Content Warning: This section discusses racism, violence, death, anti-gay bias, suicide, and sexual abuse.

“And in all my years working as janitor on this block, I ain’t seen no favoritism, one way or another, all had a hard way to go. I’m not about to argue was it harder for some than for others: Who’s got it worse, the Him with nothing in his pockets, scared to turn the knob on the door; or the Her waiting on the other side to stretch that nothing—once again—for supper? When your shoes is worn down ragged and loose, what hits the ground hardest the heel or the toe?”

In the opening passage of The Men of Brewster Place, Ben describes how everyone living on the block struggles. The passage alludes to Naylor’s focus on female characters in The Women of Brewster Place and her portrayal of Black men as contributing to the abuse and oppression of Black women. Ben’s assertion that everyone on Brewster Place has “a hard way to go” introduces Naylor’s exploration of the Black male psyche and how the novel complicates the concept of Black manhood.

“But let me tell you about men: If you put him on the likes of a Park Avenue and he feels he has no worth, then it’s not Park Avenue. If you put him on the likes of a Chicago South Side and he feels he has worth, then it’s not the South Side. We all live inside.”

Much of the novel is concerned with men who are trying to discern and exemplify the specific qualities of manhood. In this passage, Ben argues that self-worth is a man’s defining quality. It is not his place in the world that matters but rather his sense of self and confidence.

“I don’t know fancy words, but I do know men. And the ones here, proud most of ’em, pitiful some—but hard working, all of ’em. If they was working at a job or just working at despair. And with each of ’em—no matter who he was—there was always a Her in his story.”

This passage speaks to the intertwined nature of men’s and women’s lives and undermines the myth that poverty results from laziness. Ben argues that all the men living in Brewster Place work hard and hope for a better life. However, they have few opportunities to escape the poverty and discrimination that plague them.