In his narrative, My Secret Life as a Black Man, Anthony Walton writes about his thinking as a proud African American who finds it difficult to live up to the expectations of others with regards to his own. He feels that he is living two lives – his real life and the other as a black man, struggling with a history of his own racial identity and the expectations of the society around him. The author writes about racial prejudices that have been part of his life and gives examples of individual cases where racial profiling takes centre stage. He uses the example of an African American woman berating him for dating a white woman and a childhood friend and parents criticizing him for not conforming to certain racial prejudices. It is a form of racial profiling by blacks against blacks for not serving a specific black man’s prescribed way of life.
On the other hand, Walton also talks about racial prejudices and stereotypes by white people against black men. His narrative is about racial discrimination of white people based on their colour and their perceptions towards them. These racial feelings have caused the writer to be at crossroads regarding his own identity and those of other blacks. He feels that the black man has lost his identity since he is constantly told how to act and behave by society. However, he has learned to deal with this feeling by working according to his needs and desires, speaking of multiple identities for the black man depending on the situation at hand. He is easily manipulated and subjected to the expectations of others without him having the power to free himself from such control.