WF0077_U2.txt

Diagnostic Assignment: Topic #2

 “The Bedford Reader” - “Black Men and Public Space” Brent Staples

“You Can’t Always Be You, You Won’t Survive”

	Imagine having to adjust how you naturally walk, talk, look, and act every time you take a step out of your front door, because this slight change is what could dictate whether you live another day. The thought might sound ridiculous, but this is the life Black males have lived since placing foot on U.S. soil, hundreds of years ago, even through today’s society. In “Black Men and Public Space”, by African American author, Brent Staples, this mandatory lifestyle is elaborated upon. In the last two paragraphs of the personal reflection, Staples recommends a number of effective strategies that one might act upon, convincing others to perceive them as “less threatening.” The list suggests for others to “move about with care, particularly late in the evening”, “give a wide berth to nervous people”, learn to “smother the rage” one might feel if ever mistaken for a criminal, or even “whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and the more popular classical composers”. Staples explains how the goals of such actions are to “alter public space” and cause those whom are noticeably tense and anxious, due to ones presence, to feel more comfortable. One must insure they don’t conform to any negative stereotypes or public perceptions, but instead adapt pleasing or acceptable behaviors of those who are fraught and in control. In the words of Brent Staples, “Where fear and weapons meet – and they often do in urban America – there is always the possibility of death.”  All humans beings should be able to be comfortable in their own skin worldwide, while exercising their lawful rights; especially in the United States of America, a country that is “free”, “equal”, and where “liberty and justice is for all”. Despite what is formally documented in the U.S. Constitution, this dream has yet to entirely come true for minorities, whom are indirectly forced to live in fear.