The angry black woman is a ubiquitous trope in pop culture. It began in the US and thanks to cultural imperialism has become normalized in many places far from the United States. The trope depicts black women as mean, loud and aggressive with an attitude to boot. Let’s talk about why it’s time to embrace this trope that has long been wielded as an insult to black women.
Silencing tool
When black women’s anger is so widely criticized, it functions as a means to silence them. Nobody wants to be viewed as the embodiment of the angry black woman trope and so people adjust their behaviour accordingly. They push down on their anger and hold their tongues even when they are justifiably upset. When they do speak up, they are deemed domineering, loud, threatening, and unprofessional and so black women are always contorting themselves into whatever shapes will be acceptable to the people around them.
Discredits them
When black women are characterized in this way, it discredits them. It says you can’t take them seriously because they overreact, they are hypersensitive, and they blow everything out of proportion. This culture of not believing black women is not just limited to casual stories, it can be seen even in healthcare where doctors often don’t believe black women’s reports about how much pain they are under. The angry black woman trope is not benign. It has real-world cascading consequences.
Demonizes anger and stops change
Anger is a justified emotion. It is a justified way of signalling your discontent. Our society is highly uncomfortable with anger as an emotion. Instead of examining the underlying cause of the anger, people’s immediate reaction is to find a way to control it.
In the face of injustice, righteous anger must be every person’s response. This instinct to control and limit black women’s anger isn’t just limited to black women. Authoritarian entities survive by demonizing and tamping down on people’s anger. Parents who subscribe to authoritarian parenting strategies insist on restraining their children’s expressions of anger.
When you consider the fact that the angry black woman trait goes back all the way to chattel slavery, when expressions of black female anger, particularly against white people were profoundly justified yet impermissible, you understand the function of this trope. Portraying black anger as unreasonable and ugly was a rational racist tactic. It continues to be used in this way by authoritarian outfits.
Anger, especially at social injustice is more than justified. Anyone who isn’t angry is either benefiting from oppression or blind to what’s going on. Righteous anger in the face of injustice is fuel for fighting back. Often the opposite is a sadness which is draining and passive. Anger is energizing. Angry people fight back which is why employers, governments, and similar outfits benefit from demonizing anger.
Conclusion
Black women have every reason to be angry, every reason to rage and they don’t owe anybody an explanation for it. In any case, the angry black woman trope creates a lose-lose situation for women, if you speak up and express your anger you lose, if you don’t, you still lose because nothing changes. If you’re not angry, get angry. If you are angry, RAGE.
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