In “Black Men and
Public Space,” Brent Staples illustrates how he is portrayed as “a mugger, a
rapist or worse” in urban nighttime settings. Throughout the essay, he
discusses how he has to deal with stereotypes in everyday situations with
detail. In each situation, every “victim” thinks of Staples as a threatening
criminal, which convinces the reader that Staples unintentionally alters public
space because of the stereotypes of a young, black man placed upon him by
society.
Although, Staples only
informs readers of this well-known problem—he doesn’t provide a course of
action to help ease the severity of this issue. Staples recognizes that there
isn’t an easy solution to the issue of stereotypes, just like many of the other
authors who discuss stereotypes. Even though some people are very accepting of
others, there will always be some who will not leave the generalizations they
have of other races which makes it difficult to eliminate stereotypes. The only
easy solution is for everyone to simply accept the harsh generalizations that
are unwillingly placed upon them.
Yet, it isn’t easy for
Brent Staples to accept being looked upon as a criminal. The several anecdotes
he uses in his essay make it clear he doesn’t enjoy the way people react to him
on the streets at nighttime, or in the workplace and jewelry stores. He
describes the people surrounding him as “victim[s],” but he is actually the
victim—nothing but the prey of society and its generalizations. He might just
have to whistle Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
all night long to show others that he isn’t a threat.
I find it interesting that, although stereotypes are what defines him in public space, he is not capable of defining his stereotype on his own. But eventually the actions of many like him have actually caused a slight change, where we now aren't quite so paranoid. I hope.
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