‘Black Men and Public Space’ And ‘How It Feels to Be Colored Me’

One of the main issues in African American literature that many authors have written about is racial discrimination against black people. Many African American authors like Brent Staples and Zora Neale Hurston have works that aim at opposing racial prejudice. Both Brent Staples in ‘Black Men and Public Space’ and Zora Neale Hurston in ‘How It Feels to Be Colored Me’ wrote about racism that black people in America faced and continue to suffer. Therefore, it is obvious that these two essays have similarities that stand out since they about a similar problem. Although Staples and Zora both wrote about racism, their essays also have differences that stand out.

The first similarity between the two essays is that they both have racial discrimination as the central theme. Hurston writes that she remembers the first time she realized that she was black. She writes, ‘Up to my thirteenth year I lived in the little negro town of Eatonville, Florida. The only white people I knew passed through the town coming from or going to Orlando (Hurston 42).’ This shows that Hurston realized she was different after the racial discrimination she faced after she went to Jacksonville for school. Since she lived in a town where only black people lived, she was shielded from racism. Hurston also compares how black people and white people treated her. She argues that black people complained about her joyful tendencies, but she was still their Zora. She belonged to the black people, to the hotels that were nearby, to the country, and every person was Zora, showing that she did not face any discrimination from black people (Hurston 42)..

Like Hurston, Staples’s essay is also about racial discrimination. Staples highlights about how she faced racism and the unpleasant moments that accompanied racism. Staples states that, white people instantly noticed his cultural and ethnic identity and discriminated against him. Compared to Hurston, Staples did not experience any positive attitude towards him from white people. As evident from the very beginning of the essay, Staples narrates that a white woman in her early twenties was his first victim. He came across this woman on a deserted street in a mean and impoverished Chicago. As he walked behind the woman, Staples says, ‘To her, the youngish black man­­—seemed menacingly close. After a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest (Staples 267).’ The white woman was afraid of Staples just because he was black. It is important to note that both Hurston and Staples had strategies for overcoming the unpleasant feelings that are linked to discrimination based on the color of one’s skin. Zora’s approach was to remain unbothered as she says, ‘But I’m not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes, I do not mind at all (Hurston 43).’ On the other hand, Staples, having known that white people were scared of him, came up with a strategy that ensured that he did not scare white people. He says, ‘I give a wide berth to nervous people on subway platform during the wee hours (Staples 269).’

Another similarity that stands out in ‘Black Men and Public Space’ and ‘How it Feels to Be Colored Me’ is that Staples and Hurston did not try to oppose white people’s racial discrimination. They only devised ways of ensuring that they were not seen as a threat to white people and move out of their way, as illustrated in the above. Specifically, Zora does not seem to be bothered by racial prejudice against her. She says that she does not subscribe to the school of Negrohood that would make her believe that nature is cruel to her and hurt her feelings (Hurston 43). Staples also does not get angry when he faces racial discrimination. He writes, ‘Over the years, I learned to smother the rage I felt at so often being taken for a criminal (Staples 269).’

Although there are many similarities between the two essays because they both talk about racial discrimination, there are a few differences that are worth noting. First, the authors wrote the essays in different periods in periods in the history of racial discrimination in the United States society. Hurston’s essay was published in 1928, while Staples’s piece was finished in 1986. This implies that Hurston and Staples were writing from different perspectives with regard to racial relations in the US. Hurston wrote her essay from the perspective of a black woman living in a country where the law allows segregation. On the hand, Staples writes his piece from the perspective of a black man living in a society where legally sanctioned racism has been eliminated. However, black people are still experiencing restrictions based on race. Another difference in the essays is that they provide accounts of the authors in different stages of their lives. Hurston’s account mainly focuses on her life when she was a young girl, while Staples’s essay is largely about the racism he faced when he was a young adult in college.

In summation, both ‘Black Men and Public Space’ and ‘How it Feels to Be Colored Me’ have racial discrimination as the central theme. Therefore, they are bound to have many similarities. Despite these similarities, the essays have differences mainly because they were written in different periods in America’s history of racial relations. Thus, the differences appear because of differences in perspective.

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora N. “How it Feels to be Colored Me.” 1973. Document.

Staples, Brent. “Black Men and Public Space.” n.d. Document.