Racial Profiling in Black Men's Space

In his essay, Black Men and Public Space, Brent Staples discusses his hardships with rachial profiling. People are generally afraid of him in public and this, of course, makes him feel very negative. Staples sees no hope in changing the attitudes around him, so he has developed ways, such as singing famous classical music, to ease those around him. He does not do these things with the idea of changing people for the better. His lack of hope in people is likely attributed to his childhood experiences, the lack of change he has seen over the years, and his own realization that he can only take accountability in himself and not others.

Brent Staples grew up in a small, industrial town in Pennsylvania with a plethora of gang warfare and violence. Staples was considered a good child amongst his cousins, brothers, and friends who had been arrested when he had not.

The public, however, would view him and those who all been arrested the same, Staples knew this from his experience on the streets, and it is likely that his hopelessness stems from the idea that if he, the good kid from his hometown, was being viewed as if he was no different from his friends and family, then there could not possibly be hope for the bigotry of those people.

The New Webster’s Dictionary defines a bigot as someone obstinately and intolerantly devoted to his own beliefs, creed, or party. Staples has several stories of negative encounters on the streets, subways, and even office buildings, These encounters have been going on for years, “more than a decade,” he claims, and continue to happen.

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The fact this remains a problem in Staples life likely attributes to the reason why he has developed ways to calm people He is left to assume that people will not change if years have gone by and nothing has happened, With the never-changing attitudes of the people around him, Staples’ situation would never get better if he did not take the initiative.

To not take the initiative would be madness according to him. He can only be responsible for himself and cannot control other‘s thoughts. This can be seen as the ultimate example for why Staples acts certain ways out of hopelessness, rather than out of trying to change someone’s point of View. As Charles-Guillaume Etienne once penned, “If you want something done right, do it yourself,” Brent Staples experiences in his life have undoubtedly led him to believe that there is no hope to change the way others think and behave, He has altered his behavior while in public to accommodate for the way people act when they see him He has likely reached this conclusion from recalling his childhood life, the lack of change he has seen over the years, and the reality that he must take matters into his own hands because he cannot rely on others to change their ways, His essay provides more evidence for his behavioral changes to come from hopelessness rather than attempts to change the public‘s point of view.