Posts Tagged ‘ race ’

The Incredible Angry Black Woman

By | October 27th, 2009 | Category: BN Channel Race and Ethnicity, Featured 1, Thursday 1 | 3 comments

Race & Ethnicity Blog Nosh Magazine{Originally Published on The Black Snob}

Are you angry? Would we not like you when you’re angry?

I got into a discussion with a friend about male/female relationships while I was in Washington, D.C. and we were discussing the Obamas. He saw Michelle Obama, the First Lady, as the dominating figure in the relationship due to the fact that the president sometimes defers to her in his speeches or references her, saying he discussed things with her or so on. After listening to him for a bit, I pointed out that often the Obamas are more of a marital Rorschach test that says more about us than them, that no one can actually know another person’s marriage but the two people in it and that often we are taking our own experiences, wants, desires and fears and projecting them upon the First Family. But while he said he “liked” Michelle, he did see her as the quintessential “Angry Black Woman.”

Oh. That heifer again.

All my life I’ve heard many things about this woman. The finger snapping, neck cracking, fussin’ feuding and fighting, pissed off, scary as all get out, crazy, angry black woman. And while I’ve known a few black women who may qualify as angry or may have a chip on their shoulder a lot of this is much more complicated than a simple “she’s a crazy ABW.”

When you’ve been robbed of your femininity (which is sometimes the case with black women) due to a society that historically didn’t view you as a woman or, let’s say, a woman worth being chivalrous to (see Truth, Sojourner) you get a real limited amount of things you can do to get attention. I’ve known countless black women and men who grew up in households were parents and other adults honestly could have cared less if you had a bad day and frowned upon any crying, fussing, moaning or complaining. Suck it up, is practically the national pastime. But the one emotion that is almost always acceptable is anger. Your parents get mad. Your friends get mad. You get mad. Everyone is allowed to get mad. For some people crying is perceived as a weakness, but if you’re one “not to take no shit off of nobody” well, that will get you accolades and props and pats on the back. We reward strength in our community, in our society. Often anger is confused with strength.


That One Black Kid

By | September 29th, 2009 | Category: BN Channel Race and Ethnicity, Featured 1, Friday 1, Humor | 3 comments
That One Black Kid

race-ethnicity-badge{Originally published by Keith Knight at K Chronicles}

oneblackkid


The “New” Black Family?

By | August 10th, 2009 | Category: BN Channel Race and Ethnicity, Featured 1, Monday 2 | 4 comments

Race & Ethnicity Blog Nosh Magazine{Originally published on Mischief Makers}

I am sure we have all seen and or heard all the ridiculous amount of rhetoric floating around about The Obamas and what they represent.

I have seen a good half dozen, at least, articles about how the Obamas are painting a vibrant healthy image of the Black family for Americans and the world. You know, the new Black Family.

HOLD ON!! WHO ARE YOU CALLING NEW? I only know of healthy black families. I have lived my thirty something years and have only been acquainted with and have seen/known of/associated with hundreds, if not, thousands of nuclear, healthy, hard working black and brown families. These families more times than not come complete with a mother and father who both work hard to raise their children properly and to be earnest contributing members of society. Most of my family and friends are not dealing with substance abuse problems, abusing the social welfare system, are not in and out of jail or struggling with joblessness and being uneducated. To the contrary, most are educated, have extreme high level of morals and ideals; and expectations for themselves and their children. They are like most Americans of the lighter skinned-hue. What is all this fuss about?

I feel like I am being painted like a rare vintage species in the media sometimes. No really, I am perplexed that in 2009, the middle class black family with no outward signs of pathology or dysfunction is still considered an anomoly.

I shouldn’t act so indignant. The imagery of black people in television and movies is still quite distorted and what can one really expect of the middle American who lives in a town with no diversity? Notwithstanding, the idea and concept of a healthy black family being abnormal is still quite disturbing.

Not too too long ago, during my college years, I became used to having to educate my classmates about what life was like having the absence of skin privilege. It was a task many black and brown people undertook for the sake of contributing to the educational experience. That is one of the stalwart positions behind diversity in the Higher Education system after all, isn’t it? –that students of varying backgrounds and of different cultures and identities would be able to interact and learn about one another, and realize, sooner hopefully than later, that they (we) are the same after all.

I do know at some point during law school, I decided that it was an unfair burden for me to have to educate Whites about Blacks and life as a Black person in America and that I no longer wanted to play that game. I was there to learn and get an education and I didn’t like being straddled with the burden of representing my entire race. When there was the topic of civil rights, constitutional wrongs, criminal procedure, I had to defend and educate the experience of Blacks and bear the weight of the pressure of making sure my classmates got it right and understood “where I was coming from”…And here we are having it resurface but on such a larger stage with so many more people watching!