Staple's Essay: Public Spaces

Staple's essay is a very famous and important essay to read about. I read this essay in high school and am not surprised that it keeps coming again in my academic career. He writes about the topic of race, which in todays society is a very touchy subject. Stable is a young, black male and is looked upon as a thug, scary, and harmful when he walks around the streets of Chicago at night time. He is not walking around causing harm or looking for any of trouble, but is actually the complete opposite of a criminal.

Personally, I do not think I come off as a threat to many people. I do not notice many people altering their public space around me because I am not a big person. I am nothing close to 6 feet and only weigh around 150 pounds, so my build is very small. As I look back, I cannot think of any specific example where I felt uncomfortable because someone around me was altering there space around me. As a society, we should all try to forget about the race issue and the stereotypes, I mean there is a black male running our country, which is a major step forward fixing the racism.

It is very sad to say, but Staple's incidents are very common in todays world. Staples admits that this example of the woman walking faster and faster away from him in the dark night is not the first time something like that has happened. Many people avoid him at night, whether they are in a car locking the doors, or sit further away on the subway. I see both points of view, and I think that this issue is such a problem because there have been so many incidents that don't turn out so innicent that many people try to avoid them at all costs. I try my hardest to look at everyone the same way, but I have to admit there are times where I can relate to the people walking faster and faster at night, alone in a dark alley. This has to do with the media, T.V, and movies in my opinion because they make so many story lines of rapes, murders, and mugging, so it hard to pretend like no of this happens.