In “Black Men and Public Spaces”, Brent Staples is in his early twenties and is faced with the menacing crime of being a black man in the 1970’s. As Staples likes to walk the streets at night due to his insomnia, every stranger that comes close enough to realize that he’s a tall black man lets their fear take control of them as they avoid him to the point of fleeing. To the eyes of people (mainly women) at night, he was no different from any other thug or criminal who prowls the street. Having moved to New York, and growing accustomed to being perceived as a threat, Staples learned to properly give people their space to intimidate them less as he walks the streets. Despite being a journalist, he has even had security called in on him at a …show more content…

Peo In this case, there was a black man entering a jewelry store; so of course he’s going to be mistaken as a thief. I have seen store clerks take extra caution when a black or hispanic man walks into the store, assuming that there’s a high possibility they might steal something. I know this for a fact because I used to work as a cashier with my uncle, and whenever a black man walks in he walks around the aisles pretending to be stocking items. He would generally stay in the aisle area to assure no one steals, and I would remain behind the bulletproof window; where lied a .45 magnum under the counter. My uncle is the owner of the store, and has had enough encounters with black men of that area to give a general stereotype about what would happen. The area he works in though has a lot of drug dealers and minor criminals; by minor I mean men who steal from convenient stores, like his.

Everyone stereotypes in one way or another, and there is no reason to deny that fact. We assume all black people listen to rap, all southerners talk like redneck hillbillies, and all asians are good in math and get straight A’s in school. Humans have a natural habit of judging people from the moment they meet based on what they’ve heard about or what they see on a person. However, this does not make us all in the wrong. Everyone stereotypes in a way, but it is when we treat people differently or discriminate them because of it that makes