Review of "Just Walk on By" Brent Staples
Brent Staples does a great job at explaining the present pessimistic point of view of black men in the United States In the short story, “Just Walk on By.” Furthermore, he explains despite people stating racial discrimination has died down, it is in the present day. That book has made an impact on me, so in “Just Walk on By” Brent Staples summary I will give a short review.
Staples, tells personal story for the purpose of showing the pathway he takes to realize the impact his presence has on his atmosphere. He illustrates how frustrated he is at the reality that racial discrimination performs a significant part in his daily life. The short story demonstrates that discrimination and racial discrimination are still predominant by utilizing different illustrations, similarities, the audience and imaginings.
He illustrates that he was victimized for being a reporter that is a man of color. The first time he recognized how people viewed him was when he graduated and was strolling in the street because of his insomnia and he unintentionally frightened a white lady who thought that he was after her. He didn’t blame her and instead thought that the lady wasn’t wrong for being scared because the universe is brutal. Even after he realizes the effect his skin color has on the atmosphere, he didn’t get angry about it and instead maintained calm throughout the short story. After realizing this, he starts making up an image that looked less intimidating and more friendly.
He overcame the adversity by remaining calm and persuading the audience not to trust that every black man is detrimental and to prevent from discriminating them. Furthermore, he persuades them to feel sympathy for black man. I really liked how he took care of all the circumstances he faced in a peaceful manner and tried to justify what they did. I personally haven’t really felt a lot of discrimination maybe because of the atmosphere I live in. The city I live in is filled with people of my skin color and plus I am woman, therefore not much discrimination. However, I have been noticing that since my little brother has been growing up, some people are starting to see him differently. About a year ago, we went to a Chinese buffet and as we stood on the line, he picked up a candy to put it on the counter, but the employees started looking at him like he was about to still something. I told them not to worry that not he wasn’t going to still because he was raised better than that. I felt very frustrated at the fact that was how they viewed my baby brother. However, it did make me understand that is how they preserve all man of color whether young or old.
