From Brotherhood to Manhood
How Black Men Rescue Their Relationships and Dreams From the Invisibility Syndrome
Chapter One
INVISIBLE MEN
The Sixth Sense-Bill's Story
At forty-seven, Bill was part of the promising wave of poor-but-working-class
black men who had made it into the middle class. Well-spoken
and self-assured, he graduated from Yale in the late 1960s,
served as an Army officer in Vietnam, and worked his way up the corporate
ladder to a highly paid management position in a major American
corporation.
He first came to see me because his son was having trouble in
school, but it quickly became obvious that his son was having trouble
with Bill. In fact, he was giving his whole family a hard time. He ranted
at his son and daughter when they fought, minimized their conflicts,
and told them to solve their problems on their own. He and his wife
had grown increasingly distant, and the atmosphere at home was
charged with tension and stress. He frequently came home from work
withdrawn and impatient. Whenever he talked to his wife about his difficulties
on the job, he told her angrily that she made him feel worse,
misunderstood, and unsupported.
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