Just Walk On By” by Brent Staples and “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” by Sherman Alexie are two short stories both of which highlight the racial prejudges and their physical and psychological consequences.
Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By” is a narrative story that drew upon some of his own life experiences reflecting his mistreated life based on his skin color. Staples began the story by ironically mentioning a woman he crossed by in one of the Chicago’s streets as “My first victim.”
In his short story “Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” Sherman Alexie envisioned
struggles endured by Native American people. In the beginning of the story, I see the narrator feeling like an outsider in the White dominated community. His interaction with the cashier from 7-11 proved this.
From both stories, I come to have an insight of how colored people are looked down upon and suspected as criminals in this country. By saying “” Can I help you?” the 7-11 clerk asked me loudly, searching for some response that would reassure him that I wasn’t an armed robber.” (183), Alexie demonstrated the narrator as a victim of racial prejudice. Staples also mentioned a few of his experiences where he was mistaken as a criminal. He wrote “The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash.” By saying this, Staples was meaning that the lady from the jewelry store suspected him as a robber.
Afer reading the two stories, I feel sorry for all the people who are mistreated based on their skin color and outside appearances. I can imagine how they are trapped in the environment full of unfair stigma and labeling.
