Brent Staples' Black Men and Public Space

Brent Staples' personal narrative Black Men and Public Space, (12 February, 2012), explores racism and it's difficulties. Staples tells his experiences with racism and what growing up as a black male was like. Staples describes his hardships with racism in order to show how he overcame these incidents and become a better man. The intended audience could be anyone really, particularly people struggling with racism themselves.

I feel Brent Staples' Black Men and Public Space was insightful. He really expresses what racism was like for him and every struggle he went through. I also felt that there was no point or ending to his story. I understand his meaning to writing this narrative but his conclusion could have expressed his point more clearly. He never comes out and says why he is writing the narrative, it is like an underlined meaning you have to read into or just understand by yourself.

"My first victim was a woman-white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties.", is the first example of the racism Staples' gives to explain his struggle as a black male. In the first paragraph of the narrative he gives a detailed example of a white woman who just takes one glance at him and writes him off as a black male who might possibly rape her. This is racism and that is what Staples is trying to stress throughout the essay. Another says "The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash." This memory of his just shows the real life difficulties Staples overcame. Staples says I whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and the more popular composers. Even steely New Yorkers hunching toward nighttime destinations seem to relax, and occasionally even join in the tune." In this quote Brent Staples explains the changes in his life he has made so he doesn't get pegged as a rapist or a thief or a criminal. Changes he has made so he can go on to have a normal life without people judging him and being racist towards him.