Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Negative influences of racism on society
Effect of racism on society
Impact of racism on African Americans
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the essay, “Just walk on By,” Staples speaks of the struggle he and black men go through with society and their stereotypical view of black men. The way the minds of individuals were shaped are seen in this essay. Staples elaborates when speaking of his own experience as a writer, sympathy and stereotypes are Staples main argument; he makes individuals aware of the struggles black men endure due to stereotypes and the way they are portrayed in them. Strong diction allows Staples to emphasizes on the tension between white and black races. Diction such as, “victim,” “stalking,” and “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways,” show how individuals were shaped to perceive those with darker skin tones, the black race. These words explore the intensity of situations inter-racial individuals encounter. “I was …show more content…
The audience understands how difficult it must be to be carrying on with your day, minding your own business and suddenly be seen as a mugger. As an individual who could possibly hurt another soul. He was not disappointed in himself, nor the woman, but rather society and its incorrect assumptions of black men. Making the audience feel concern toward him, the audience considers his perspective on the issue. “Yet these truths are no solace against the kind of alienation that comes of being ever the suspect.” Women constantly being victims is a truth, women being seen as weak are the reason they are normally attacked; on the other hand, what is not true and overrepresented is the violence that come with black men. Even the knowledge that women are constantly easy preys, does not comfort Staples; there is no comfort because black men are also victims, victims of being wrongly accused for acts that few committed. When he encountered a woman on the street he demonstrated her
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
Ranikine’s addresses the light upon the failed judicial systems, micro aggressions, pain and agony faced by the black people, white privilege, and all the racial and institutional discrimination as well as the police brutality and injustice against the blacks; The book exposes that, even after the abolition of slavery, how the racism still existed and felt by the colored community in the form of recently emerged ‘Micro aggressions in this modern world’. Claudia Rankine’s Citizen explores the daily life situations between blacks and whites and reveals how little offensive denigrating conversations in the form of micro-aggressions were intentionally conveyed to the black people by the whites and how these racial comments fuel the frustrations and anger among the blacks. She gathered the various incidents, where the black people suffered this pain. This shows the white’s extraordinary powers to oppress the black community and the failure of the legal system Rankine also shares the horrible tragedy of Hurricane Katrina experienced by the black community, where they struggled for their survival before and post the hurricane catastrophes.
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
Brent Staples, who was a journalist for the New York Times, and studied mental philosophy at 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 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 as “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 young 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).
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
“…it is said that there are inevitable associations of white with light and therefore safety, and black with dark and therefore danger…’(hooks 49). This is a quote from an article called ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ written by bell hooks an outstanding black female author. Racism has been a big issue ever since slavery and this paper will examine this article in particular to argue that whiteness has become a symbol of terror of the black imagination. To begin this essay I will summarize the article ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ and discuss the main argument of the article. Furthermore we will also look at how bell hooks uses intersectionality in her work. Intersectionality is looking at one topic and
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
[and] reimposes limitations that can have the same oppressive effect” (610). Writing “On Being Black and Middle Class” was Steele’s way of working through this issue that society has.
In this narrative essay, Brent Staples provides a personal account of his experiences as a black man in modern society. “Black Men and Public Space” acts as a journey for the readers to follow as Staples discovers the many societal biases against him, simply because of his skin color. The essay begins when Staples was twenty-two years old, walking the streets of Chicago late in the evening, and a woman responds to his presence with fear. Being a larger black man, he learned that he would be stereotyped by others around him as a “mugger, rapist, or worse” (135).
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.
Staples, Brent. “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space.” Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. 12th ed. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Bedford, 2012. 240-3. Print.
The main theme of the three writings is labeling within an Imperialist Patriarchy. Toby S. Jenkins in his piece “Mr. Nigger” is concerned with the social, political, economic, psychological and educational issues that face the Black man today. Hooks piece examines how a patriarchal society has led to the black male being stereotyped and how these myths have...
Paragraph1, The Battle: The issue that many people of color face daily is stereotypes. Dark skinned African Americans are looked at as lower class citizens in society. This is labeled as complexion discrimination. Complexion discrimination is a form of homogeneous group privilege, in which people from the same race use factors such as skin tone to set a social status (Harvard Article, page 1, 2009). Though there are many forms of discrimination and profiling, complexion discrimination is not often discussed, yet occurs just as frequently. In a recent interview with my mentor, I learned how cruel people with the same ethnicity can be even as children. “I would get called names like ‘tar baby’, ‘blacky’, ‘charcoal’ and many other names. Back then, boys wouldn't talk to me because of the color of my skin so they only saw me good enough to be their friend” (Teranesha Newton, 2011). This is an example of the continuing of a cycle of ignorance and inequality. Racial slurs and degrading is something many have suffered quotidian. The comments and remarks that blacks label themselves can be simply harsh, cruel, and extremely offensive. African Americans with darker skin have been said to be less intelligent, lazy, and less attractive compared to those with lighter skin (Harvard Article, page 2, 2009). Dark skinned blacks face this daily in the workplace, in schools, and everyday life in general. Stereotypes have not only a negative effect on adults and children of today, but the ignorance of others is poisoning the minds from generation to generation. In a world full of very diverse people, discrimination is increasing from generation to generation. The skin tones of African-Americans have a strong effect on self-esteem, workplace positio...