Brent Staples' essay was deeply tragic in only a few pages. When he recalled crossing the street and hearing all the car doors lock, it inspired such heavy sadness for me which is exactly what I imagine he was trying to do. It was such a powerful recollection because even though I am a white woman, I could imagine how much that broke his spirit as a human. In particular with this essay, I think it is vitally important to consider the perspective one brings to this essay. I am a white woman, and people are not afraid of me. My race and gender does not lend itself well to fear in modern American culture because of how people have been historically categorized and treated. This is not the case with Staples and I know he did an excellent job of showing the upset and outrage of being criminalized and stereotyped because even with my opposite race and gender, I cannot help but get angry with him as he tells his story. The purpose of this essay was to inspire sadness in order to motivate change, or perhaps awareness, and I do feel more prepared to be aware of what inspires fear and question it.
This essay was quite literally short and sweet. I thought it accurately cultivated a lovely feeling of innocence that probably sat nicely with other girls who are freshly out of high school like myself. However, because of my current place in life- a college freshman- I am not yet ready to feel nostalgic or sentimental about those high-school experiences, romantic or otherwise. All of those memories of adolescence I feel are too recent to reminisce positively upon, but perhaps in the future I would like this essay more, when more time had passed. I enjoyed the parts where she grounded the essay with points of negativity. Not that I want people to be writing negative essays reflecting on the upsets of youth, but I felt like the bits where she incorporated honest unfortunate reality made this a more believable work than if she had not included them. Along with the romantic and sexual innocence that this story obviously portrayed, I thought it folded in a great deal of social innocen...
Hello Sydney. I am a Pastor from Mumbai, India. I am glad to stop by your profile on the blogger and the blog post. I am also blessed and feel privileged and honored to get connected with you as well as know you and about your interest in writing and tea. Very interesting essay on a Response to black men and Public space. I love getting connected with the people of God around the globe to be encouraged, strengthened and praying for one another. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 39 yrs in this great city of Mumbai a city with a great contrast where richest of rich and the poorest of poor live. We reach out to the poorest of poor with the love of Christ to bring healing to the brokenhearted. We also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. We would love to have you come to Mumbai to work with us during your vacation time. I am sure with your interest in writing you will be able to capture the live stories in your words to come up with a book. I am also sure you will have a life changing experience. My email id is: dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede. Looking forward to hear from you very soon. God's richest blessings on you your family and friends also wishing you a blessed and a Christ centered rest of the year 2018.
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