Why the first sentence?
Why does he say "first victim?"
Where do you see humor in the essay?
Where do you see anger in the essay?
Does he see the point of view of the woman he calls his "first victim?" Explain.
Who is his audience?
What exactly do you think he is trying to persuade his audience to do?
What is his structure?
How is it persuasive?
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The first sentence really gets the piece going per say. It sets the tone for the piece and once the piece progresses you understand his intentions. By just reading the title you do not get a clear view on the purpose or tone of the piece. If he had said the first person he experienced this with instead of the "first victim" the tone would be completely different. The word victim makes it seem like a bad thing. The humor in the essay would be some of the encounters he had with people. If he walked by a car people locked their doors and if some people saw him behind them they assumed he was a mugger, rapist or other things. "over the years, I learned to smother the rage I felt at so often being taken for a criminal". He gets angry when people just assume he is a mugger, rapist, thief, killer or others without knowing him. He does see the point of view of his "first victim". As the essay goes on he states that" women are particularly vulnerable to street violence and young black males are drastically over represented among the perpetrators of that violence." So I believe he understands the thoughts running through the mind of the woman. His audience would be non black males. Black males are in the same group as him and most likely deal with the same things that he has had to go through. So he wrote this to teach people that are not in that "group" all the different things about being in that "group." I believe he is persuading his audience to try to get to know the black male group better and not jump to conclusions about them. The first part is his first experience with "being a black male" and his thoughts about it later on. Then he talks about understanding peoples assumptions in the second part. The third part is his relationship with black men and the public as a child. The last part he shares how he deals with it day to day. He describes his views on the subject and gives a lot of stories showing his relation with the topic.
ReplyDeleteThe author uses the first sentence to make a point right off the bat about how he is classified as a criminal and someone who is descriminated against in society just due to his skin color. It really shows the sterotyping that is done that causes him the trouble of being a trouble maker without actually being one. He says first victim because he is getting ractions out of her like he is a "Rapist or a mugger" instead of just another person walking by. So he calls her a victim because she is already treating him like an attacker so he might as well call her his victim. I honestly didnt pick up on any hummor during this piece it was probably due to circumstances when i was reading this piece and the hummor must have been just subtle enough to go unoticed. I cought some anger in this piece when the author talked about how he was discriminated against due to his color. Yes he makes it sound like he understands her point of view but it still bothers him that things are the way they are and he has right to be upset about it. He mentions how she probably thinks he is just one of the gansters that seeped out of the hood or a rapist or mugger and by the tone he used in the writting of that part he conveys the message that he understands why they do what they do but he does not enjoy it. I believe his audience is the white public that criticises him and discriminates against him. He does not want them to keep thinking of him in this manner so he is writting to them to show that not all people they think are the bad guys actually are. I think he is trying to persuade his audience to see that not all black men are criminals or bad guys and that they should treat random black strangers just a little bit nicer.
ReplyDeleteI think that the first sentence is like a hook. As soon as you read it you immediately want to know what is going to happen. The "first victim" is in there, I think, to show that what is going to happen will happen in the future and more than once. It also shows that he is writing about the past and not actually in that moment. I think that one of the humorous parts was his story about being chased through the office being chased by security. Since there wasn't any bad comments against the security or the guy who called them, I assume that it was there for humorous purposes. Also, I found the part with him whistling Vivaldi in the streets of New York as a source of humor. I found anger when he was describing those who screen out people before they cause trouble. The before was in italics so I took that to mean that it was supposed to be sarcastic. He clearly understands the view of the woman in the beginning. If he hadn't he probably would have wrote on how angry he was that he was judged in such a way as to scare someone. Instead he describes the incident in an almost understanding way as though there were no hard feelings. I believe that his audience is all those who aren't black males. I think that it is to give people another point of view of a situation that maybe they had been involved in before. I think that he is trying to persuade people to not judge others based on their looks. His essay is all narrative. It is certain stories that prove his point that he is judged based on his looks and you really can't argue with him because it actually did happen.
