Brent Staples is an African American writer who create articles and essays on political, social and cultural problems. Currently he works for The New York Times as an author and editorial writer.
He was born in 1951 in Pennsylvania, because his parents moved from South to the North as many black people did. His education background is philosophy (Ph.D. in 1982), but after working at the university, Staples preferred journalist career as he wanted to write on sensitive social topics.
Brent Staples experienced many of the typical problems that black people experienced in America. His parents were forced to flee to the North; his school had only one black teacher, his younger brother became a dealer and died on the streets. Despite his outstanding achievements and a well-established career, the experience of living as a Black man left its harsh mark on his life.
Brent Staples have written several books trying to convey to the reader what it is like to be black in America. For example, his book Parallel Time narrates about his personal experience of life in difficult conditions and pressures, despite which the hero of the book achieves his goals. However, his most influential work is the essay Just Walk on By, published in 1986 in Ms. Magazine. Later, Staples chose a new title for the work – Black Men and Public Space, which, in his opinion, better reflects the racial and gender context of the problem described.
Staples begins the essay with an incident on the street that happened to him in the 1970s and continues with various episodes from the author’s personal experience, indicating fear and distrust of Black men. Staples perceives himself as non-violent harmless person; he is an academic and well-cultured university student. Nevertheless, White people on the street (both women and men) see him as a possible threat just because of his skin color, which becomes an only reason for suspicion. Cognitive dissonance happens in the authors head and soul; he feels both harmless and harmful, both nice person and potential danger to the society.
The main theme is how things that do not depend on you and your character (race, gender) give people a certain impression of you. How people are quick to judge based just on your looks, and how unjust and unfair it is.
The author splendidly conveys the duality of the feeling experienced by a person who is perceived as an aggressor. He tries on this terrible feeling because he is forced to. Staples starts with words, “My first victim was a woman – white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties” (Staples 450). He continues describing the situation like a predator when the reader finds out that the author simply walked on the street while a woman got scared of him because of his skin color. Dark and horrifying tone of hyperbole does not match the situation at all; at this time, the readers feel uncomfortable because they judged the author too quickly themselves.
In addition, Staples creates differentiation between well-dressed White woman and him, a Black man with “a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket” (Staples 450). The person how seems to be untidy and threatening turns out to be harmless, and a neat and correct character is biased and full of prejudges.
The author shows a vivid reaction to him in “the thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver – black, white, male, or female – hammering down the door locks” (Staples 451). The reader can practically hear his sounds and feel embarrassment, frustration and annoyance.
The Staples’ message drew attention to a problem that people chose to ignore and told uncomfortable truth that could not stay unnoticed by public. In 2019, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his essay, highlighting the impact of his legacy on American culture. People in mixed communities have thought about the negative effects of stereotypes and prejudices they project on their neighbors (Rappaport 231). Undoubtedly, it did not lead to a complete solution of problems, but it encouraged society to discuss racist and gender issues openly and seek solutions together.
It is deeply uncomfortable to feel judged when you are innocent; it brings feelings of bitterness and resentfulness. I think I cannot these feelings cannot roam for a long time in society without an outlet; they accumulate and result in bilateral aggression. People living in the same community should work to achieve mutual understanding. The best thing we can do is open up to each other pieces of our personal experience and try to delve into the experience of other people. Staples’s work teaches us how one intelligent and educated person can choose literature and journalism as a battlefield and the word as his weapon. His words reached thousands of hearts and minds of people and were of great benefit in healing the society from hatred and prejudice.
I am glad to see an educated Black man who was able to influence American communities with the power of his word. He broke and broke stereotypes not only with his texts and creativity, but also with his own example. The author is a worthy role model for African Americans, showing how a person can get out of an unfavorable environment and make their own future.
Works Cited
Staples, Brent. “Just walk on by.” The Blair reader: Exploring contemporary issues, 1993, pp. 450-453.
Rappaport, J. “The art of social change: Community narratives as resources for individual and collective identity.” Addressing community problems: Psychological research and interventions, edited by Arriaga X.B., Oskamp S., SAGE Publications, 1998, pp. 225-246.