My Response to Brent Staples' Essay
In “Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples talks about the problems black men facing public spaces in the USA. The story starts with a strong sentence: “My first victim was a woman.” At first, we think something bad will happen. But later, we see that the author is trying to show how people are scared of him just because he is a Black man. This makes readers think about their own thoughts and judgments.
This story is a great explanation of racism in America. Outside of the story, I would like to reflect on something. Even when he is walking on a quiet street with other people, he whistles Beethoven and Vivaldi to make others feel less threatened. The sentence he uses at the end of the story affected me a lot: "It is my equivalent of the cowbell that hikers wear when they know they are in bear country." This shows how even doing nothing wrong, he has to protect himself because of other people’s fears.
This explains how as humans we have to move beyond our survival instincts. By “survival instincts,” I mean a natural fear that comes from early humans who lived in the wild. Back then, people had to protect themselves from anything different or unknown to survive. But now, this kind of thinking can turn into racism or fear of others. Today, we don’t need to be afraid of people just because they look or act different. We should try to understand each other instead. For me, the next step in human evolution is to accept other humans, even though they are different. Acceptance and understanding are what make us truly human.
This story touched me deeply as an international student coming from Turkey, especially the part "special brand of paranoid touchiness." People who practice silent racism often use that phrase in their attitudes or gestures. They are already saying "I don’t like you because of your race," but since they do it only with their body language or energy, it doesn’t count as racism in most people’s eyes. For example, when someone avoids sitting next to you or looks at you with discomfort, it may seem small, but it carries meaning.
We are living in the same world, and we need to work together to build a better world for the generations after us. To do that, we must accept our differences and stop judging people based on their race.