Black Men and Public Space

Brent Staples gives his personal analysis of how Black men are perceived in American culture in his essay entitled, “Black Men and Public Space”. Although it is a well written piece, I completely disagree with Staples’ final thoughts on the issue; which are that he basically lives his life around the emotions of others, so that he can prevent fear from forming in people when he comes into contact with them. I feel that he is indirectly allowing racial profiling. I realize that people are victims of crimes everyday and sadly Black males are involved in some of those crimes but that does not mean that all Black men have the same criminal desires as those select few. This article relates heavily to the Trevon Martin case that sparked the much needed dialogue about perceptions of Black men in America. This case showed how racial stereotypes and negative perceptions are plaguing the world today and causing senseless deaths everyday. The author made clear connections to the purpose of the article but as I read I expected Staples to give some type of hope to the reader instead of assimilating and accepting the wrongs of the world.