Examples Of In Just Walk On By Brent Staples

Our identities are more determined by society around us. In Sara Ahmed's podcast, she talks about how it was for her being a Muslim woman after 9/11 happened and how even though she was born in the US and grew up in an American area she was still singled out based on her appearance and not how she truly was. Being an Indian-American caused her to be seen two ways, either as an American or, when something terrible happened, Indian. Just because our personal identities are one thing, you are the only person who sees you as that; society groups you up and you have to “act that way”, or “look that way”. That's “who you are”. Furthermore, In Just Walk on By by Brent Staples he reports numerous occasions where his skin color and appearance has either

People were too scared to walk near him at night because they didn’t know what a tall black guy would do to them based on single stories they’d all likely heard. To help ease the nerves of some people he started whistling classical tunes and keeping his distance from them so as to not cause havoc and not seem as threatening. To further prove that identity is more determined by society than ourselves, in The Myth of a Latin Woman by Judith Ortiz Cofer, she shows what it was like growing up a Catholic Latin American woman and how she was always discriminated against based on how she looks and not how she really was. Cofer is a well-educated woman who was an award-winning poet, essayist, and novelist. From the outside, where she was judged the most, she was seen as a servant or a “whore” or a criminal. These comments used to bother Cofer, but as she got more and more of them she learned to brush it off and not show anger because she knew it would get her nowhere, and she’d just be arguing with people not worth her