At first as I read the statement about women I didn’t really know what to expect. Throughout the story I found myself identifying with Brent Staples because everyday we are surrounded by many opinions, ideas, stereotypes, and people that are unjust. We judge everyone and everything without even thinking about whether we can put ourselves in that person‘s shoes. In the story “ Just Walk On By: Black Men and Public Men Space”, by Brent Staples he undergoes many situations in which he is judged upon the color of his skin. I think that the general problem within our society is that we tend to agree and think similar to many other people, just because we don’t want to do any different. The narrator mentions how one day he finds himself walking in front of a white, well dressed lady and he describes how slowly she begins to walk to in a much faster pace after she takes a glance take to who is walking behind her. I feel like I would have done the same, but it would not have been because of his skin color, appearance, but because of the fact that men are stereotyped to be the most common to rape and hurt women. So society implants fear amongst one another.
The reason why this happens is because in some cases the media shows that men do hurt women just like in the situation as the one Brent was in. Overall this happens because since we look out for our well being we tend to take no chances. We tend to not give the person the opportunity to shine their true colors instead, we immediately stereotype and assume. We mirror each other every single day of our lives. The one thing I admired about the author was the fact that he was strong and that regardless of what he went through he turned the anger he once carried with him into something positive and that would be that he made all the anger disappear. I honestly think that the author did this because he knew that his anger would get him nowhere. He wouldn’t be able to make a change all he would end up doing is hurting himself emotionally. He used the power of words which makes a bigger impact in getting people to listen.
I think that another one of the major issues we have as a society as well is the fact that we don’t take the time to listen. When we don’t listen we tend to be ignorant towards getting to know the points of view of other people. Sometimes we mock other people without even considering that person’s feelings or circumstances. I know that the woman in Brent’s story does stereotype, but truth is that society only exposes us to stereotypes, judgments, and all these negative things about one another. They never instill new ideas within us that will actually make a difference for once. Instead they themselves separate us from one another making us point out our skin color and other features we inherit that make us beautiful. This piece of literature really makes me feel and realize we need to realize that we are all equal and that we need to take things that are negative and make the best out of them just like the author of “ Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space. If we do this then maybe things could change for the better..
The reason why this happens is because in some cases the media shows that men do hurt women just like in the situation as the one Brent was in. Overall this happens because since we look out for our well being we tend to take no chances. We tend to not give the person the opportunity to shine their true colors instead, we immediately stereotype and assume. We mirror each other every single day of our lives. The one thing I admired about the author was the fact that he was strong and that regardless of what he went through he turned the anger he once carried with him into something positive and that would be that he made all the anger disappear. I honestly think that the author did this because he knew that his anger would get him nowhere. He wouldn’t be able to make a change all he would end up doing is hurting himself emotionally. He used the power of words which makes a bigger impact in getting people to listen.
I think that another one of the major issues we have as a society as well is the fact that we don’t take the time to listen. When we don’t listen we tend to be ignorant towards getting to know the points of view of other people. Sometimes we mock other people without even considering that person’s feelings or circumstances. I know that the woman in Brent’s story does stereotype, but truth is that society only exposes us to stereotypes, judgments, and all these negative things about one another. They never instill new ideas within us that will actually make a difference for once. Instead they themselves separate us from one another making us point out our skin color and other features we inherit that make us beautiful. This piece of literature really makes me feel and realize we need to realize that we are all equal and that we need to take things that are negative and make the best out of them just like the author of “ Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space. If we do this then maybe things could change for the better..
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