ReplyDeleteThis piece was a very powerful one to say the least it really got its point through. The first sentence really was a hook like josh said and really got the reader interested in the essay to come. This essay was very true especially in a typical stereotypical black community. I think he says "first victim" because this would not be the first time that this would happen to him and it was like he was expecting this to happen to him again and again. I see humor in the essay by just the way he puts certain things like the women with her purse around her neck and the way he describes himself at the beggining and when he tries to whistle to try to calm the environment in the situation. I see anger in this piece when you can tell that he is mad at the way people precieve him as the typical black scary person who does bad things to people but he knows that he is not like this and is fustrated by the way people think of him. Yes i think he sees the point of view of the women who he calls the first victim but wishes that women wouldn't look at him and be scared of him in that way but in some sense he does understand why the women is so afraid. He wishes people wouldn't view him this way but he knows it unlikely for them to do so. His audience is white people especially women . He tries to persuade his audience to not look at every black male as the bad guy and even though they might be scared give someone a chance and take some risk in doing that. I really liked this essay it will be interesting to hear what people have to say in class i especially want to hear the guys point of view on this essay.SO Boys Speak up Tommorrow:)
ReplyDeleteThe first sentence is meant to mislead readers at least a portion of readers. What Staples meant by first victim is when he was first victimized, he was a victim of stereotyping. It is a reflection off of a mirror being the woman, and by saying mirror it is meant that he is just like any other law abiding citizen, he is indifferent. The personal descriptions he conveys in the piece can be seen as somewhat humorous in a way wether intentional or not also the first sentence could possibly be seen as humorous. Anger that exists in this piece could very well be called shaded but I return to the point of when he called his "first victim" the first victim he could very well be talking about himself, when viewed in this lens it is complex anger in a clever and witty expression. Staples' audience is non-black folks, it is meant to shed light on a sick stereotype. The structure is meant to build a foundation from the top down. It states a fact and then backs it up as opposed to drawing forth observances and then condensing them down to a central idea or stone. A part of the human condition is racism. Deny or accept it it is in each and every one of us simply because one is alway suspicious of people who are not quite the same as ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThe first sentence really drew me into the essay and sparked my curiosity. I quickly assumed that the author was not seriously talking about the woman in the context of attacking or harming her, but the word "victim" impacted me all the same. He used the word "victim" to describe the woman despite the fact that he was the true victim-a victim of her racism and assumptions. Her behavior made her a victim of her own prejudices. The woman would appear to be the target of a violent crime based on her actions, but as the author shows throughout the essay actions like the woman's are unfair to upstanding black citizens like him.
ReplyDeleteThe situations described on the bottom of page 370 and top of page 371 were humorous to me. The first was when the author was mistaken for a burglar at the office of a magazine, the second involved a woman and her guard dog at a jewelry store and the last one was about a black reporter who was mistaken for the murderer he was doing a story on. I can find them funny because of their ridiculousness. These people could not look beyond their stereotype of a young black man to see the men they were, men who were working hard to positively contribute to society if not just go about their daily lives. I also enjoyed the bit about whistling the classical music just to mess with other people passing him by. The sad part is that this most likely put many people at ease around the author for no good reason...The last line ("It was my equivalent of the cowbell that hikers wear when they know they are in bear country") was lighthearted yet held great significance-the author had to resort to these measures to ease the hostility and suspicion directed at him.
Staples' anger is revealed through his reaction to his "first victim" and on page 371 which describes how he has learned to make himself "less threatening" over the years. As hilarious as the reactions to the author may seem to us they must have been humiliating and grossly unfair. How can you lead a normal life while trying to counter the front of racism and stereotypes that others have put up against you?
One of the best things about this essay is that the author knows exactly how the "other side" thinks. He is not baffled by their behavior and instead approaches it head on and deals with it despite his annoyance with it. His audience is those people who look at him and other black men as people who will do them harm. Sure some could, but so could white, asian, or latin men too. He tries to show the audience the blunt stupidity of their racist actions and persuade them to think otherwise and not be so quick to assume things.
Finally, the structure of this essay moves through the author's comprehension and struggle to understand this dilemma, description of this dilemma playing out in his life, and finally coming to terms with the dilemma and how he deals with it.
I think that the first sentence is crucial. It makes you brace yourself for a piece from a convict or something. That initial reactions to the first sentence is the same react that people have to the author in the street. It seems to me that the humor is a bitter humor. It's always close to the anger. Not like the ohter dark humor pieces we have read. This man doesn't use sarcasm as much as terribly dark humor. His point is very clear and concise. He shows that he understands where the people that are scared of him come from but that doesn't mean it's ok and he makes that plain. His audience are the ignorant, white america, people who could not possible understand what that's like. He is persuading his audience to have a little perspective. To understand the situation that your fellow man is in. The piece goes from exposing the issue followed by his ignorance of the situation to stories that made it all too clear. And finally he concludes with how he gets around it now. How he deals.
ReplyDeleteThe essay begins with the technique of 'sand-bagging.' When it says, "my first victim was a woman.." I immediately believed that this essay was going to be about a black male who committed crimes. I didn't pick up on what the author was actually going to talk about until I got halfway through the second paragraph. Once I realized this, I decided to re-read the entire first paragraph so that I could see it in a different 'light.' This first sentence also intrigued me and made me want to find out what had happened to the woman.
ReplyDeleteThe author says "first victim" because he is speaking from society's point of view. Generally when there is a woman walking alone late at night and a black male is close by, it is immediately assumed that the man is going to mug the woman, rape her, or kill her. This is an awful stereotype, but that is the thought process of many people. The inclusion of the word "first" means that this was only one of many incidences like it.
