Thursday 26 June 2008

Who are the angry black women and where do they live?








Do these ladies look angry to you? Okay, you can argue, I picked pictures of smiling politicians and one supermodel. This was prompted by another blogger Hopelessly Sarcastic, http://hopelesslysarcastic.blogspot.com/. Allow me to introduce my angry black female self. One of the reporters, mentioned that Maxine Waters is angry, Cynthia McKinney is angry, Michelle Obama is angry and the black anchor women, who are on the television are always angry and black women in general are angry. Wow! now that is a sweeping statement. It seems to be the norm to accept that all black women are angry. Angry according to the Oxford Dictionary definition of the word, means the strong feeling caused by extreme displeasure. The emotion anger is neither positive or negative, it is a neutral emotion, meaning it can be used to bring positive or negative results. All the women shown here are well spoken, articulate and they can express themselves clearly. Women tend to have more communicative than men. There is a problem of having black women who can express themselves well, certain sections of the media like to say that they are 'angry'. Angry is an emotion that is felt by everybody. If we look in the bible, everyone got angry, Cain was angry with Abel, Noah got angry at Ham, Abraham and Lot quarrelled, Sarah got angry at Hagar, Esau got angry with Jacob. Jacob got angry with Laban, Rachel and Leah were angry at each other. Joseph's brothers were angry with him. Moses was angry with people of Israel. God was angry with them that is why they wondered for 40 years and only Caleb and Joshua were able to get into the promised land. There were other incidents, when God got angry, David got angry, Jesus got angry with the money changers in the temple. Women get angry, men get angry, children get angry and even babies get angry. Every woman and man of every race is entitled to get angry. However when black women get angry, we are know as 'the angry black woman', or there is a sweeping statements, black women are always angry. Black women are mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, cousins. So does that mean, every day every black woman wakes up, angry, she goes to bed angry and she is angry in the times between sun raise and sunset. Even some black men are saying 'black women have too much attitude, they talk too much, they are too strong willed, and yada, yada, ya!. So what is the reality of the 'angry black woman'. When I got divorced, I was upset, but I did get angry, when ex-husband accused me of harassing him, which I did not, because I left his home and went to my parents house and I did get angry when my barrister accused me of a being a bitter black woman. My daughter who is 20 years and she is going to university in September, I asked her, if I was an angry black woman, she said that I'm always laughing and her father is always angry. I also noticed when I was growing up, my father was always angry, he was always quarrelling with someone and even at now at 82, he is still angry and he shouts and screams. The black men who scream abuse at black women from various 'organizations' the so-called God messengers, they are angry, others rant about black women on you tube from them wearing weaves to them interracially dating and marrying non-black men. They are angry, the lyrics of some hip hop artists, singing about their bitches and hoes, sounds very angry to me, however someone told me, I must not take it like that, it is a form of endearment, according to the Oxford dictionary, endearment is a word or words expressing love. So these black gentlemen are expressing words of love to their lady friends, by calling them bitches and hoes. I learn something new everyday. Some of the black male blogs, I visited, had a lot of men were very angry with Barack Obama's Father's Day speech, there was a young black men on Fox News, complaining that Barack Obama was speaking to the wrong people, and he was extremely furious about it, a lot of men were annoyed especially when he mentioned that many men have low expectations of themselves, saying like, 'at least I got a job, at least I'm not in jail or at least I don't chase after women, drink or smoke'. 'How dare he', as one man said, he made the speech to look down at black people to say that he is better than them and why did he have to go in such a large church, there were plenty of smaller churches he could have spoken in.
The Punk Rock music was another angry music genre, which was anti-establishment rock music, the music was loud, their members could not really play and as for singing. Well I have to say, their members liked that type of music, with names like Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious members of the Sex Pistols, it is not to fill you with feelings of love and warmth, just aggression and angry. We never hear about angry white men or angry white boys or angry black men or angry black boys, but everyone knows about angry black women. 'I like black women...but they just bit hard to handle...I mean they are always angry'. I have been told, 'I'm a nice black woman...but the rest...they're just....they bit your ears off'. I would be very curious to know who put the rumour about all black women being ' angry black women'.
Naomi Campbell has been know for her incidents of violence. In August 1998, she was the first black model on the cover of Vogue Paris, the first black model on the cover of Vogue UK, Vogue Nippon and Time magazine. Sam McKnight, the famous hairdresser, say that Naomi was a pleasure to work with. Jeff Banks, a British designer said that the media don't seem to realise that Naomi Campbell is the only model who does British Fashion week for free. On 3rd April 2008, she was arrested inside Heathrow's Terminal 5 on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, because her baggage had been lost, she had that her reaction was to the fact that one of the BA staff called her a Golliwog supermodel, she said that it was not any of the passengers. She has apologised to the police. BA has banned her from using their flights globally and she has refused to apologise to BA, she had been sentenced to do 200 hours of community service. She and the media have a very troubled relationship and it started the moment, she became very successful model, being the first British and black woman, a reporter wanted to know where did Naomi's mother get the money to buy her house in Streatham, South West London and go to private school etc. The reporter also alleged that she was threatened by the orders of Robert De Niro. Since 1997, she had been involved in charity work for children and people of Sub-Saharan Africa and she worked with Nelson Mandela, she raised millions of dollars for Hurricane Karina.
Diane Abbot MP (member of Parliament) also has the tag of 'angry black woman'. The first black woman to be elected in the general election of 1987, it was not until 1997 that the Black and Jewish MP Oona King joined her.
Nyamo Sabuni is a Swedish politician, and currently serving as the Minister for Integration and Gender Equality in Swedish government.
Maxine Waters, she has also been referred to 'an angry black woman' served as a democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1991.
Michelle Obama, also referred as 'an angry black woman', she will be the first black woman to be first lady in the White House, Princeton and Harvard educated.
Cynthia McKinney also has the reference 'angry black woman' is an American politician and Green party candidate.
Patrica Janet Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal. PC , QC, Privy Counsel and Queen Counsel respectively. She is a barrister and current attorney general for England and Wales, she has a ministerial position in the British Government. She was the first black woman to be made Queen's Counsel.
So now the truth about 'the angry black woman' and where do they live. You will find angry black women, with nasty attitudes, anywhere and everywhere, and they live all over the world, but you will find women of all races with nasty attitudes and they too live all over the world. You will get 'angry black women', but not all black women are angry. The majority of black women are smart, intelligent, sweet, very feminine, softly spoken, they laugh out loud, they go to church and they love God and Jesus. Black women get married, they have children and they have husbands who love them. They are stylish, they love to shop, they love supermarkets, shopping malls, they love fashion, make-up and shoes. So they are like lots of other women, the only thing they are black, they are from African descent. The media corporations want to feature one type of woman, the loud, aggressive, uneducated ladies, but ladies who are intelligent, well spoken, articulate and can express their point effectively and clearly are regarded as 'the angry black woman'. Black women are entitled to say what they feel in a dignified manner, because black women have experienced racism prejudice and we have to work twice or three times as hard to prove ourselves. If other people don't like it, too bad. When I used to do temping jobs, or any other jobs, I always had to prove myself, they would assume that I would fail and when I didn't, they would ask, why am I so nice, kind, soft and I would say nice things. I would say that my parents trained me that way, because of this box system, some media corporations and even black people themselves, feel that black women who are educated, speak nicely, articulate, confident, successful and are beautiful are 'acting white'. This goes to show the level of ignorance some people have, without education, there would not be any fashion designers, hair dressers, inventors, lawyers, engineers, architects, landscape gardeners, doctors, lawyers, preachers, rabbis, business owners, writers, scientists. These women, these black women made our world and more interesting and fascinating place. Black women have opened their eyes and they realise that the world is an abundance place and as the daughters of the most High God,
El El yon, they are entitled to the richness of the land, regardless of what anyone says, it is theirs, it is mine, it is yours, for the taking. We just have to ask, receive and believe, because if we can think it, we can create it, with God on our side. We are already winners.

