting of the drugstore as a man cuts in front of the speaker saying, “Oh my god, I didn’t see you./ You must be in a hurry, you offer./ No, no, no, I really didn’t see you” (77). Particularly troublesome to the reader, as the man’s initial alarm, containing an assumed sense of fear, immediately changing tone to overtly insistent over what should be an accidental mistake. It is in these moments that meaning becomes complex and attention is heightened, illuminating everyday prejudice. Thus, her use of the second person instigates curiosity, ultimately reaching its motive of self-reflections, when juxtaposed with the other pieces in
Brent Staples, who was a journalist of the New York Times, and studied mental philosophy from the University of the Chicago, shows the different subject positions in his published version of the “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”, and his draft version of the “Just Walk on By”. Brent Staples wrote two different versions of the essay, but the each essay’s subject position is pretty different to the reader. Also, each subject position describes the same situation quite differently by illustrating each way of looking based on dissimilar perspectives. In his Published version, he describes himself “I was twenty-two years old, a graduate student newly arrived at the University of Chicago”(Staples 240). Also, the published version says, “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 240). However, in another version, which is the draft version of the essay before publication, he draws himself “I was wearing my navy pea jacket, the collar turned up, my hands snug in the pockets”(Staples “Another Version”). In another version of his essay, there is no describes the woman’s position who ran away after saw the writer of this personal essay. Without the title, and the author of the writer, those two personal essays seems entirely different to the reader, and each subject positions of these essays makes same situation diversely, which means each perspective and ways of looking make two different essays
In this essay, Dr. Brent Staples recounts his first time unintentionally scaring a young white women located in Hyde Park, Chicago. He recounts her worried posture, her hurried steps, and her repeated glances before she took off down the road. Dr. Staples, being a person of color, took slight offense to this. Before he had never really thought much about his skin color being a factor of intimidation, but rather just a piece of “normal” discrimination. It was the mid 1970’s after all, and it was no secret to anybody
“Just Walk On By” started out as Staples’ sad life story, but turned into the story of a man who eventually came to terms with the difficulties he would deal with in his life, and he faced them with a positive attitude. “Complexion,” unfortunately, ended with Rodriguez feeling self-defeated and believing he would never find a resolution to his problem. He did not want to ignore the issue of his skin color, but let it slowly take over his life. Seeing them side-by-side, these essays start out with the same problem, but eventually go in completely different directions near the end. Staples and Rodriguez dealt with the racism and social judgment on the inside and both had radically different resolutions.
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.
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
For instance, Staples faces many stereotypes. He is a journalist who is consistently judged due to his appearance. In paragraph 1, “As I swung onto the avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance between us.” Staples creates an image by describing himself as a monster but his description is based on how the outside world see him. He considers his presence a cause for altering others emotion. According to Stereotypes by Rachel E, “In the United States, some of the longest-held and potentially most detrimental stereotypes are those about African Americans.” This relates to Staples crucial journey to greatness. Staples was perceived as a mugger, a murderer, and a rapist because of his outside image and how others viewed
Fueled by fear and ignorance, racism has corrupted the hearts of mankind throughout history. In the mid-1970’s, Brent Staples discovered such prejudice toward black men for merely being present in public. Staples wrote an essay describing how he could not even walk down the street normally, people, especially women, would stray away from him out of terror. Staples demonstrates his understanding of this fearful discrimination through his narrative structure, selection of detail, and manipulation of language.
Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or to intimidate. For Staples fear is the constant emotion rattling in his head every time he simply passes by someone. “Just Walk on By” — by Brent Staples, discusses the on going problem of being considered a possible threat to those around him. Although Staples arouses fear everywhere he steps foot, Mr. Staples also is fearful himself because of the reaction he causes due to his ethnic inheritance. He lives in a world where any black man or person of color is perceived as a imitate danger. Staples has a reason to be fearful as he is in a never ending nightmare filled with hate. The sense of fear he experiences
He creates this tone to convey his purpose to the reader which is that prejudice is still an ongoing problem in American society, and that it will never be a thing of the past. Staples gives many personal anecdotes that are very somber; the readers are affected by this because they can emphasize and feel the prejudice that the victim, Brent Staples, faces. Although Staples is never delighted with the positions he is in, he never shows his resentment. In one part of the article, Staples said, “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.” (Staples, 2). Staples attributes that he knows many people in American society automatically assume that he is a threat to “their” society because of
As a black man himself, Staples describes in anecdotes about his encounters with prejudice in America. When Staples finally ventured into the adult world, he became “familiar with the language of fear”(652). He witnessed this language on a daily basis. For example, Staples recalled that as he walked by cars, he heard a “hammering down [of] the door locks” (652). He then experienced “unpleasantries with policemen, doormen, bouncers, cab drivers, and other who business it is to screen out troublesome individuals before there is any
Brent Staples focuses on his own experiences, which center around his perspective of racism and inequality. This perspective uniquely encapsulates the life of a black man with an outer image that directly affects how others perceive him as a person. Many readers, including myself, have never experienced the fear that Staples encounters so frequently. The severity of his experiences was highlighted for me when he wrote, “It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto.” (135) Having to accept that fact as a reality is something that many people will never understand. It is monumentally important that Staples was able to share this perspective of the world so others could begin to comprehend society from a viewpoint different from their
Staples is a black graduate who moved to Chicago as a newly arrived student at the University of Chicago. In this essay, Staples wasn’t stereotyped as being unintelligent, he is black, and hence he was discrimated against. He was seen as a rapist, a thief and a killer. This goes to show that Blacks are being stereotyped wrongfully. This takes me back to the Ben Carson novel. In his novel Ben and his brother Curtis were seen as the dumbest kids in school. Even through their hard work and dedication, they weren’t seen as being brilliant, because they were surrounded by white students. Although he was discriminated, Ben Carson had his aim and desire. He didn’t mind being called a ‘dummy’; neither did he make that stop him from showing his intelligence. Today Ben Carson is one of the greatest and most famous