I found quite a bit of humor in this piece, despite it's serious context. I found it humorous when the author said that he was scarcely able to take a knife to a raw chicken, yet people where often scared of him. The funniest part of the piece, I thought, was when he told the story about how he was chased through his office by security when rushing to turn in a deadline story, simply because he was a black male and 'looked' suspicious.
I also see anger in the essay though when the author talks about the people who pass judgement on people (like him) and persecute them before they have even done anything wrong.
I think that he does see the point of view of the woman who he calls the "first victim" because he says later in the piece, "I understand, of course, that the danger they perceive is not a hallucination. Women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence."
His audience is everyone in society that is not a black male and he is trying to persuade them that they shouldn't pass judgement on others based on their appearance.
The structure of this piece was designed so that he starts out sand-bagging the reader, then he tells multiple stories that involve black males (sometimes himself) being wrongly judged or accused by others based on their appearance, and then ends with a solution to how he deals with this problem, in an anger-reduced manner.
Travis interpreted the first sentence at first and I think that this was done on purpose by the author. By putting a young black male in a position with a woman and victim in the same sentence, most people would assume that a crime was taking place as Travis did. I noticed that there are two different interpretations in the blog. Some saw it as a sand-bagging technique to draw in the reader and others saw it to reflect on how the victim was him being judged by the woman. Both interpretations seem to me equally correct.
ReplyDeleteThe first sentence hooks you into the essay. It makes it sound like the essay is going to be about something completely different. He says first victim because he is hinting at that there will be more of this to come later on in his life. I thought that it was humorous when he was talking about being mistaken for a burglar in the office of the magazine he worked for. It was also humorous when he talked about how the black man was mistaken for a murderer. I can sense anger in the piece just in general because of how he is victimized by stereotyping. He could just be walking down the street and some women would think that he was a mugger or a rapist, just because he was a black man. I believe that he does see the point of the woman but he doesnt agree with it. He understands where it comes from though. His audience is mostly white people in America who stereotype black males as muggers and rapists. I think that he is trying to persuade his audience to not think the same way about every black male and to at least give them a chance. Even though it is usually inferred that the muggers and rapists are black people. The structure starts out by misleading the reader, then it goes into his personal experiences with the situation, and it ends with his solution to this problem.
ReplyDeleteRob, Josh, and maybe a few others identified that the beginning of the essay was a hook. I agree with this because even the first sentence left me hanging, wanting to read more.
ReplyDeleteI think colin's interpretation of it is really cool because the author certainly is the actual 'victim' in this piece.
The first sentance gives you a false sense of what the piece will be about. By reading the first sentance it sounds like the author is the stereotypical "black man".
ReplyDeleteHe refers to the woman as his first victim becuase this is the first time he really notices he is being avoided for how he looks. This is the first person he affected due to appearance.
I found the humor at the end of the piece. It was funny how he compared melodies of Beethoven and Vivaldi to a cowbell...The melodies put the New Yorkers at ease while the hikers wear the cowbell in bear country...ha
There is a lot of anger throughout the essay...but it is really prominent on page 370, the first new paragraph. He speaks of how he could hear the "thunk, thunk, thunk" of locks. How inviting. "Then there were the standard unpleasantries with policemen, doormen, bouncers, cabdrivers, and others whose business it is to screen out the troublesome individuals before there is any nastiness."
He sees the point of view of the woman, he is not mad at her. She knows the harsh reality of rapists and muggers. And sadly they mostly look like the author.
His audience is everyone who looks at blacks as "troublesome individuals".
He is trying to get his audience to not be so judgementmental...showing his side and making them feel bad...so they don't want to pass judgement.
I really enjoyed this piece,although I have seen this reality it is stil very eye opening.
This essay is really powerful and strong. He clearly expresses anger and the sadness he feels about the situation which leads to his embarrassment of those situations. The first sentence is necessary and works really good because it grasps your attention while also giving you an uneasy feeling because at this point it is unclear where the essay is going. The author uses "first victim" because that is how the girl felt when she realized his presence and she obviously felt frightened to run away, even though he didn’t do anything wrong. He knew and understood how she view and felt about him. I found the humor of the piece to be at the end of the essay where he kind of laughs at himself and the things that occur. The anger in the piece is definitely the second to last paragraph he says how he understands peoples reaction but is not ok with it. He does see and understand the girls point of view and why she was frightned, because he does call her a victim and you can tell he feels bad about her reaction. His audiance in this piece is white people in general. He is trying to persude people to understand him the way that he understands peoples reaction of him. The structure of the essay is divided into sections he starts with explains the sitution and gives bacground then it goes on to tell how he was unaware of this happening due to how he had grown up.
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