Tuesday, November 11, 2008
BP#10
After reading Brent Staple's "Walk on By," I took some time to think and take in what staple said about his experience. I tried to be open minded but this article made me a little mad. I understand that some people are just scared of african americans walking down the street looking sketchy, but, this isnt my case. If I'm walking down the street at night time and theres a man walking anywhere around me, I'm going to feel a little threatened. I'm sorry, i hope i dont offend anyone but its the way i was raised. Whether the man was white, black, blue, or brown, i would still be scared, especially if i was by myself. I wouldnt be scared just because he was an african american. Anyone walking down the street late at night by themselves wearing hoodies, walking a little hunched over, or wearing dark clothing is always a red flag in my mind. I dont know if thats because my dad is law enforcement. Therefore im constantly hearing about men picking up, or kidnapping women and taking them way out somewhere and raping them, or killing them, or worse. My fright is probably due to that, but still, its almost a sign of survival. Anything that makes someone feel nervouse, they're going to steer clear of. I dont consider that a stereotype at all. Another thing that makes me mad about this article, is the fact that Staple thinks he making people feel uncomfortable because he is an african american. That is one of my pet peeves!!! I can't stand it when something happens to someone and they blame it on racism, or someone's color of their skin. Not everyone is racist!! For example, at school one day, my teacher gave a guy in my class a referral for being late to class too many times. The guy got pissed and told the teacher that she was writing him up "because he was black and she was white." Personally i wanted to stand up and say, "no, its because you were late to class. Last week she gave a white guy a referral for the same thing!!!" I'm sorry, but recent events just PROVED that the United States is certainly not racist for the majority. We now have an African American whose running the country. So, no one, no matter what race, white, black, mexican, or asian can blame things on racism any more! It's ridiculous!! When a person's excuse for something is due to their race, they are really just making the situation worse, and actaully increasing the chance of racism to happen at that point! Come on people, get a grip, and grow up!
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2 comments:
I understand where you're coming from to an extent. as women we are much more vulnerable, almost every situation could be considered dangerous. i'm not saying this promote the general view of the "helpless woman," because i truly feel we are stronger than people give us credit for. the bottom line is, i'm five feet tall and if someone wanted to tackle me to ground and do god knows what else i probably couldn't fight them off. what your dad tells you is tue and could easily happen to any of us. at the same time, you have to admit that some of what staple encountered was absurd. for instance, when he was tackled just for entering a jewelry store and when he was chased down y security in his own office building.
yes, people can be scary and precautions should be taken to insure one's saftey, but the danger of someone should not be judged by the color of their skin. there are some people who would rather walk by a sketchy white man in a hoodie instead of a black man in a business suit. i just wish people would choose their battles a bit better.
I know that this is going to sound a little weird, but God forbid that poor woman heard someone behind her, looked back to see who it was… and maybe there was a clock in a window down the street, just behind Brent. She notices the clock in the window which tells her how incredibly late it is, and realizes that her children haven’t eaten dinner yet. So she rushes home to go and feed them because she’s scared that the little things are going to starve to death.
Now who’s the jackass? Brent here is accusing this concerned mother of being a racist, just because this woman wants to feed her babies. I don’t care how unlikely that scenario is, I care that there’s a chance it could have happened, and maybe everything isn’t about race.
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