Preview

Brent Staples' Black Men and Public Spaces

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
344 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Brent Staples' Black Men and Public Spaces
Antoinette Johnson
English 100
Prof. Horna
October 3, 2012

In the essay “The second shift”, by Arlie Hochschild, he explains how the wives of two-job families with small children typically work an extra 24-hour day in a year, between the pages 145(bottom) and 148(top). I agree with Hochschild’s determination because once women come home from first shift, they go straight into second shift. Whereas men come home from first shift, and get to pick and choose when to work second shift. Most men wonder why the level of affection is lacking in the home.
I believe that the man in two-job families with small children are optimistic about the things that should be done around the house. I believe that they feel because they’re the “dominant” figure, that the women are supposed to do the majority of the work around the house. Then the men/husbands start to feel a type of way because the women become resentful,. I don’t blame the men for their actions, I blame the fathers and their father’s father for not showing them the correct way to uphold their households.
In my eyes women has always been the life support or backbone of any family. So really the women are the “dominant” figure. It takes a strong individual to work an eight-hour shift, then come home to cook and clean for another eight-hours. To also cater to the children and husbands with all their needs. Women should demand more help from their husbands during the second shift. That extra 24 hours should be split between the two of them. If women stood up for themselves more often, men would start to appreciate them more while still in the relationship instead of when their relationship is over.

In conclusion, as time goes on, the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The thesis of Brent Staples written piece, “ Black Men And Public Space” to me states that in America for a long time, we as black men had to deal with racial issues for a long time in this nations most disgraceful time period, slavery. Feeling like a criminal all the time is not a good feeling, as he stated, a white woman made him feel as if he was a mugger or a rapist and “that being perceived as dangerous is a hazard in itself”. This is a chapter in America’s history I know they wished never happened.…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Among all the emotions people have, the most multifarious is fear because fear can be spread much faster than most emotions. Literally, people define fear “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat ”. However, the delusion of endangerment can cause racism of misunderstanding. Particularly, Most people identify fear based on their stereotyping, prejudice and bias. In “Black Men in Public Spaces”, Brent Staples describes how skin color could cause bias in people and how he, a black man , had to moderate his behavior to accommodate them. He uses vivid illustration about the prejudices and unfair judgement…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All” by Richard Dorment, the author primarily focuses on the idea on how men cannot “have it all” either, due to the competing demands of work and home being even harsher or the same as women. He argues that men are more than ever facing a problem of balancing work and home life, as men now clean and cook more than they did 50 years ago. He states that while men still have to work the long hours they do, they come home to a new set of expectations and are ridiculed if they don't exceed them. An example of these expectations are that men are supposed to have this manly nothing and support the family financially, yet when they ask for leave they suffer “a femininity stigma” which robs a man of his masculinity.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Black Lies and the White Little Truth: An Interpretive Thematic Analysis on Brent Staples’s “Black Men and Public Space”…

    • 1365 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Men are more comfortable with their wives going to work than they are willing to help out at home more. In the 1950s, women were expected to be good housewives. Women were not to go college and if they did it was only to meet their future husbands. Women were expected to stay home and do housework and take care of the children. Ferber says, “Housework and childcare continued to be viewed as the women’s responsibility whether or not she also had a paid job” (2). Mothers today are arguing back and forth over the “Mommy Wars”. The “Mommy Wars” is where working mothers are criticizing stay at home mothers for not working and in turn, non-working mothers criticize working mothers for not spending enough of family time together. Rather than debating the “Mommy Wars” some women are complaining of having to work “the second shift” once they get home from work. The second shift refers to when a mother has worked a full day and then goes home to do just about the same amount of work by cooking dinner, doing laundry, cleaning the house, and taking care of the kids. Ferber says, “Women do fifty-two hours a week in housework and child rearing while the men do eleven hours a week” (2). Men should be contributing to the housework more, regardless if the wife works or stays at home. The resource theory, proposed by Robert Blood and David Wolfe, “Focuses on the importance of accumulated resources of a spouse as the source of power within a marriage, which is likely to be used to make the other partner do more of the housework” (3, Ferber). The more control women have at work the more control they have at…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why did you choose this article? What did you like the most about the article?…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Helms, HM, Walls JK, Crouter AC & McHale SM 2010, ‘Provider Role Attitudes, Marital Satisfaction, Role Overload, and Houswork: A dyadic approach’, Journal of Family Psychology, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 568-577.…

    • 1593 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Inequality In America

