Just Walk on By

This piece was really interesting in that when it first began I thought the male writer was going to rape or violently harm the woman her referred to as “my first victim”. As I kept reading I realized that Staples was merely talking about being looked at as a stereotype. I have recently been thinking about similar situations. Staples talked about how when people especially women meet men in streets alone at night the hairs on the back of their neck rise and stand straight up. No matter what part of town they are in. I am wondering how to act myself. Should I always be kind to people I meet on the street even if they look suspicious and like they are thinking bad thoughts. Should I say hi? I don’t want to seem like I am racist or rude, but I also do not want to get raped. The thing I like about Staples piece is that he seems to understand that women may not be racist but are just worried because of the stereotype that certain black males represent. He understands that it isn’t him they are scared of necessarily, it’s the idea of what he potentially represents depending on is clothing or whatever. I ask again, what are women supposed to do. Follow our intuition to get ourselves out of situations and perhaps offend a black person? And they person doesn’t even have to be black. If I run across a beefy white male at night on a fairly deserted street, I’m going to get nervous. It is just one of those situations that will never stop because you can’t tell a person to avoid wearing clothes he likes or don’t take walks at certain times or whatever else. But if he doesn’t want to be looked at as a potential rapist then maybe he should. But I do not want to tell a person what to do. It’s their choice. I just don’t know what to do and I like how Staples talks about this issue a little bit.