Black Men & Public Space (Hoang Dinh)

Once in a while, everyone will have to consider to buy something to defense themselves, like a pepper spray. It probably happens when they have to work late and walk home everyday, on a deserted street in the middle of the night. What will usually threaten them? Most answers would be “the youngish black man - a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket, which usually seemed menacingly close”. That is exactly what Brent Staples described himself in his autobiography, “Black Men and Public Space”. Being an ordinary graduate student newly arrived at the University of Chicago, he has been mistaking as a threat anywhere he goes. People keep treating and threatening him as a criminal, who he isn’t. Talking about black people, everyone will immediately think about the image of “a mugger, a rapist, or even worse”(Staples). Ironically, it is a wrong concept that people has kept in mind for a long time. Being careful is necessary, but will they ever reconsider, that the frightening looking man just across the street, is maybe just a normal person, who can be highly educated and completely harmless? Just because one guy is black doesn’t mean he is a criminal. People is working against racism everyday, doing big campaigns, but they don’t really know, one small and simple thought would make a big change in all aspects of life.

Work cited.
Staples, Brent. “Black Men and Public Space”. Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White. 1995. March 2010.


Hoang Dinh,