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“Such episodes are not uncommon.  Black men trade tales like this all the time.”  This quote from “Just Walk on By” by Brent Staples is referring to the stories black men share about being mistaken for a theives, rapists, murderers, etc.  It really grabbed my attention because I never thought that these kinds of stories would be commonly shared by blacks.  Of course I know that racism still exists and that blacks are not treated fairly in some situations, but it never occurred to me that they would actually discuss this frequently.  I think that the writer’s thesis is how many people, mostly white women, react to blacks who just look like they could be a robber, for example, without having any real reason to believe that way.  An example of this is when a young woman feared Staples and eventually ran away from him when the two of them were just walking down the street.  The way that the young woman saw Staples was a tall, young black man with “billowing hair” wearing baggy clothing.