myHIN Blog

October 01, 2014

Plight of the BLACK WOMAN

Calling all angry BLACK women! It is now our time to speak up and rejoice in our rage. (That was definitely not serious by the way!) I’m sure by now that most of you have heard about the New York Times article by Alessandra Stanley. Stanley claims to have used intense language as literary devices to pay homage to “angry black woman”, Shonda Rhimes, a renowned African-American screenwriter, director, and producer.

Honestly, I think it’s crazy that the article was even published due to the cultural insensitivity of the editors. This must have been a publicity stunt for the NY Times because the backlash has been incredible. So many actors, actresses, and television personalities have taken to twitter to voice their opinions on the disrespect Rhimes received.

As a woman of color attending a PWI, Predominantly White Institution, I have often found myself trying my hardest not to fulfill all the horrible stereotypes that are associated with what I look like. Being one of the 2 African-American females of the 199 in the PhD Program has bothered me so much that I have gone to extra lengths to blend. For example, I started wearing glasses to look smarter and blend with everyone else in my lab who wore glasses. I felt like I had to make myself look smarter because I looked different from everyone else. I wanted to look like I was intelligent because I feared that they thought I was not. Honestly, sometimes I feel like the more that I advance in my education, the more I feel like I have to diminish the things that make me unique from my counterparts.

It’s hard enough with the pressures I put on myself; having the pressures of the media reinforcing the stereotypes is definitely overbearing. Television shows such as “Love and Hip Hop” and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” showcase African-American women in dramatic situations that acknowledged the ‘angry black woman’ stereotype. However, watching shows like “Scandal” encourage me to embrace my authority as a woman of power in today’s culture. I finally have a modern show on TV with a strong African-American woman doing amazing things. The last show I watched liked that was “The Cosby’s”. Clair Huxtable taught me that women of color can actually have careers, have a family, and still be on top of it all. It’s so important to have those depictions of African-American women on television, and I’m glad they are there. The backhanded compliments of Alessandra Stanley were definitely unnecessary, uncalled for, and setback the advancement of women of color in the media. I can’t wait for the highly anticipated show “How to Get Away With Murder” so I can have another example of woman doing AMAZING things.

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http://zenpencils.com/comic/161-shonda-rhimes-a-screenwriters-advice/