Brent Staples’ Black Men in Public Places

Black men in Public Spaces is a flake of autobiographical writing that deals with issues of racism and discrimination in the United States. In his rook essay, Brent Staple re belatedlys a few of his nighttime experiences in the street, which notifyed the counselling in which he was perceived by the others. As a constituent of the filthy community, Staples discovers that he is shunned by the strangers that he meets in the street and that women in particular think of him as of a perilous exclusive.Not being a tearing man, Staples is confused and offended by the awe he inspires to the strangers that pass him by and soon learns to shun them himself in order to avoid the unpleasantness of an encounter. Thus, Black Men in Public Places is best suited for biographical criticism. The essay recounts a few of the experiences of the author during his encounters with strangers in the street. These experiences argon pertaind in such(prenominal) a way as to highlight the social issues at progress to racism in the form of prejudice and preconception.The author has several encounters with sportsmanlike people during his night wanderings that reveal a disconcerting post on their part. The young dismal man is shunned by the white collectivity as a dangerous man. The setting of these occurrences is very important the night and the public places reveal the space that the black community is allowed for in the current society. Despite the point that they are free, black men are regarded with prejudice and lack of combine by absolute strangers, without any explicit motive.Thus, the author feels that his simple heading in the street, without any triggering gesture or attitude on his part, is liable(predicate) to cause disturbance. He also realizes that the fact that he is considered dangerous by the others without other evidence than the fact that he is black can subscribe his walks dangerous. To highlight his ideas, Brent Staples uses a few particular devices. Th us, first of all, the piece is more of an essay than an actual story. Nevertheless, the author shapes it by giving it a particular culture.While he relates a few of his experiences as well as that of one of his black friends who is also a journalist as himself in the beginning, he ends by remarking that he himself soon adopted the same attitude as the white individuals had towards him. Thus, in order to avoid the unpleasantness of feeling the tending he inspires to the strangers he meets in the street, he begins to avoid anyone he sees himself and to fall out his aloofness as much as assertable.He also relates that he decides to step on it his pace and over use up other people in the street so that they should not feel as if they were followed by him. These techniques that the author uses for avoidance are revelatory for the racial problem described here. Thus, the black men do not search to be entitled to the public space, where they are looked upon with fear or distrust. Th eir mere presence is therefore avoided by strangers because of racial prejudice. The author creates an interesting final result at the beginning of the story as he uses semiotics and tropes in order to make his point.Thus, swinging for a moment into the white perspective, he begins his story by declaring the first cleaning adult female that ran away from him in the street his first dupe My first victim was a woman-white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties. I came upon her late one evening on a deserted street in Hyde Park (Barnet, Burto and Cain, 301). The word victim is a sign, emphasizing the way in which the white person perceived himself or herself in the presence of the black man.Furthermore, Staples makes use of an interesting metaphor to describe the confusing and painful effect that this first experience had on his own perception. victimisation an auditory image, he highlights the fact that the reality of prejudice was discovered to him in the sound of the tra vel footsteps of the white woman who was trying to escape him without any apparent motive It was in the echo of that terrified womans footfalls that I first began to know the clumsy inheritance Id come intothe ability to alter public space in ugly ways.(Barnet, Burto and Cain, 301) It is through this echo of avoidance that he hears in the womans footsteps that Staples realizes that he is not regarded as a simple individual but as a part of the black community, and, as such, he finds himself the unwilling inheritor of detrimental behavior. In order to transmit his centre on racial prejudice, Staples also uses a metaphor describing the actual distance that lies bet ween black and white people That first encounter, and those that followed, signified that a vast, unnerving gulf lay between nighttime pedestriansparticularly womenand me. (Barnet, Burto and Cain, 301) Using the word gulf to portray this distance and the relationship between the black and the white, Staples evokes the pa inful consequences of prejudice, which creates this insurmountable distance between people. These observations, determine the author to take precautions himself and avoid encounters in the street as much as possible I now take precautions to make myself less threatening. I bear upon about with care, particularly late in the evening. I give a wide berth to nervous people on subway platforms during the wee hours, particularly when I have exchanged business clothes for jeans. (Barnet, Burto and Cain, 302) The ending of the story is also very effective, as the author declares himself the inventor of a new strategic point designed to relax the relationships between the deuce racial opposites. Thus, upon his encounter with white people, the author begins warbling cheerful songs meant to ease the breeze and increase the confidence of the others Even steely New Yorkers hunching toward nighttime destinations seem to relax, and occasionally they even join in the tune. Virtually everybody se ems to sense that a mugger wouldnt be warbling bright, sunny selections from Vivaldis Four Seasons. (Barnet, Burto and Cain, 302) Black Men in Public Places is therefore effective just because the writers chooses an autobiographical style to relate his experiences, thus providing with an introspective view of his experiences. The ending is particularly effective precisely because it depicts the unnecessary efforts the author takes in order to make his presence in the street less conspicuously menacing for the white people. Works Cited Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. lit for Composition. New York Pearson Longman Publishers, 2007