20 comments:

Don said...

if you allow most people to tell it - all black people are angry. i think many of our people are, but certainly not the majority.

Miriam said...

Some folks describe mildly emotional as "angry". Some can't stand any emotions!

Unknown said...

Felicity, once again you are dropping science left and right! :-D

I had actually thought about writing a post on this topic of how black women are perceived as pertually angry or harboring "attitudes." I find that as a black woman, I feel like I have to act twice as friendly just to be considered a pleasant person. I can't just be me. I have to be me-plus. I have to bend over backwards to be friendly and accomodating in order for certain folks to feel comfortable around me. If I don't act this way, it's like I'm perceived as aloof, unapproachable, or uppity.

Felicity said...

@ Don, many of our people are and it is very easy to get caught up in the rubbish. You have to make a special effect to be happy and especially if you look what is happening around you.

@ Miriam, that is also true, especially when you express yourself clearly, sometimes people can get offended, sometimes you say things and people now have to thing and it is something not many people are good at it.

@ Pirouette, I really think that black women are living in parallel universes. We are trying the best to get on with our own lives and we are perceived as angry and when you ask them, how is this person being angry, they cannot answer. The best revenge is for us to be successful.

Anonymous said...

if black women are truly angry it's because they have every right to be! they can't ever seem to get a break and when they do, there is always someone [including us black men] that are always there to bring them down.

we need to support our sistas because they are our mothers, aunties, sisters, and daughters and without them, there is no us.

