Throughout the year, the black community has been seen as a community of criminals and a community of less educated, poor people who have lesser purpose in life. Journalist Brent Staples, author of Black Men And Public Spaces, takes us into his own reflections as a young black man growing up in Chester, Pennsylvania, to become a journalist in New York. He tells us about his own challenge that he faces daily as well as the challenges that many black men his age have faced and how he has changed in order to minimize the tension between him and the common white American. Growing up in the post-segregation era was challenging for most black people. Having the same rights and privileges as many white Americans, but still having to fight for a sense of equality, was a brick wall that many black people had to overcome. On a daily basis, white people avoid black men for fear of being attacked. This fear was not uncommon during this time and many black people considered it normal. But for Bret Staples, white women's fear of the young black man was only to dispel one reason: why associate certain actions with certain groups of people? For example, not all people in the Middle East are terrorists, but because of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we conclude that all people in the Middle East are terrorists but this is not true. This same concept applies to the black community. Yes, areas of high violence have a higher population of black Americans, but what does that prove? What about the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina that killed 9 black men and women, Ferguson, and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. What do they all have? common is that they were committed by a white man, so shouldn't that mean that regardless of your skin color, you are still capable of committing the same heinous crimes as I personally believe. But even with this information, what gives us the right to presume someone's intent simply by their appearance? ?