Stereotypes Of African American Women Essay

There are numerous works of literature that recount a story- a story from which inspiration flourishes, providing a source of liberating motivation to its audience, or a story that simply aspires to touch the hearts and souls of all of those who read it. One of the most prevalent themes in historical types of these kinds of literature is racism. In America specifically, African Americans endured racism heavily, especially in the South, and did not gain equal rights until the 1960s. In her renowned book The Color Purple, Alice Walker narrates the journey of an African American woman, Celie Johnson (Harris), who experiences racism, sexism, and enduring hardships throughout the course of her life; nonetheless, through the help of friends and

Stereotypes are images and ideas, fixed and oversimplified, of particular people or things. Black women tend to encounter the utmost sexual and racial stereotypes. The remarks that I commonly hear are black women emasculate their men and are also sexually inhibited. Media and society have installed these stereotypes in a majority of our minds. Black women hear stereotypes very frequently and begin to believe in them. I encountered an immense amount of stereotypes, but they were only misjudgments because they were not aware my full potential.

Media always find a way to portray women as sexual object. What’s so upsetting to me is how society portrays women and its always one particular group that stands out the most. Just take a great guess on what group you think stands out the most. Yes you guessed it right, Black women in media always have a very negative view. Media supports negative stereotypes about African American women by showing them in an objectifying darkness. I feel society has to bring down a particular group and that group is black women. The images of black women is very negative falling typically into the stereotypical categories as “Gold Diggers, Mammy’s, Jezebels, Baby Mamas, Uneducated Sistas, Ratchet, Angry Black Women, Unhealthy Women, and my all-time favorite,

Alice Walker wrote ‘The Color Purple’ in order to capture and highlight the hardship and bitterness African-American women experienced in the early 1900s. She demonstrates the emotional, physical and spiritual revolution of an abused black girl into an independent, strong woman. The novel largely focuses on the role of male domination and its resulting frustrations and black women’s struggle for independence. The protagonist, Celie’s, gain of an independent identity, away from her family, friends, work, and love life, forms the plot of the novel.

Stereotypes can be defined as schemas applied to a group of people sharing common physical, biological or racial characteristics. Focusing on education, African American students had consistently been negatively stereotyped about their intellectual abilities. Research indicates that racial stereotypes negatively affect African American students’ academic performance. This correlation, though, is clearest among salient African American students, implying that psychological factors may result from these discriminations.

African-American ladies played significant bolster parts amid the Colonial time frame by giving help to the volunteer army. Their help included parts, for example, moving into the "huge house" to bolster the slave owner’s significant other when he left to serve in the volunteer army, dealing with wounds, and working close by the men in building fortresses for security from both the Indians and the British.

There are many factors that can be changed within a child be witnessing violence, and black children more likely to deal with these issues, due to the fact the black women would rather keep their violence within their families than to bring the outside world involve, especially the police— “the family secret”.

Images in media, television especially, are a direct projection of the people who control and project them, which often tends to be white people. “‘We face the problems of images projected by people not of us,’ she said. ‘The media is the most powerful mind-manipulating tool on the earth.’”(Ruby, 18) The perception of black women in the media today can be damaging to the self-image of the young black women of today. During the Black Arts Movement, many artists and poets spoke of how white influence in our lives has created skewed beauty ideals in the African-American community. This white influence tends to harm black women’s images of themselves. Most female images seen in mainstream media are white, thin, tall and just plain gorgeous,

     Throughout slavery, myths were created about African American women. These myths of yesterday have tainted the image of the African American woman today. These myths include two major ideas, the first being that all African American women are perceived as more promiscuous than the average white woman. The second myth is that black women are virtually useless, containing only the capabilities of working in white homes and raising white children. These myths caused these women to be degraded in the eyes of others as well as themselves.

Between 1980 to 1990, 8% to 12% of African-Americans completed four or more years in their college education (Educational Attainment, by Race and Hispanic Origin: 1960 to 1998). For many African Americans in the 1980’s, it was very hard to Imagine graduating from college, let alone graduating from two Ivy league Universities. One very influential woman did just that, her name is Michelle Obama. Alma maters of Michelle Obama includes Princeton University and Harvard Law School. Upon graduating from both of these Universities, Mrs. Obama clearly defied the odds against her. During her time at Harvard, she met Barack Obama. Soon after, they got married and she became a lawyer in the Chicago offices of the law firm Sidley & Austin. Years after,

heard many stupid conversations or comments amongst white people like oh such and such is going to have a lot of kids they won't know their dads and she will be on welfare the rest of her life, why do black people smell weird,oh black people have dirty hair,and i've seen people make fun of the black kids that are slow. I don't understand why some of us feel to be so loud and draw negative attention to ourselves we already have a lot of of negative stereotypes to deal with as it is why would we want to prove them right? Some of us think it looks good walking around with our pants hanging off their butts,and the girls wearing revealing clothes.

Woman has been viewed different from the early 1900’s till now in the 2000’s. Back then woman dressed well , by that I mean women wore clothes that covered them. Long dress , heels , and respected themselves. They had class , now woman are taking all of that and is going the opposite direction. Not caring the way they carry themselves , they way they act , the things that they but this draws me to my main point which is women haven’t always been a sex symbol but why they are the way they are now.

The quick categorization of people and objects, which is known as stereotyping, is done to assess a possible threat. The need for this action is base on a reaction to the emotion of fear, and is used as a defend mechanism. When it comes to women, stereotypes seem rather unnecessary because women are typically seen as docile creatures, but the need to stereotype a woman does not come from a physical threat. The need to stereotype a woman comes from a social threat. The social order that contains leadership, authority, and control is what’s at stake. In order to remain in a position of power one most eliminate the threat. They do this by hurting the threat. Over the years men have hurt women, and as a result hurt themselves, by preventing them a seat at society's table. Men feared losing their position

One of the most popular works by Walker was, The Color Purple. In this Alice walker’s story, the reader meets a girl named Celie. In this novel Alice takes the reader on a journey through much of Celie’s life, and the lives of others around her. Alice highlights a number of social aspects in this story. Through Cilie’s life, Walker highlights the abuse and mistreatment of African American women in the 1910 through the 1940’s. “Women were also regarded as less

“All segments of the literary world—whether establishment, progressive, Black, female, or lesbian—do not know, or at least act as if they do not know, that Black women writers and Black lesbian writers exist.” During the 1970’s to 1980’s, African American studies of Black’s steep legacy was a dying trade. Alice walker stepped up in this time period as an influential writer of the recovery movement for African American studies. Three well respected works from Alice Walker are: The Color Purple, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, and Meridian. We will focus on Walker’s narrative, The Color Purple which details the story of a young eight year old girl named Celie who was sexually abused by her stepfather. Celie seeks help through her