The essay “Black Men and Public Space” written by Brent Staples and Clinton Smith’s Ted talk: “Black Lives Matter” movement is justified. Black lives do matter and White Americans should not see black people as a threat just because of their color. In Staple’s essay, he states that he was seen as threat to the people around him, in this case a young white woman. He walks one night, on the streets and this white woman “picks up her pace and was soon running” after she saw she was being “followed” by Brent, “ a young black man-a broad six feet two inches, with a beard and billowing hair.” Or he would just enter a building “behind some people and walk by, letting them clear the lobby, so as not to seem to be following them.” White people are