There is great racial and ethnic diversity all threw out the world. Race, religion, age, and sex are ways to identify humans. Many countries around the world are populated with people of different cultures and from different countries. The United States of America is an example of. The "melting pot" as we call it, is populated from people all over the world. America has not been exactly great since it has caused various conflicts. There has always been a conflict among people of different races. This negative behavior is discrimination. Blacks have been discriminated in this country for hundreds of years.
People's prejudices concern their perceptions of other individuals and their attitudes and behavior towards them. Prejudice can be one of the most destructive aspects of social behavior, often ending in acts of violence. Racial prejudice against blacks by whites has been perhaps one of the more severe and social problems faced by the United States. It dates back to as far as the earliest contact between English travelers and Africans. The travelers who were white perceived Africans as apes because they resembled one another. Apes are known for engaging in savage like behavior, perceiving African Americans as savages or threats. Some of these stereotypes are still common as of today. Some examples are written in an essay Brent Staples wrote and the well-known Trayvon Martin case. These examples prove that some whites still perceive blacks as inferior.
Brent Staples is an author and editorial writer for the New York Times. His books include An American Love Story and Parallel Time: Growing up In Black and White. Specializing in politics and cultural issues, Staples often writes on controversies and issues, including race. Staples wrote an essay in 1986 that was published in Ms. Magazine called "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space".
In "Black Men and Public Spaces ", Brent Staples is in his early twenties and is faced with the crime of being a black man in the 1970's.