These three articles are relevant not only to my life but today’s society in general. I particularly identified with Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By” since the danger of being hurt or worse on the streets is a very real fear for members of the Black Community. Brent lays down what he’s experienced and observed in his years, how people react to him and how young so-called tough guys have been hurt or even killed as a result of their actions. Staples even mentions many occasions when he and other black men are mistaken for someone harmful and are put in compromising situations by people who’s logic is overthrown by their prejudice. It’s an unfortunate thing when a news reporter studying on a murderer is nearly taken away by gunpoint by police officers thinking that he was the very murderer he was reporting on.
As a multi racial person with paler skin in comparison to my peers or even members of my family, I have a different perspective on this. For one I’m often able to “pass” as being completely white, seeing as how the default for most Americans with pale skin is Caucasian. Most whites don’t have to deal with being asked about their ethnic origins unless they have a different accent than what’s standard to an area so my race coming up in casual conversation is surprisingly rare when people don’t know that I’m mixed. With so many stories of innocent young black men being killed on the streets even a pale person of mixed-race can’t help but feel nervous about ‘scaring’ people in public who have been told all their lives that blacks are violent by nature and should be feared.
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