Reading Response #3

Brent Staples writes in his essay, “Just Walk on By”, the stereotypes and racial profiling he faces being a young African American. When he walks the streets at night, he faces people who cross the street, lock their doors, or give him nervous looks. He also brings up the police treatment, and how a fellow journalist was mistakenly reported as the killer, and dragged to the police car at gun point. Staples, and this journalist mentioned, had not done anything to deserve this treatment, the people are just attributing their skin color to their fear.

What is interesting to me is Staples response to the situation. He seems to understand their point of view, bringing up the point that women are often vulnerable to street attacks and that black males over represent the perpetrator in those cases. He even goes to the extreme to try and make sure those around him know he is “safe”, by giving people space, and to not follow them if going to the same place. He started whistling classical music, because he thinks people wouldn’t believe a mugger would do that.

It is really unfortunate in this day and age that people have to experience this. I understand people, especially women alone at night, want to be aware of their surroundings and be safe, but they shouldn’t assume a person is dangerous based on his skin color. If you think about it, statistically, the majority of serial killers are middle age white males. Why is the fear attributed to black males?

It is sad to me that good guys like Staples, experience this on a daily basis. He mentions feeling, “surprised, embarrassed, and dismayed” the first time someone did this to him. I can’t imagine the feeling one has when you are assumed guilty without doing anything to deserve it.