The Angry Black Woman & Other Stigmas

How many times have we heard the phrase, “The angry black woman”? And how many times have we stapled that to every black woman that we have ever encountered? Unfortunately for women like me, this phrase has put a bad reputation on those of us who try to break the narrative. Throughout history, the black woman has been associated with being mean, short-tempered and loud. Not to mention being looked upon by other races as classless (or as they say now “Ratchet”). In this short memoir, I will be tackling the issues that come about when people speak on black women. Those will include black men, other races of women and men, the Hollywood scene, and even black women themselves.

To start off, I was born into a family of mixed race people. Me, myself, I am of African-American descent, but my ancestry can go as far as France (my mother’s last name is of French origin). I have many different cultural backgrounds in my family, but I am a black woman. When you look at me you see dark brown skin and coily hair. My hips are a lot more curvy than those of women of different ethnicities. My family grew up as a middle class family. We have lived in predominantly white and black neighborhoods and I have gotten the best (and worst) of both worlds. It was not very easy to blend in with either crowd. The white crowd knew I was different and the black crowd didn’t think I was black enough. Going from one school to another school was a culture shock to me. Even though I had grown up with these people of different backgrounds, I still felt that they expected me to be a certain way.

I didn’t understand racism at first growing up. I always assumed that if people were nice then others would be nice to you. Little did I know that reputations would follow you around even if it has nothing to do with you. If you were to ask someone what they thought of black women, some would probably say that we are loud, like to twerk, and have children with multiple men just to collect government assistance. A very few would say something positive, but that is all. No matter how you spin it, the narrative that all black women are a certain way will never go away.

Now you may be asking, “What do you mean by Angry Black Women?” I mean the idiom of what society has labeled for all black women. This is not just an American problem. This branches out to other countries all around the world that are not predominantly black. If you look at most of America’s tv and movies about black women, they are usually portrayed as loud, rude, and ignorant. They act aggressive and always ready to fight in conflict situations.Why is that so? Because that is what people think of when they think of black women. The act of playing a ‘sassy black woman’ often comes with a lot of neck rolling, finger wagging, and lip popping. Now do all women you encounter do that? Of course not! Which is why I am here to break the stigma of my identity that has made my life a living hell.