Walk by How the Theme of Injustice

¶ … Walk by

How the theme of injustice is emphasized through the author's use of characterization and descriptive details.

In the story, "just walk by," Brent Staples shows how injustice can influence the lives of people beyond their expectations. As one of the black men in a big city, incidences of injustice quickly become apparent to him. A compelling example is evident when Staples worked as a Chicago journalist. One day while on his way to the office where he was working as a writer, Staples was mistaken to be a burglar. The manager of the office summoned the security who pursued Staples almost to his editor's door. Staples could not prove his identity, and he was forced to move briskly to the company where anyone who knew him (Staples, 152). This is an outright form injustice: people mistook Staples as a burglar just because he was a black man and he appeared to have been walking in a hurry.

The author makes it evident using his own personal experience to illustrate how people were labeled with stereotypes in life. This suggests that any black man living in places such as Chicago was expected to be cautious while walking around people who may have treated them with contempt (Joy, 87). In the book, Staples describes how he was often mistaken as a criminal. Staples is not the only one experiencing this because other young black men undergo the same too. However, they do not let this get into them. Therefore, they chose to put up with the injustice by learning how to smother the rage of being mistaken as criminals (Staples, 158). They also learnt how to be cautious while walking around town, and became even more cautious when they were wearing casual clothes. The author shows that they used techniques such as humming classical music so that their presence could be recognized. This is one calm way, which they used to caution people and let them know that they existed. The author has used pathos extremely well in this story. First, he began by explaining how it hurts to be viewed as a thug. He explains that this will impress other people and make them comfortable: the author intends to make people facing such obstacles to become calm and gain the skills to overcome them in the future (Staples, 166).

The author describes how women pose in hunch on the streets in the wee hours of every evening. Their faces are always set on neutral grounds and hanging their purses on their chests. They have to walk while forging ahead because they always think that they are subjects of their conversations. The women perceive that they are in danger: this is not a hallucination. Violence on the streets particularly targets women making them vulnerable, and the perpetrators of such violence are drastically overrepresented by young black men. This is not different with the feeling of being alienated arising from the aspect of being a suspect of crime, the feeling of being discriminated, or a fearsome object that pedestrian avoid coming face-to-face with it (Waldman & Norton, 214).

It is unfortunate that most young boys are powerless and poor; therefore, they have to take all the nonsense literally. In the play, countless numbers of tough people have been locked away: several of them have been buried, as well. Most of them seem to be teenage boys all playing out on the streets as bravado. Thus, the virtues of intimidation have received doubts. Boys have unconsciously chosen to remain timid shadows so that they can survive (Herman & Reynolds, 102). They have to take precautions and limit the incidences of the threatening situations from occurring. As a result, they are forced to be extremely careful while moving around; this is particularly when they choose to move around in the evening. Platforms of the subways are filled with nervous black people in the evenings: this is particularly when they are dressed in casual clothing. If a black man happens to be walking, he has to pave a way for people who seem to be skittish. The black men have to let these people clear the lobby before they can come back. This is because if they do not do so, they will be mistaken to be thugs following the skittish people. In order to emphasize on the need for justice, the author describes how the black people have to remain extremely congenial and calm when they are pulled over by the police. Further, he describes how the feeling of hatred towards the blacks is shown through different avenues such as being mistaken for a criminal (Herman & Reynolds, 318).