Perceived Threats: Stereotyping Black Men in Public Spaces

Criminalizing Black Men for Strolling at Night
While we work to change the tolerance in America, the prejudice response of perceiving black men as criminals, is still a regular occurance. In his essay, “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Ability to Alter Public Space” Ms. Magazine, 1986, Brent Staples analyzes the effects he has on those around him and expresses his feelings about being able to “alter public places in ugly ways” (Staples 1). Staples purpose is to magnify the ongoing prejudices happening to black men as they are often stereotyped as a threat. He hopes to changing the view of others by describing how black men are made to feel because of these unjust views. He supports his position by using strong imagery as he chronicles

in Psychology, he was a member of the New York Times editorial board, a journalist, and published author, he often wrote about growing up facing poverty. He wrote this essay in 1974, only eight years after the death of Martin Luther King, when civil rights for African-Americans were improving. However, the discrimination continued even when segregation stopped. Staples was a 23 year old graduate student student at the University of Chicago when he first experienced racial profiling, suggesting that he was not predispositioned to expect this type of bigotry. He concedes that women are more vulnerable and that they are victims on the streets who do need to be cautious. He also acknowledges the role that young black men produce by being a populous number of the perpetrators (Staples 2). As a result of his genuine sincerity in trying to change the outlook of others, Staples is able to persuade others to think before they react and proves to be a respectable, reliable source of information.
Staples offers several examples of being treated like a criminal, he begins by recalling an interaction with a young woman where he is made to feel like a predator for the first time. The first three words written in his essay are, “My first victim,” introducing the idea that it makes him feel like a bad guy experiencing this encounter. He impels the reader to feel his anguish for being the cause of her fear stating: “It was in the echo of that terrified woman’s footfalls

He expands his argument by using direct sources where black men have had a “firm place” being represented as muggers in New York literature using Norman Podhoretz’ article, “My Negro Problem” and “Heaven and Nature” by Edward Hoagland as specific examples (Staples 2). The structure of the essay allows the reader to begin when he first felt himself viewed as a threat in Chicago and continues through to moving to his current location in New York where there is a slight relief felt in Manhattan’s crowded