Unwieldy Inheritance

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Recommended: Staples, Brent. “Black men and public space.” New York Times. Life studies

In my essay I have chosen the essay “ black men and public space” by Brent Staples, and “ on seeing England for the first time” by Jamaica Kincaid . In Staples essay he shows us what does it mean to be a black man who walks in the night, living between people “ white people” who sees a criminal or a “mugger” when they look at him , because of the color of his skin that makes him stranger . And Kincaid explains how she felt as a stranger in her home town as well as in England when she went there . And both of Staples and Kincaid share the feeling of the fear, different types of fear ,as they both been through racism from people around them in different ways , in one hand Kincaid had the fear of losing her identity , and her culture identity and thus losing herself , while Staples had the fear of facing others fears of him, and both never did any harm to white people but they been suffering from white people and under they control and under their judgement . As Kincaid starts with describing one of the strongest memory she had about her childhood ,which was her teacher pointing out to the map of England , she reveals that she had no connection with it , and that she doesn't feel that she belong to this place , although the institutions in her society force her to feel so , and she emphasise on the great pressure that her society put in her to feel like she is a part of England ,as she pointed at “when my teacher had pinned this map up on the blackboard , she said, “this is England”_ and she said it with authority , seriousness , adoration , and we all sat up (332)” , even more the pressure to love this new culture was in her house from her family, she observed how much her father is holding on England culture “my father ... ... middle of paper ... ...r of him and not to blame them badly , and that was clear when he said “women are particularly vulnerable to street (370)” And he decided to give people their space to became less frightened of him and he emphasised in that when he said “if I happen to be entering a building behind some people who appear skittish, I may walk by , letting them clear the lobby before I return , so as not to seem to be following them (371)”. On the other hand Kincaid felt even more fury and anger toward the people she met and didn't accept her for how she was , because she was promised to have a life without racism in England and she makes that clear and obvious when she says “the moment I wished every sentence , everything I knew , that began with England would end with “and then it all died , we don't know how , it just all died” was when I saw the white cliffs of Dover (341)” .

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