Being Dangerous Is Hazardous- Staples
The essay "Just Walk On By" written by Brent Staples, is an eye-opener in the sense, that even though innocent, a black man has to go through many problems when he moves around in the midst of white people. Staples is a well-educated, decent black man and also a journalist. He is being perceived as dangerous, and feared especially during the nighttime, and at that time and place when there are fewer people walking around. Staples feels that the fear invoked by him in the hearts of the people is hazardous to him, as well as other people. The first experience of being perceived as a dangerous person dawned on him, when he was a graduate student newly arrived at the university of Chicago. A white well-dressed young girl walking on a deserted street in Hyde Park, an affluent neighborhood, noticed him walking behind her. She increased her speed to put distance between them, Subsequently she ran faster and disappeared in to a cross street. His physique of six foot two inches tall, a beard and long flowing hair, and at that being black were enough to put terror in any white persons heart. Who was to know "[that he was] a softy, who is scarcely able to take a knife to a raw chicken - let alone hold it to a person's throat . . ." quotes Staples.
He moves on to New York and comes to know that black men have a firm place in New York mugging history. Staples also realizes that white people have a wrong notion about blacks being ruthless and tough. Furthermore, Staples has also witnessed the `hunch posture' from woman, after dark, on the streets of Brooklyn. He admits that, "Women are more vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence." The feeling of alienation, by the people who avoid making eye contact is a bitter truth, which Staples feels hard to comprehend. He has also become familiar with locking of car doors on less traveled streets, and of people crossing the...
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