Page 108 - The Language of Composition 4e Teacher Edition Sample.indd

Problem — And Ours,” recalls growing up in Many things go into the making of a young
4
terror of black males; they “were tougher than thug. One of those things is the consummation
we were, more ruthless,” he writes — and as an of the male romance with the power to intimi-
adult on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, he date. An infant discovers that random flailings
Identity
continues, he cannot constrain his nervous- send the baby bottle flying out of the crib and
ness when he meets black men on certain crashing to the floor. Delighted, the joyful babe
streets. Similarly, a decade later, the essayist repeats those motions again and again, seeking
and novelist Edward Hoagland extols a New to duplicate the feat. Just so, I recall the points at
York where once “Negro bitterness bore down which some of my boyhood friends were finally
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used for this sample chapter.
mainly on other Negroes.” Where some see seduced by the perception of themselves as
mere panhandlers, Hoagland sees “a mugger tough guys. When a mark cowered and surren-
who is clearly screwing up his nerve to do more dered his money without resistance, myth and
than just ask for money.” But Hoagland has reality merged — and paid off. It is, after all, only
“the New Yorker’s quick-hunch posture for manly to embrace the power to frighten and
broken-field maneuvering,” and the bad guy intimidate. We, as men, are not supposed to give
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
swerves away. an inch of our lane on the highway; we are to
I often witness that “hunch posture,” from seize the fighter’s edge in work and in play and
DIFFERENTIATION women after dark on the warren-like streets of even in love; we are to be valiant in the face of
Connections to Self Brooklyn where I live. They seem to set their hostile forces.
faces on neutral and, with their purse straps Unfortunately, poor and powerless young
Stereotyping and racial and gender profil- strung across their chests bandolier style, they men seem to take all this nonsense literally. As a
ing are hot topics examined in Staples’s forge ahead as though bracing themselves boy, I saw countless tough guys locked away; I
essay, in which he aims to raise readers’ against being tackled. I understand, of course, have since buried several, too. They were babies,
awareness of their own participation in that the danger they perceive is not a hallucina- really — a teenage cousin, a brother of twenty-
such habits of mind. Y
ou might lead a class
such habits of mind. You might lead a class tion. Women are particularly vulnerable to street two, a childhood friend in his midtwenties —
discussion that can be extended to stereo- violence, and young black males are drastically all gone down in episodes of bravado played
types of and responses to other cultural overrepresented among the perpetrators of that out in the streets. I came to doubt the virtues of
groups—for example, women in conserva- violence. Yet these truths are no solace against intimidation early on. I chose, perhaps even
tive Muslim dress, Hasidic men, or immi- the kind of alienation that comes of being ever unconsciously, to remain a shadow — timid, but
grant populations. How people respond to the suspect, against being set apart, a fearsome a survivor.
their assumptions gives power to Staples’s entity with whom pedestrians avoid making The fearsomeness mistakenly attributed to 10
words. His piece will perhaps elevate stu- eye contact. me in public places often has a perilous flavor.
dent awareness of subconscious and It is not altogether clear to me how I reached The most frightening of these confusions
powerful assumptions under which we the ripe old age of twenty-two without being occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s when
all operate.
conscious of the lethality nighttime pedestrians I worked as a journalist in Chicago. One day,
attributed to me. Perhaps it was because in rushing into the office of a magazine I was writ-
Chester, Pennsylvania, the small, angry indus- ing for with a deadline story in hand, I was mis-
trial town where I came of age in the 1960s, I was taken for a burglar. The office manager called
scarcely noticeable against a backdrop of gang security and, with an ad hoc posse, pursued me
warfare, street knifings, and murders. I grew up through the labyrinthine halls, nearly to my edi-
one of the good boys, had perhaps a half-dozen tor’s door. I had no way of proving who I was. I
fistfights. In retrospect, my shyness of combat could only move briskly toward the company of
has clear sources. someone who knew me.

214

05_sheatlc4e_40925_ch04_170_315.indd 214 12/10/22 2:35 PM
CLOSE READING
You may want to have students identify and
underline instances in paragraph 8 when
Staples uses the words “romance,” “myth,”
and “valiant.” Then, have them discuss with
a partner or reflect in their notebooks about
the effect of these word choices, especially
in terms of how these instances contrast with
the statements in paragraph 9. What ironies
are present?

214 chapter 4 / Identity

05_sheatlcte4e_46921_ch04_170a_315_2pp.indd 214 1/20/23 7:46 PM