Ernest Calderon Rios 2/25/14 Summary: Brent Staples Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space

There is a certain rawness to Staples passage as it is mostly an account of past experiences in his life. These experiences are what have driven him to consider space in the manner that he has come to, and analyze it in the context of him being a black male. Throughout his years, as little boy, a young man, and finally an adult, Staples witnesses space being altered in ugly ways. He sees black people being profiled all around him, and as he grows older, he feels of the weight of the profiling on himself. There is a definite heightening of anxiety in strangers when he approaches. He notices glances, shifts in breath, and quickening in pace. He hears the locking of car doors, and observes the tightened grip on personal belongings. Staples mentions his first year away from his hometown, his freshman year at the University of Chicago. He said his is the time that he became familiar with the language of fear. He describes another personal account, a day that he was working as journalist delivering a story the day of a deadline. He was running late, so he rushed up the building to his office, eager to turn it in on time. Building security chased him, taking him for a bulgular. He new that he had to keep running until he reached someone he knew and could vouch for him. This was all a direct effect of his racial profiling. Staples ends with a detailing of the measures he has taken to ease these situations. He stands a distance while waiting for the subway. He waits to enter a lobby after crowd, not with it. He dresses nicely, and hums classical music. I think it is unfortunate that Staples has had to take extended measures to avoid conflict and minimize profiling. It is a direct effect of his mutual interaction with the space around him. It is his first-hand experiences that make his essay a valid and effect analysis of rhetorical space.