Staples believes there are quite a few discourses that connect to the ghetto but more so to just subtle

racism. In his article, Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His ability to Alter Public Space, Brent Staples discusses his encounter of inherent racism in his early 20s. While his physique is large and threatening, he claims he can barely cut raw chicken, let alone a person. The space he discusses in the article is different in different circumstances. When he talks about his time in an impoverished Chicago area, he tells the reader about a woman who ran away from him because they were in a deserted street at night. However, in parts of New York, he gets lost among the many other faces walking the street at night, but still encounters the same tense behavior in smaller NY neighborhoods. The places that Staples would call the ghetto are places that have a low amount of people, and a largely prejudice feeling towards black men. He describes that a power to intimidate are one of the many things that create young brutes. Boys realizing their capacity to frighten and intimidate like to use that to get things they want. Men in general feel this way, but it is more visible in Black males. Especially weak individuals take this power literally, and it never works out well in their favor.