Do you ever have a feeling of adrenaline running through your body? Have you ever felt threatened by an external force that is beyond your control? Or questions your understanding of why you feel the way you feel? Similar to a volcano, your energy boils up until an eruption occurs, thus releasing suppressed thoughts and buried concerns into an explosion of frustration. This feeling is anger When anger is expressed, it can be used as a tool to reveal pressing ideas or opinions that can be deeply troubling to an individual. Conversely, when anger is shown, the outcome is usually in the field of disagreement, refusal or non-optimistic standpoints. Specifically, throughout history, a majority of women have been expected to absorb all systems …show more content…
However, as told by Abraham Maslow, what humans desire the most is to belong. As love is the glue that binds loyalty and acceptance, once it is taken away, it results into the emptiness that manifests itself deep inside your perception. Black Women have experienced betrayal in the sense that their features and qualities are praised on women of different races, but are betrayed for women who possess these same qualities. An example of this is the curvy body and full lips. While black women are ridiculed and shamed for their inability to mimic Eurocentric features, non-black women who HAVE these characteristics are labelled “exotic” or “evolved” because of their heightened attractiveness. This behaviour is also exhibited when black women express their anger. Once their opinion is voiced, immediately the labels “unwanted frequent critic” or the notorious “angry black woman” is used to dismiss their anger. It is as though their concerns are insignificant to the point where they are prohibited from feeling emotions or experiencing tribulation. A famous quote from Malcolm X states “the most disrespected person in America is the black woman…the most neglected person in America is the black women” (1962). In Audre Lorde’s Essay, ‘The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism’, she focuses on the issues that include black women and the inaccurate categorization of immediately deemed hysterical when discussing their reality of oppression. In her essay, she explains the
Audre Lorde speaks on how anger has affected her throughout her life and how she has dealt with it in her speech “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”. Lorde is claiming that her anger, which she gets from being oppressed by not only men, but white women too, is her best use of change. She provides many examples of how white woman have completely ignored her struggles and views on racism, which causes her to become angry with them for their lack of awareness. Lorde urges these women to act on their feeling of anger as they are the best avenue to produce change. She doesn’t want these women to keep their anger in check and hide it, but instead harness it and use it as fuel for progression. Lorde concludes her speech by telling these
By expressing this with the African American society of women who are continuously torched by the demanding words of men, McLune appeals strongly to all American women’s intellect of equality and respect. Women should not have to be judged by men and expect to be treated as if they owe anyone something, let alone have to be mistreated and belittled, if that were to be the case then men should be treated the same, therefore McLune’s audience, should understand that that is not how you define a black woman in any terms.
Patriarchy’s Scapegoat: Black womanhood and femininity – A critique of racism, gender inequality, anti-blackness, and historical exploitation of black women.
African American women have long been stereotyped, discriminated against and generalized in this country. They have had to face both being black in America while also being a woman in America. African American women encountered and still do encounter double discrimination of both sex and race (Cuthbert, 117). Women like Elise Johnson McDougald, Marion Vera Cuthbert and Alice Dunbar-Nelson all tried to shed light on what it was like to be an African American woman living in the 20th century yet literature often portrayed them as emotional, hypersexual, unintelligent and of lesser worth. The literature highlighted that African American women have to serve both their employer and their husbands and families. They are not supposed to have an opinion or stand up for themselves, especially to a white man. ***Concluding sentence?
“Desperation of the times . . . that’s what kills them” (Potts 609). Desperation, defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary means, “strong feeling of sadness, fear, and loss of hope” (“Desperation” def.). In What’s Killing Poor White Women?, readers learn about the life and death of Crystal Wilson, a poor white woman from Arkansas. Crystal had many factors that exhibited the feelings associated with desperation, lack of education, living in poverty, and living in a desolate location.
With the many conversations about the African-American communities and their issues with gang violence, government assistance, and the lack of jobs in their communities it is clear to say that the American Dream or even a moderate lifestyle was not created for all African Americans and Minorities and since we found a way to be noticed, heard, and felt like they’re rightfully a part of something America wants to now label it “war or Drugs” and “gang Violence” thus creating Gang Injunctions in those predominantly of color communities. Now I am not stating that the violence is not present, innocent lives are not being taken, nor are drugs consuming our communities, but what I am saying is that they act as if there is no other approach that could help clean up the streets, provide piece and harmony among all communities, and solve issues for the betterment of the community. Instead they are removing them from their communities, threatening them from going to their neighborhood, and as a consequence they get jail time, an institution that already houses half if not more than half of our black men. The gang injunction initiative is set up to tear apart the minority communities through driving up the prices and making them move, especially if they have a family member who is under the injunction’s rules. Its ironic how they put them in such enclosed space, while they make suburban home for the economically fit causing them to commute and now they are systematically removing them
In Patricia Hill Collins’ “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images,” she illustrates four main stereotypes that Black women face. The first controlling image applied to African American women is “The Mammy.” The mammy is the faithful, obedient servant to the white family and the stereotype attempts to hide the fact that black women who work for white families are being exploited. By loving and caring for her white “children” more than her own, the mammy symbolizes the dominant group’s perceptions of the ideal black female relationship to elite white male power. The smiling mammy signals her agreement with the situation, seemingly accepting her subordination (Collins, 71). Next is the image of the Black matriarch (Collins, 73). According to the stereotype, they spend too much time away from home, are overly aggressive and unfeminine, and allegedly emasculate their lovers and husbands. This stereotype attempts to control conduct by punishing black women for assertiveness and hides the oppression by making it seem that black women are naturally this way (Collins, 74-75).
