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“Just Walk on By” A person’s actions doesn’t reflect upon another person of the same race. Our society occasionally stereotypes both gender and race. I’ve been stereotyped by being apprised that I’ll be another hispanic teen getting pregnant. They say hispanic girls fall in love too quickly and end up getting pregnant before the age of 16. “Just Walk on By”, written by Brent Staples in the late 1900’s was intended towards a stereotype audience of African Americans being aggressors and muggers. Staples purpose is to divulge the idea, that African Americans, are all seen the same due to one black man committing a crime. “Just Walk on By”, establishes an ordinary hard working person to being stereotyped by others because of his skin color. …show more content…
Brent Staples is a great author by acknowledging how racism is still currently a problem. Everyone is viewing a whole race the same due to ones actions. He uses pathos, an emotion by how this innocent person is being characterized. The use of pathos is significant because it creates an appeal to the reader from many different aspects. Staple tries to get at an emotion of fear because he’s trying to convey how people perceived him. “thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver-black, white, male, or female-hammering down the door locks.”Fear is being drawn from this encounter with any certain driver. Staples is letting his audience realize, how society has become. Just by seeing a black, white, or hispanic person, doesn’t mean people should keep themselves a certain distance from them. That person they’re doing that to, may cause them to feel terrible because people are scared of them. Fear is something normal a person may feel, but we shouldn’t have fear towards someone because of their skin color. This quote creates the feeling of fear and he restates it by saying, “I was to become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear.” Not only does he stick to the emotion of fear when he’s trying to get the audience's attention. He also uses sarcasm and humor. He doesn’t stick to this strong emotion, he uses humor to lighten his tone towards racism. This is very effective because it makes the reader want to read the rest of it by him setting different aspects of it. Staples establishes a very strong emotion towards fear, but he then transitions to humor to let his readers know that fear doesn’t affect him because he’s not an aggressor in any way. He expresses humor to lighten up his writing, so that he doesn’t only demonstrate a dark piece of writing towards
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
In his article “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space”, which first appeared in the women’s magazine Ms. Magazine and later Harpers, Brent Staples explores the discrimination he faced as a black man living in Chicago and New York. In writing this piece, Brent Staples hoped to use a combination of pathos and ethos to demonstrate to the women that read Ms. Harper’s that Staples is actually the victim when the women treat him the way they do and to get these women to view him, and other black men, differently and to make them realize that they are people too. Staples use of his ethos and pathos serve well to support his position and convince others to take a new perspective. Staples uses ethos in multiple ways
Only the poor, the beggar, and the under-classes are prefer to walk, in the opinion of some Americans. However, one American, the author Antonia Malchik, writes “The End of Walking,” and she argues that in Orwellian fashion, American people not only walk less, but are afforded less opportunity to walk. Undermined pedestrian transit systems encroaches on people’s liberty, instinct, and health. In Malchik’s article, most of the rhetorical strategies are very effective. She strengthens the credibility successfully by citing experts’ words and narrating her own experiences. With facts and statistics, she interprets the logical reasons of walking.
