In "Black Men and Public Space," Brent Staples explains his how receiving an inheritance of race, has made him submissive to society. No matter where he is, what he's doing or what his attire is, he is considered a threat to those who don't look like him. Staples testifies about being constantly avoided and feared by people who don't even know his true character. He uses personal experiences as well as stories from other black men to shine some light on black men and public space. Staples starts the story with a testimony about him as twenty-two year old college student, walking down the street one random night. He explains to us that a white woman, who seemed to be in her early twenties, is walking front of him. He calls the woman, "his first victim" being that he is considered a predator and that situation being told, is followed by other scenarios. Passing through Hyde Park, an upscale, wealthy neighborhood located near a section of Chicago that was the total opposite, the woman became alarmed of his presence, in spite of the great deal of space in between them. He thought that there was a comfortable amount of space between him and the woman, but he was surely mistaken. .
The woman seemed to be scared of being so close to a man of his stature. Staples gave an exact physical description of what he looked like that evening; a black man, who was 6'2", with a scruffy look having untamed hair and a beard, wearing a military jacket and had his hands in the pockets. After looking at him a couple of times, she took off, walking at an extremely fast pace to get away from him. When he heard the clicking of her heels becoming louder, he began to think about the challenges that were undesirably passed down to him because of the color of his skin. He realized that he negatively affected people without being purposed, just because he was a black man. The woman thought that she was going to be harmed in some kind of way because of this black man that just so happened to be walking on the same side of the street as her.