Represesntation Of The Negative Assumptions Of Society Towards Blacks In The Works Of Brent Staples And Chris Rock

Nowadays society has developed a prejudice against black people and discriminate them based on their color and race. Thus racism has been the biggest social issue in America. Discrimination against African American traced from the colonial period. Violence against blacks have been common in many states of America. Brent Staples and Chris Rock evidently discuss about the discrimination against black by using Tone, Emotion and Credibility in their stories. Brant Staples and Christ Rock establishes a negative tone in their stories to discuss the negative assumptions of society towards blacks.

Brant Staple portrays a dark tone in his story by discussing his personal experience of his life and realises that color, race and community can have a much bigger impact on a person’s life than he used to think. “I was twenty-two years old, a graduate student newly arrived at the University of Chicago. It was in the echo of the terrified woman’s footballs that I first began to know the unwieldy inheritance I’d come into- the ability to alter public space in ugly ways. It was clear that she thought herself the quarry of a mugger, a rapist or worse. ” (Norton 169)This shows that its his community where he came from; his color of the skin and his body appearance that make him seem dangerous, violent. Similarly, Chris Rock also establishes negative tone in his story by telling that Hollywood is a white industry. “But how many black men have you met working in Hollywood? They don't really hire black men. A black man with bass in his voice and maybe a little hint of facial hair? Not going to happen. It is what it is. ” (Rock)

This example shows that black people are also discriminated in Hollywood. Brent staples and Chris Rock use various emotions to tell their audience that how the black people are emotionally affected by the negative judgement made by the society for them. Brent Staples describes how he continuously gets discriminated while working as a black journalist. “One day, rushing into the office of a magazine I was writing for with a deadline story in hand, I was mistaken for a burglar. The office manager called security and, with an ad hoc posse. Pursued me through labyrinthine halls, nearly to my editor’s door. I had no way proving who I was. I could only move briskly toward the company of someone who knew me. ” (Norton 171). He also frightened a white woman when he was walking from his university and the woman disappeared as she thought that he was following her. These two examples show that how society has a myth about black people that they’re dangerous and violent. Thus the society is afraid of the black community. By telling these personal experiences of his life he shows, sympathy towards the black people as they have to face racism in every field of their lives. Chris Rock shares funny experiences from Hollywood and shows emotional support to the black people. Rock shares that he often gives an advice to black actors as he thinks that anyone can give advice to white people but no one would give a hand to a black actor. He also describes that black people usually struggle to work as actors in the Hollywood industry as they are treated like lower class people. “"Oh, no black person has ever greenlighted a movie," but those other jobs? You're kidding me, right? They don't even require education. When you're on the lower levels, they're just about taste, nothing else. ” (Rock)

In this example he tells the audience a serious issue but in a funny way, that black people are thought as incapable of doing anything worthy. He also supports the black community by telling that if a black movie is released it should not be judged and compared to other movies. Brent Staples and Chris Rock use the technique of persuasion to justify the credibility of their stories. Brent Staples builds the trust of his audience by sharing his personal life experiences while he was studying in the university and when he was working as journalist. These use of his personal information shows that his story has credibility. He shares his story in such a way that the readers would feel bad for the racism faced by black people. Similarly Chris Rock shares experience from Hollywood that how black people are discriminated in the States and he tries to support the Rookie black actors by giving advice to them. In my opinion Brent Staples id more effective than the other because he shares his own experiences and difficulties faced by him in his life as a black guy. On the other hand, Chris Rock tells about the other black actors and doesn’t share discrimination faced by him. In conclusion, Brent Staples and Chris Rock made a good use of the literary techniques sch as tone, emotion and credibility to express their true feelings about how black people get discriminated.