When I analyze the media depictions of Black women in our culture I
vacillate between two extremes death by predictability and principled outrage. Black women
are always cast in the same stereotypical roles with different titles. You have the strong independent sex objec
t, strong
independent psycho, strong independent single mom, strong independent sisters, strong independent hair dressers, and st
rong independent intellectual.
The media depiction of the strong independent black woman despite the array of titles are one dimensional and Ghetto 95% of the time, regardless of the superior socioeconomic conditions of the characters. I don't deny the strength of black women for me "strong independent" simply mean free thinking. We are loud, assertive, and apathetic
to the politically correct
, yet possess poetic sophistication. We are not a people pleaser, which is an unappealing trait in our user friendly world. Despite seemingly insurmountable challenges we find away. The black woman is patient and level headed with a quick wit and biting tongue. She's a mother, a bread winner, a sister, a wife, a cook, a teacher, and intellectual, yet she is constantly depicted in the opposite extremes. The media often seeks to downplay identification with Black women. The
Real
Housewives of Atlanta, The Bad Girls Club, Basket Ball
Wi
ves, and as a throwback I love New York and Flavor F
lave (smh) are
caricatures that don't begin to deconstruct the complexities of black
female thought.
Violence against black women in the media
is generally accepted. Ike and Tina, Bobby and Whitney, Chris and Rhianna, it’s
becoming a fetish. Interestingly
, rather than rallying around these battered
women we turned them into spectacles and punchlines.
When they return to their abusers, as many
battered women do, we engaged in petty victim
shaming and blaming. While real black women are turned into spectacles fictionalized black women aren't fairing much better
. The movie
Fo
r Color
ed Girls, is the last movie a black woman should pay money to see. There depiction of
the black woman and black family
would have been laughable if it weren't so tragic. It was by far one of the most degrading movies I’ve
ever watched; and I saw Jango.
I no longer allow myself to become angry with these caricatures. I’ve come to
understand that black women play a specific role in American culture, a role
that extends to their media repre
sentation. It is because of Black women that everyone even the black man has found a seat at the table.
The black woman is the most misrepresented individual in our culture. I don't get mad because everyday I am greeted by walking contradictions to these socially constructed stereotypes. Marginalized
groups in society like Black women are there to provide contrast. It allow the
"everyman" to be
screwed over by the elite like everyone else while maintaining faith in the
American Dream, because there not quite as screwed as the people at the bottom. It's like even if they’re the doorman they feel they've arrived, because their still inside the
club. The black woman doesn't know how to graciously accept her diminished position, because she has the heart of warrior.
Society demeans the black woman for her defiance, self reliance, and acceptance of self. The presence of the black woman allows everyone admission into the club. To earn your membership all you have to do
is blend in, and adhere to the club’s creed no questions asked. However, there
is no room at the table for those who made it possible for you to sit, with
their endless tirade of questions.
Thus one can argue that perhaps she is ostracized for her strength, she doesn't bend, she doesn't break, and she doesn't quietly accept, she just keeps moving forward on her own track. She raps to a rhythm that may seem coarse to an out side ear, but that is perfectly in line with those on her frequency. I think of Sojourner Truth--- and I know that media representation of black women is just a tactic to undermine her brilliance it just When I think that even as a "so called" slave lacking education, Sojourner had the presence of mind to challenge her position. To understand that she could never be a slave as long as she believed she was free, that she could never be less as long as she understood that she was more. She was brilliant, because of her ability to transcend moral binaries instead of passively accepting her circumstance. The brilliance of black women like Sojourner Truth lye in the presence of mind to define and construct their own reality.
