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Brent Staples

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Brent Staples’s essay, “Just Walk on By: A Black Man and Public Space”, is about the “ability” that a black man holds; which as Staples puts it, is the “ability to alter public space in ugly ways.” African American men, or people for that matter, have stated (even in present day) that they feel the same way. This, among other factors has contributed to the fact that this essay has become very popular among different communities. As the writing prompt states, the essay has been anthologized, and obviously placed in One Hundred Great Essays. For reasons unknown, this particular essay has caught the eye of many.
Staples shows his style through arrangement in the very beginning of the essay. The first paragraph begins with calling his first encounter with a white woman as making her the “victim.” Even further on through the single paragraph, Staples continues to make himself out as the bad guy. After reading on, past the first paragraph, it is implied that Staples is portraying himself through the eyes of others. The way he showed his style through the arrangement of the essay was not accidental. Staples purposely arranged it in a way that only a …show more content…

At the time the essay was written and published, many young black men could most likely relate to Staples with what they once went through / were going through. The feeling of being the criminal in all situations was a mutual feeling for African American men, and in a small way, it still is. Another contribution to the popularity of the essay is the relevance is holds to present day. Many of the problems described in the essay are still problems today. Though the problems are less serious today than they were then, the effect they have on people is still the same. This reason would most likely catch the attention of people writing an essay, or doing a research project involving the point of view of people in situations that involve

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