The reason I am writing this essay is to show, and compare how the stories written by Brent Staples and Judith Cofer are similar in their own ways and how they both share a common theme. The thesis that both of these writer's are trying to show us is that they both have been victim's of racial prejudice, because they were minorities, and they were not white. Judith Cofer is a Puerto Rican women who grew up in a large urban center in New Jersey during the sixtie's. Brent Staples is a African American man who grew up in a small, industrial town Chester, Pennsylvania during the sixties.
Staples being a black male had become very familiar with the concept of fear. What I mean by the concept of fear, Is that white people had stereotyped Staples and have thought of him being a mugger, and a thief. He had a situation where he was walking down a dark street in Chicago, and a white lady walking in front of him kept looking back at him with a worried glance, after she looked back a few times she picked up her pace, and ran across the street because she assumed he was a thief because he followed her closely. Also he has encountered other situations where he was walking across a busy street, and he recall's seeing people being frightened by his presence that when he get's near their car people usually start to lock their door's of their vehicle. When Staple's would hear the "thunking" sound when he would walk by vehicles on a busy street in Chicago, he would really question why his presence as a tall black man fears driver's enough to make them lock their vehicle's door. Most of the people he encountered where women, and their was a good point brought up in the story where he showed statistic's said that women are a target, and are very vulnerable to having confrontations.
Cofer being a Hispanic women has become very familiar with the concept of people showing unfair treatment towards minorities, and also with people showing racial prejudice remarks towards hispanic people.