:::Marcus LANGFORD:::

Felicity said...

@Marcus, I totally agree with you, and I feel that some of our black churches haven't really helped also many of us feel, we don't know how to direct our angry, also many of us are in situations that we feel that we cannot control, we are in jobs and we are not happy. We do not get the support we really deserve and when black women break away from the norm. There is tremendous pressure to keep them in lie. It takes tremendous self belief that you can do anything you want and again changing your mindset, changing your friends and distancing yourself from negative members of your family.

LISA VAZQUEZ said...

Hey there Felicity! {waves}

You have a winner here!

{applause}

Thank you for writing about this....I wrote a post two months ago and black women and anger issues but it was a little bit of a push to examine WHY we are angry and to seek to resolve it.

@ Marcus
I agree that we have a RIGHT TO BE angry but I am not sure it's entirely health to always EXERCISE the right to be angry because anger is a toxic emotion that begins to manifest like a cancer to one's personality.

Thank you for all of the insights that everyone has shared! {waves}

Peace, blessings and DUNAMIS!
Lisa

Felicity said...

Blackwomenblowyourtrumpet
Hi How are you? I felt that I was constantly hearing about 'the angry black woman' and as I am a black woman myself, what is the real truth about about our angry. Thanks for your feedback.

Virtuous Blue said...

I think far too many people confuse "strength" for "anger". Most Black women that I know have to juggle a 9-5, raise children (on their own), have dinner ready, be a shero for parents, siblings,and cousins, and don't have a trust fund or "connections" to lean on to get a head start. Many have had to develop thick skin just to stay afloat. So yeah, we may not always be walking around with a smile on our face bigger than The Joker's from Batman, but it doesn't mean you won't see a sparkle, a song in our voice, or a dance in our step. Few just take the time to peel back the exterior to get to the core.

Tania said...

The media is the devil! God forbid we use our voices to speak up about anything...

Suesue said...

Naomi Campbell to me i think is insane and cannot deal with stress!!! I do not see her as an angry black woman though. I hate that identity they have glued on us; Everytime we try to stand up for ourselves it seems we are like this. My big brother called me a "black feminist" yesturday cause i was telling him why i cut my hair and why i want to be natural. LOL.

YOU ARE RIGHT people of ALL races get angry !!! Why is it just us that gets this title ? Black people have more of a reason to fight though !!! So you see the black woman with her big afro on TV to Michelle Obama giving a speech. They all are just "angry". AH the US Media...how do they manage to catergorize races all the time in the most offensive way ?

Felicity said...

@ Virtuous Blue, nice to see you ladies, personally, I think we have to do too much. Too much is expected from us and yet less is expected from the man. I feel that we cannot trust the support agencies, they cause more problems and make matters worst.
@Tania nice to see you, the media is a devil and they will not do us any favours.
@Suesue nice for you to drop in, with Naomi Campbell, the jury is still out, she can be her own worst enemy, but the media definitely try to wind her up for her to get a reaction. It is so sad some of our men don't see beauty in our natural hair.
The media hate intelligent articulate black women, because when they talk, they make others around them look so foolish and they cannot stand that, so label all black women are angry.

Anonymous said...

The generalizations made of Black Women is so disturbing. Alot of them make me want to cry. As hard as it is being a double minority - we have to deal with the day in and day out type-casting of "angry", "disgruntled", or "issue ridden". I hate it!

Trula said...

Some black women are angry. Most are not. We can choose not only how we interact with the world, but also how we respond to negative portrayals about us. The best defense is happiness and living well!

Felicity said...

B more bap, Welcome, the generalizations are disturbing and how many people really try to find out about black women. My theory that those who say that we are angry, they are angry and bitter themselves.
Trula, welcome and nice to see you. You are right, some black women are angry, but the majority are happy and the best revenge is happiness.

Spice Avenue said...

I personally have always been misjudged. It could be the best day of my life and people still ask "Why do you look so mad" In a sense I like it. People more prone to go ahead about their business and not worry you with nonsense. But here's some science for you. Watch this video "A Black Womans Smile" "We have been deliberately depreciated and never been
compensated."

http://www.blackbottom.com/watch.php?v=798e3ee01232adf5374f3ee90c72a36a41ca77f0

Felicity said...

Ms Divine, welcome to my blog, I have seen 'A Black women's smile' and yes we are not appreciated and turn to psalms to uplift me. I know how much we do and continue to do. I know that even in our own family, people refuse to listen to us, but we have appreciate our own selves.

Anonymous said...

When a women is fed up .....it aint nothing you can do about it!!!



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Felicity said...

Welcome Kin'shar, you are very right on that one! Thank you for your nice comment.

Oli said...

I try to be as pleasant as possible(without my own personality diminishing) when out, to try and at least partly, dispel this stereotype