Aug 08, 2018
What I Learned from My Father, the Pink-Collar Worker
As a black man in the field of social work, my dad was, as a white female coworker of his once put it, “like a fly in buttermilk.”
As a black man in the field of social work, my dad was, as a white female coworker of his once put it, “like a fly in buttermilk.”
After I left, everything became clearer, in the way that a breakup can clarify a toxic relationship; put things in sharp relief.
“I take these photographs so she’ll be able to remember the time when she had two heartbeats. Tears bucket down her face.”
Dance is about freeing ourselves, finding a secret space inside our bodies that no lock can close.
When we conflate men’s sexuality with harassment and violence, we don’t ask much of them. Masculinity doesn’t have to be toxic.
“What leads a man to transact with death for his daily bread?”
I couldn’t stop thinking about what I would do if something went wrong. If I made a mistake, my son and I might go back to being homeless.
I wish I could tell my dad that I worked to recreate the newsroom. That people still think newspaper stories—and stories about newspapers—are worth telling.
“So long as men can harass women without consequences, they will continue to do so.”
“All I knew was that if my Pops could work hard and pull himself up out of poverty, I could, too.”
“So many of us professional food people struggle with eating and body issues. We’re drawn in.”
“Some of these horses have also been rescued from floodwaters. They too are in a strange place, and deeply alone.”
Librarians across the country are witnessing opioid overdoses on the job. Here’s how some library systems are responding.
“Stripped free of technology and social contact, maybe I can finally reflect on the man I’d like to be.”
I witnessed my mother work twice as hard as the men under the hot sun. All she had were her hands.
“It was an alternate world, where the dead came everyday, and we treated it as normal.”
“The office is a different place after the investigation. No one wants to look at me or speak to me.”
