George Yacoub

English 115

Professor Jennifer Rodrick

Oct. 25, 2017

African Americans in Public

African Americans have endured a lot in the history of the United States.

Even though slavery was abolished a hundred and fifty years ago, African Americans

still go through suffering daily, whether it is coming from inside or outside their

community, and its usually not their fault, it is caused by the community and how their

space was created to make them appear like savages.

African Americans are treated as if they are savages, that they are lesser than

everyone else and they are always out there to get you. In the article Black Men and

Public Space by Brent Staples, he states, At dark, shadowy intersections, I could

cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk of the

driver--black, white, male, or female-- hammering down the door locks. This quote

shows have African American men were treated as danger even though they have no

intention to cause harm to anyone and just minding their own business. Brent Staples

was just walking on the sidewalk and the car drivers and passengers would lock their

cars fearing that he will cause them harm and their only reason for their actions it is his

skin color. That fears didnt only come from just the people that are from different race

as Brent Staples, but African Americans feared him, doing the same thing as the other

people when they saw Brent Staples. Brent Staples was an educated man that, he was
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not a thug or a menace, he was a regular man, which should give lesser reasons for the

peoples suspicions.

The mistreatment does not only come from regular citizens, but comes from

people with power, like the police. I live in Santa Monica, an area where mostly white

people live. But my next-door neighbor, Dr. Johnson, is an African American, middle-

aged man. A while back, he would go for walks around our neighborhood very often,

around twice a week, however, one time the police stopped him, and asked him

questions and searched him. Dr. Johnson worked as a doctor in the hospital around the

corner from our house. HE wears khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirts and glasses. He is

one of the least intimidating people in our neighborhood. However, because he is

African American, he gets harassed by police, and ever since then he stopped going for

walk around our neighborhood and he takes them at a nearby park, and thats the only

damage that happen to him. In some cases, the police take excessive actions and

shoots and innocent African American person. People, like Philippe Lemoine who wrote

the article titled Police Violence Against Black Men is Rare, might argue that police

brutality is rare Last year, according to the Washington Posts tally, just 16 unarmed

black men, out of a population of more than 20 million, were killed by the police. Yes,

that ratio is very low, but some of these shootings created nationwide protest and riots.

16 shooting mean a lot to people if they feel if they could be the next victim
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(not actual photo, but very good representation of actual appearance because DR.

Johnson didnt want me to take pictures of him)

African American neighborhoods are known to be bad neighborhoods with lots of

poverty. They also dont get an equal opportunity to get out of their neighborhood like

other bad neighborhoods. The schools that are populated by the African American

students or near an African American community do not get the same amount of

funding and resources as other schools. Education is one of the main ways to get out of

poverty and the horrible lifestyle that comes with it. But if African American do not the

proper education that they need, their lifestyle will never change, and it will always be

bad. On the HBO show Last Week Tonight John Oliver talks about this topic in detail.
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Starting at 12:20 to 12:44 in the episode (the rest of the videos is NSFW), John Oliver

shoes how segregated school damages students and feeds into the stereotype that

African Americans are not equal to other races. Also, when the girl says, we dont know

how to act because we believe that that theyre better than us. Shows how the students

that go to segregated school feel that theyre less than other races.

African Americans go through many obstacles in the space around them whether

its in their community or in their schools or on the street. Their identity is taken away

from them and theyre treated as inferiors and savages, even though the civil rights

movement was decades ago, equality is still an issue for the African American in United

states.
Citation:

LastWeekTonight. School Segregation. Youtube. HBO, 30 Oct. 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8yiYCHMAlM . Accessed 24 October 2017

Lemoine, Philippe. Police Violence against Black Men Is Rare. National Review, 18

Sept. 2017, www.nationalreview.com/article/451466/police-violence-against-

black-men-rare-heres-what-data-actually-say. Accessed 24 October 2017

Lund, John. Black African American Doctor With Stethescope . John Lund, John Lund,

www.johnlund.com/page/2375/african-american-doctor-smiling-close-up.asp.

Staples, Brent. Black Men in Public Space. The Norton Reader, pp. 141143.