Black men in public space

“Black Men in Public Space”
Brent Staples

In Brent Staples essay “Black Men and Public Space,” he explains how he has often been treated as if he were a mugger, rapist, or worse. He writes that people are so quick to judge him and are often afraid of him just based on the fact he is an African American. In his essay, Staples states that he has an impact on people all around him, and this impact is often negative. People often feel uncomfortable when walking close to him, store owners sometimes find him threatening and he was even mistaken for a burglar because of his skin color.
First Staples discusses the impact his “avid night walking” has on others. Because he suffers from insomnia, he sometimes takes to the streets at night. At the early age of twenty-two, he learned how intimidating to others he can be. Staples first recalls a time when he was walking through a park in Chicago late one evening. A woman who was walking in front of him quickly picked ...