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"Appearances are often deceptive" goes the saying, but in the case of Brent Staples,
these appearances have taken a harrowing turn for Staples when he is considered a rowdy
criminal by everybody during his nocturnal wanderings in Chicago and even in New York. It
autobiographical account how he was stereotyped a criminal young African American and
was either feared or integrated by the security personnel at some places. He first narrates the
story of his Chicago wandering, then his reflections on his appearance, followed by
Manhattan episode, its impacts on him, his own strategy to cope with this dilemma and his
final technique. In this essay, Brent Staples has presented himself as a wise, strategist and
cautious young man stereotyped as African American criminal young man, who has to devices
various strategies to make people feel safe and save his own skin from them or from the
police.
Brent Staples has presented himself a wise young man who has realization of his own
appearance. When he is in Chicago as a student, he happens to walk behind a white lady who
runs away fearing his presence a threat to her. Then he realizes that it is his appearance of
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being an African American as well as his dressing. He soon realizes during another incident
that where he is chased by the police and he enters his editor's office. This gives him the
sagacity to perceive himself a threat to others as that being perceived "dangerous is a hazard
for him. The person can call the police or even shoot Staples himself in case he is not
pacified. That is why he has to use other strategies to cope with such situations.
Staples has to create various techniques and strategies to cope with the situation
created by his impression. It is because he knows that it is his impression that sends a wrong
signal. He knows as a strategist that he cannot change his face, skin and height. However, he
also knows that at least he can minimize the dangers that others think in is presence. He
decides to cope with it in the shape of whistling tunes from classical music or "melodies from
Beethoven and Vivaldi" which could make others feel that a criminal cannot be lovers of the
classics (Staples). By mentioning this he means that he has adopted this to make others feel
safe in his company and become cautious when it is a matter of the presence of the police.
It is also that he has been extremely cautious to save his own skin. First, he knows that
if somebody perceives him a danger, it is dangerous for his own persona. Secondly, he knows
that he must be known before anything untoward happens to him specifically in the presence
of the police. He says that "I have been calm and extremely congenial" when pulled by the
police (Staples). It is because he has been cautious that if he panics, he might be killed there
and then. Therefore, caution is the word that he acts upon and becomes pliant when police is
there.
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Concluding it, it can be stated that Staples has become very wise to use his presence as
a pacifying and pleasing factor. He has also used different strategies to make people less
fearful of him and become cautious to keep himself out of harm's way when there are the
police. That is how he saved himself acting up his best strategy of his own "survival" by
making others "survive" from him perceiving as a danger (Staples). This stereotypical image
tied to him since his childhood hardly makes him comfortable with other people but at least
his strategies work for him to make others feel him a harmless young man.