Must You Judge Me by My Gender and Race.
In today's society many African American males have been pre-judged just because of their ethnic background. Due to many rapes, robberies, and murders acclaimed by the majority of black males, many figure that all African American males partake in these activities. Looks can be deceiving and no one man should be pre-judged by his race nor his gender.
In a short essay entitled Black Men and Public Space, there was a male character of black descent who was falsely incriminated of being a mugger, a rapist, and worse just because he was walking down a dark street accompanying a white female who was alone. In other words, the young African American male was looked at as someone he wasn't just because of his style of dressing, his race, and his gender. .
In relation to Black Men and Public Space, many black males could relate through several public places. For example, an African American male is driving in his brand new, hard owned Jaguar through his predominately white ascendant neighborhood, and is pulled over by a disrespectful white policeman for no apparent reason. As the officer walks over to the car, he asks the black man to see his license and registration, walks back to his squad car and checks out all the paper work. As the policeman walks back to the Jaguar and hands the papers back, he okays the male to leave. However, just before the black man drives off, he asks, "Officer, why did you pull me over?" The officer states, "Just to check your tags and make sure the car wasn't stolen." Do you think the policeman would have stopped the driver of the Jaguar if the driver was riding through the same neighborhood, but happened to be of White or Asian descent? .
Another similarity is how young African American males are primarily assumed to always be doing wrong or stealing from public places. Whenever a black male walks into a store or shopping center it always seems like he's being followed or watched.