The idea of violence is instilled in everyone’s head in some way or another. From the time we are born we are equipped with the idea that we must react when we are upset. When someone affects us in a negative way, there is an idea in our minds that urges us to fight back or cause harm to that person. This idea of causing harm stays with us from childhood until we take our last breath. Since 2013, there have been 242 school shootings within America. Even worse, there have been over a thousand mass shootings in the country resulting in mass casualties. Most recently, one single man murdered fifty-eight people at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada and injured over 240 others. Although the motive may have been different between these shootings, one thing remains the same for all of them, the act of violence.
Nonetheless, BLM does receive a great number of criticisms. Some people point out that it wouldn 't last. The movement is blamed for its having no coherent structure and no powerful leadership that it will eventually fail. Opponents said that Black Lives Matter actually worsened race relations in America, pointing to the polls that show Americans opinions about race relations being worse in recent years, but BLM supporters asserted just because they have pointed out racism in America doesn 't mean the group was to blame. Republican candidate for President 2016 Chris Christie has turned up his criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement and support the police. He also accused the group of calling for the deaths of police officers. BLM has
Black women experience a lot of things in life differently from others, because of their intersectionality of being not only a woman, but also black. They are a double minority and they feel this double minority through many different aspects within their lives. The aspect that black women deal with differently, is domestic violence. Black women experience and deal with domestic violence differently than white women, and anyone who else experience domestic violence. Through this paper I would like to explain this difference that black women face when tackling domestic violence due to the “family secret”, but also how it effects children within the black community, how it can affect the entire community, and lastly why black women should let go of the “family secret” to not only better themselves, but to better the black community. They experience a different struggle than other victims call the “family secret”. The “family secret” is in general, keeping the secret of domestic violence within the family because it is a family issue. The “family secret has destroyed families and caused many deaths within the population of black women. Other than these problems of holding this so called “family secret”, I want to speak on the effects this has on the black community, such as, how black women who do not speak on their issues of domestic violence continue a cycle of violence within young black girls. Black women need to speak on their issues of domestic violence, instead of
Expressing that anger boosts confidence; it tells people that one has resolve, determination, and strength to get what they want. It is said that people displaying anger are likely to be ‘more competent, and more credible.’
Many don’t realize this, but our life is forever indebted in danger. Our life, as in, minorities. This isn’t a dream nor is it long overdue. It has been time and time again when African Americans are placed on the backburner as we watch the members of our communities and societies whom have less melanin than us take what they want believe is rightfully theirs. No one has ever took the time to seek what we deserve for all the horrible endangerment we’ve been put through for years and years to come. I believe that African Americans whom stand together in regards to the Black Lives Matter protest are fighting because we know of the injustice we have had to endure that dates back to so long ago that we just can’t stand on the sidelines
This also leads to domestic violence. Also referred to as intimate partner violence is something that is no spoken about among most African Americans. It can be seen as a secret or an embarrassment. It is important to note that African American women are more likely to be in a domestic situation. This also has to do with African American men feeling like they are not becoming the breadwinner in the family due to discrimination. African American men in poverty are more likely to become abusers. According to Hattery and Smith, the study that was conducted showed most of the men became an abuser started because of the wife or girlfriend was nagging and de-masculinizing them. They also stated that they felt comfortable with their earning until
Black voices around the country were being heard as they protested for their lives. It almost seemed like déjà vu for the black community. However, this time, unlike in the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s, the Black Lives Matter movement had a powerful tool in their pocket: social media. The creation of the hashtag “Black Lives Matter” galvanized the movement throughout the nation, as posts from people on both sides of the spectrum spoke out on their thoughts over the current police violence against African Americans. Although the hashtag originally began on Facebook, the Black Lives Matter movement has been able to reach a wide range audience through Twitter.
“The double jeopardy of being black and female in a racist and sexist society may well make one less afraid of the sanctions against success. A non-subservient black woman is by definition a transgressive - she is the ultimate outsider.” This quote was written by Mrs. Mamphela Ramphele, a South African politician, who identifies the pain and troubles of Black women. Black women for centuries have been treated unfairly and belittled by their race and sex. Black women are the outsiders of America. They are a minority inside a minority. Black women are mistreated by individuals of society in social media and the workplace.