Just Walk on By
After reading the story Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space, I felt pretty bad for the man writing it. I know that stuff goes on like this all the time and many people feel more threatened by African Americans then Caucasians, especially if they don’t have what is viewed as a normal style of haircut or facial hair. I do realize that in inner cities the majority of the crimes are linked to African Americans but that is because the majority of the population is African American and they aren’t the best places to be living. This still doesn’t seem like cause to put all these people in the same category and be any more afraid of them than anyone else.
I have actually met someone just recently here at Miami that is from Miami, Florida that is an African American and had a long beard and an Afro when he came up here. He said that he had to get his hair cut and shave his beard because of all the looks he got from people that he could tell were thinking about him being a criminal. When I hear things like this I feel bad for them and that people get these stereotypes and can’t do anything about it.
I do understand the reasons for paranoia when walking home late at night by yourself in a downtown area. If it’s dark and no one is around I can definitely see your mind start to focus on things that might make you seem a little scared. Even when I walk home along late at night here at Miami and I’m passing by woods or something and no one else is around I see my pace start to pick up even though if I thought about it there probably isn’t going to be anything that comes out of the woods and attacks me. The mind just plays tricks on us sometimes when we are starting to get a little nervous. This doesn’t excuse the stereotypes that we have created today among African Americans and even other races or groups that get undeserved stereotypes.