I think Brent Staples is out of his mind.

For some reason I just couldnt take this piece too seriously. In a way I almost feel bad for Brent Staples. It is not his fault that he is a gargantuan character with insomnia who decides to walk around at night trying to tire himself out. The fact that he's black isn't really the point. Some people are just really creepy and strange beings, and that's just how they are, they can't help their awkwardness. And yes, some people, scared people who don't get out enough will make it a point to cross the street instead of just walking past a person they are skeptical of. Especially in big cities at night. Staples does make the whole thing into a racial problem though. I can see where he's coming from, though. If he has baggy clothes on, he is a elephantine size with a big scraggly beard and "flowing hair" as he says, then yes, I would probably think he's some kind of whack job lurking around at three in the morning. I wouldn't book it down the street though. I feel as though the people he keeps encountering arent exactly cultured or calm people; they probably judge too quickly and make alot of assumptions based on their innermost fears. Alot of people have a hard time reading other people; their gestures, their stances, facial expressions and then they jump to conclusions because they are already scared of the worst. That guy is really tall and gangly and dark, so he must be trying to rape me. RUN! No. Stop. Let him pass by, don't wet yourself. Give people a chance. Come on guys. Staple's story about the jewelery shop was very strange, some how i think he is exaggerating a bit, unless he was doing something creepy or just looming around the shop for a while and eyeing things. I dont think it was because he was black. I think the shop owner was just shaking in her boots because Staples was doing something strange that he just forgot to mention. The whole time I was reading this I wasn ignoring the whole racial factor and just imagining some strange, creepy guy who could quite possibly be bipolar writing this whole thing when in reality he is just doing it all for shits and giggles. Just lurking around town late at night and hovering around jewelery stands eyeing things and the workers, just to see what he can do to their poor fragile minds. This especially came into play when he started talking about how he whistles to ease the other walkers, and explains it by saying that a mugger wouldn't be warbling. Actually, maybe i'm just twisted, but I think back to A Clockwork Orange and it seems as though it would be the perfect thing for a creeper in the night to do. I think he incorporates race too much, and I have a feeling he might be really exaggerating some of the instances. Besides, there are a hell of a lot of creepy white people out there. Everywhere. And Asians, Cubans, Mexicans, and so on. All I'm saying is maybe Staples is some lunatic that decided to write this so convincingly so no one will suspect him of anything.