    • 960 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Due to the gender roles provided by society from birth, women are taught to behave and act a certain way within the house. They are thought of as child bearers, cooks, caregivers, and the person who is responsible for other chores around the house; Arlie Hochschild calls this effect the second shift (Conley 469). Due to this effect on society, women may be seen as less expected to work full-time, when in fact, only 3 percent of women managers said that family responsibilities were a main obstacle in their career (Empowering Women). With women being placed into a set category and role, this causes men to see them as weak and unable to work full-time. This barrier could be broken by a more forward way of thinking towards women’s roles in society. There are plenty of women who do not fit the role of housewife, and by placing them into this role, they are being unrightfully judged. With a more forward way of thinking, this issue of set role can be solved within the work…

    • 960 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In his article “Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples argues that people change their behaviors due to their assumptions when a Black man is present and I agree with Brent Staples. For instance, when Brent Staples was going to work the security called on him” One day, rushing into the office of a magazine I was writing for a deadline story in hand, I was mistaken for a burglar. ”(paragraph 8) I have experienced this before, when I and my aunt went to go get some food there was an African American man walking to get some food and the people quickly rolled their windows up and seem to be really scared.…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    "It was in the echo of that terrified woman's foots.." (Staples 336) that shows the foreshadowing of the unknown. In the short story, "Black Men and Public Space," by Brent Staples, is a tragic story of fear and embarrassment. From the first person point of view, we are able to observe what the main character; a young black man, faces on a daily basis. Being treated and viewed as a prisoner, ironically, was not how he ended up. While experiencing constant judgement; I believe, the black man had a great deal of internal suffering and sadness. Staples makes this evident through theme, characterization, and symbolism.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    response essay

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Article Wall Street Mothers, Stay-Home Fathers –As Husband do Domestic Duty, These Woman are Free to Achieve-“ by Jodi Kantor and Jessica Silver-Greenberg is in most way neutral towards the two genders of this role reversal. The article shows both the perspective of husbands and wives, and it looks like that kind of role reversal is fine. However I believe it is unfair for the husbands. This is because sometime the husbands can feel both unhappy and excluded.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conjugal Roles

    • 960 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Vicky AdamsE) Using material from item B and elsewhere asses the view that it no longer makes sense to talk about the patriarchal family. In the 19th century families were considered to be patriarchal. Patriarchy is a male dominated household/society. However in today’s society, some sociologist’s would argue that this is no longer true, but other sociologist’s state the patriarchal family still exists. Item B states that the husband ‘was often the sole breadwinner’ however this is now not the case. With laws such as the equal pay act, women are earning just as much as men, if not more. This makes the women equal earners, or the breadwinner of the family. With more women being able to earn for themselves, this gives them more power within the household regards to making important decisions etc. This gives women less need to rely on men to provide for them, resulting in equal households or matriarchal households. To say that the patriarchal family does not exist, Willmott and Young (1973) used a questionnaire to ask almost 2000 people about their domestic roles. They found that men are helping women more and therefore concluded that the family is becoming more equal. However, their research shows that men only do 10 domestic hours a week, while full time working females do over 23 hours of domestic work a week. This does not show that the family is equal; the family is still patriarchal, as men sit back and let women do most of the work. To go against Willmott and Young’s claims, Oakley(1974) stated that married men claiming to help their partners at least once a week exaggerated the degree of symmetry as ‘help’ could mean anything from 10 minutes washing up to a full day of domestic work. Thus, showing that women still do the majority of domestic work, proving that the family is still patriarchal. In other cultures, the patriarchal family still exists. In poorer countries, males are more likely to get the most from the already limited resources, males are more…

    • 960 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Work Life Balance Hrm

    • 2294 Words
    • 10 Pages

    It has suggested by McKee and colleagues that a series of historical shifts has shaped, to some degree, the debate about work-life balance. Broadly speaking they suggested these were the absence of fathers from home through war, imprisonment or long working shifts, the entry of large numbers of women into the workforce; the changing composition and structure of the family; expanding male unemployment; the increase in singe working parents; the intensification of working hours; an ageing population and the growing number of cared for groups; and the growth of equal opportunities. (McKee and colleagues) It is accepted that the feminisation of the work force increases the need for family friendly policies, however studies are said largely to have narrowly focused on the experiences of women with the double burden of employment and domestic and child care tasks, at the expense of a broader concept (Ransom, 2007). It also must be noted that the…

    • 2294 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    There is usually a clear division of labour where the male predominantly plays the instrumental role of the breadwinner and the female predominantly plays her expressive role as the homemaker and care giver, Bernardes (1997). This is based on the theory of Functionalism (which has dominated theories until the mid 20th century). They seem to place importance on the division of labour, as they believe that this structure is the most effective way of performing family functions.…

    • 2421 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Case Analysis

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Work/life issues have long been portrayed as a women’s issue. And the fact is, even while holding down a job, mom is spending more time than dad wiping noses, cleaning house and cooking.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays