Racism_Never_Dies

Dalvin Bartley Elizabeth de Souza Composition 15 October 2010 Racism Never Dies In “Just Walk on By” by Brent Staples, the author describes the reactions of people walking on streets in response to seeing an approaching black man of the author’s appearance. Staples begins by describing the first time he had noticed a negative reaction to his presence when a young woman ran away from him while he was walking casually behind her almost a block away. At this moment, Staples realizes that because of the way he dressed, his height, and long hair he appears frightening to people, particularly white people, he came across while walking along the streets. Staples makes the association that statistically, that a majority of rapists and muggers are black and that people avoid coming in contact with him on the streets for fear that Staples has the intention of harming them in some manner. Once he became aware of his blatant distinction from other passersby, Staples began to “become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear” (255). Staples notices that people on the streets were afraid of him, and so he began observing different behaviors demonstrated by people he encountered while walking. At the beginning of the essay, Brent’s word choice was purposely misleading. He started out by saying, “My first victim was a woman…” This led me to think that the author was a criminal. But as I read on I realized that I had made the same mistake many other people had. As a young black male in Chicago, Brent Staples had been mistaken for a burglar, murderer, or simply a vicious man. He did an excellent job describing the fear he saw when he walked by people: “They seem to have their faces on neutral, and with their purse straps strung across their chests bandolier-style, they forge ahead as though bracing themselves against being tackled” (363). There were a few rhetorical devices the author used that really helped him get his point across. An onomatopoeia is the use of words whose pronunciation imitates the sound the word describes. Staples uses this to create the atmosphere he often endured on pg 363 when he says, “I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver- black, white, male, or female- hammering down the door locks.” Explaining how innocent he really is, Staples says, “As a softy who is scarcely able to take a knife to a raw chicken – let alone hold one to a person’s throat – I was surprised, embarrassed, and dismayed all at once” (pg 363). This is an example of an analogy, which compares two things. In my opinion, the best use of a rhetorical device is the author’s last sentence when he uses a simile. It is about Staples’ whistling classical music being the “equivalent of the cowbell that hikers wear when they know they are in bear country” (pg 365). The cowbell is supposed to warn bears to stay away, just as Brent’s whistling warns concerned strangers that he is harmless. As a white female, it is impossible for me to completely understand the experiences of Brent Staples. Even though I too have been judged by my appearance, I have no idea what it’s like have people running from me, scared. The fact that Staples would have to walk by a building he was about to enter just because he doesn’t want skittish people to think he’s following them, is unacceptable. On the other hand, Chicago has some frightening people that might be harmful. It is a difficult topic to write about, however Brent Staples drew a great portrayal of his point of view. “Just Walk on By” is an essay driven by emotion and resentment. Brent Staples writes about his experiences of continually being mistaken for a criminal, as a young black male. Clearly, anger fuels Staples’ writing, yet he maintained a calmness throughout the essay and did not point fingers. He understood why females acted the way they did around him. They had a reason to: young black males are drastically overrepresented by perpetrators of street violence. Brent Staples learned this growing up around fellow African American men who ended up in jail.