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George Yacoub

English 115

Professor Jennifer Rodrick

Oct. 25, 2017

African Americans in Public

The African American community has been a target of many for several years.

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

suffer daily, whether it is coming from inside or outside their community. A lot of the time

it is caused by the modern-day stereotypes and racism. Through this the African

American community can be oppressed.

African Americans stereotypes are incorrect, and it affects the way they are

treated. Stereotypes depict them as savages, that they are lesser than everyone else

and they are always out for violent causes. 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 how African

American men were treated as dangerous individuals 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 cars drivers and passengers would lock their

doors fearing that he will cause them only because of the color of his skin. These fears

didnt only come from non African American people, but African Americans as well.

Everyone seemed to fear him. Brent Staples was an educated man; he was not a thug
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or a menace, he was a regular man, which should give lesser reasons for the peoples

suspicions. However this was not the case at all.

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 twice a week.

However, one time the police stopped him, 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 which personally makes him one of the

least intimidating people in our neighborhood. However, because he is African

American, he is highly targeted by police, and ever since then he stopped going for

walks around our neighborhood. He now walks at a nearby park, and he is lucky that

was the only thing that happened. In less fortunate situations, the police can take

excessive actions and incarcerate or even maim an innocent 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 shootings is significant as one false shooting is

the ending of an innocent life.

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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 dont get an equal opportunity to get out of their neighborhood like

other bad neighborhoods. The schools that are populated by 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;

without proper education, it is more likely that they will lead a poor lifestyle. But if African

Americans cannot receive the proper education that they need, their lifestyle will never

change. 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 are 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 by authority, their peers, and

other races. Even though the Civil Rights movement was decades ago, equality is still

an issue for the African American in United States.

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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.