Touching upon one specific case of this growing problem, she incorporates “Michael Brown,” who was an “18-year old unarmed black man shot down by a white police officer.” As heartbreaking as it sounds, it has happened on several occasions to men similar to “Michael Brown.” Accordingly, Myers formulates that it “is the same story. It is just different names.” Myers logically lists the other names of several black men who unfortunately fell victim to hate crimes, (Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin), as well as flashing their images on the screen. Not only does Verna Myers use imagery in order to show that there is an evident issue with brutality and racism, but she knows it will tug on her viewers heartstrings. Likewise, this makes her audience become wary and sympathetic towards the situation at
He does so by giving personal accounts of this horrific discrimination and utilizing descriptive vocabulary that get the audience to notice a sense of knowledge within the author. He begins to discuss the judgment he faced by stating “I grew accustomed to but never comfortable with people crossing to the other side of the street rather than pass me” (Staples, 189) which allowed the audience to step into the Staples’ shoes and somewhat experience the treatment he endured on a daily basis due to his appearance. The author also justifies his credibility by giving further examples such as when he was racially profiled in a jewelry store to the point where a woman worker brought out a red Doberman pinscher. By implementing these appeals to ethos, Staples was able to effectively convince the audience that he was a credible witness regarding these unjustifiable acts by describing to the reader events that he himself experienced. He was able to put forth this example which not only various African-American males could relate to, but also one that he himself personally endured which assisted in further strengthening his argument and successfully pulling the audience towards his
Another motivation that inspires his action is the personal degradation he must have experienced as a black man in a racist community that includes backwoods deviants, who look down upon the blacks in the community. Hate crimes appear in both movies, including hate-fueled riots, attempted lynchings, and the reappearance of the Ku Klux Klan. Other manifestations of racism were realized as well, such as injustice in the court system and the school system, where, in both movies, the protagonists? children are continually taunted for being the progeny of a ?nigger lover.?
being black and being a woman. Scholars convey that African American women are involved in what’s called the “double threat” where membership in more than one oppressed social group results in cumulative risk outcomes (Brown 2000; Chavous et. al 2004; Childs 2005; Steele 1992; 1997). Black women may also experience stress due to unrealistic stereotypes. For example, research has revealed that black women experience “double threat” when they apply for housing from a white landlord. Results conclude that white landlords perceive black women as the “black single mother” stereotype, therefore they refuse to provide them with adequate housing (Iceland and Wilkes 2006; Roscigno et al. 2009). Black women actively seek to resist the positive and negative stereotypes for fear that embodying them will result in validation of those categorizations (Chavous et al. 2004; Fries-Britt & Griffin 2007; Rollock, Gillborn, Vincent & Ball 2011; Settles 2006; Steele 1997). Black women may not have intended to perpetuate stereotypes in the presence of others, but are subjected to social pressures to normalize these stereotypes for others and pigeonhole themselves in counteractive representations of black women (Childs 2005; Wilkins 2012). Steele (1992) described this process as “stereotype threat” which occurs when individuals perceive that negative stereotypes about their group as
There are two main issues in the movie the “The Color of Fear” that I will discuss. These two issues include grouping people of color on the basis of the way one looks, and the attitudes of different races towards one another. Including also the idea that the white “do-gooder” feels that subconsciously racism is being taken care of, when in all reality it isn’t. 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."
People all over the world get judged based on their race or skin color every hour of every day. A person’s color on the outside does not make them who they are. In Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby,” color defines who a person is. It decides whether someone is a slave or a slave master who can treat the slaves however they want. The people in the United States of America have come a long way since slavery, but they still have a long way to go. Even though slavery was abolished many years ago, there are people that instantly assume something of someone just because of what they might look like on the outside. When people judge others because of their skin color, it can lead to many horrible situations. This happened in “Desiree’s Baby” when Armand
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
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.
While reading Brent Staples textual analysis “Black Men and Public Space”, I thought the theme was simply displayed: white people are still racist. However, when I reread the analysis a few more times it became very clear and more composite than how I interpreted it the first time. Staples implies that there is a fine distinction between the two races. The author notices the habits or cultural appropriation. Staples concentrates on how black men were being taken a gander at by the way they conveyed themselves or by the way they were wearing open spots.
People have created stereotypes on others based on the individual's’ background and characteristics. In many circumstances people are labeled with a certain name because of the racial background. In Prelude: The Barbershop Vershawn Ashanti Young states “Thus in addition to enchantment, I felt a conflicting fusion of fortune and tribulation-fortune because my language and demeanor often mark me as educated, separating me from those who exemplify the stigmatized (and paradoxically romanticized) black male profile, and consequently excusing me, though certainly not always, from the plight that follows that image” (2). By creating the negative stereotype about black males people do not even think twice before making an assumption about how those men are. This affects the whole group since even though...