Angry black woman

rdf:langString Angry black woman

rdf:langString The angry black woman stereotype is a racial trope in American society and media that portrays Black American women as inherently ill-mannered and ill-tempered. Related concepts are the "Sapphire" or "Jezebel". Within stereotypes of groups within the United States, the angry black woman stereotype is less studied by researchers than the mammy and jezebel archetypes. Carolyn West categorizes the Angry Black Woman (ABW) as a variation on the Sapphire stereotype or, colloquially, "Sistas with Attitude". She defines the pervasive Sapphire/ABW image as "a template for portraying almost all Black women" and as serving several purposes. West paraphrases Melissa V. Harris-Perry who contends, "...because [Angry Black Women's] passion and righteous indignation is often misread as irrational anger, this image can be used to silence and shame Black women who dare to challenge social inequalities, complain about their circumstances, or demand fair treatment". This stereotype serves as a social mechanism intended to punish Black women who are not "passive" and "subservient", as this threatens the control the dominant culture must uphold in order to maintain their social status in society. This ultimately leads to a form of double bind, which occurs when an individual is met with two conflicting demands or actions with no clear resolution to the situation, usually resulting in a lose-lose situation for the individual. For black women, this double bind phenomenon can be seen in many everyday scenarios. For example, if a Black women is met with a workplace issue that involve racial or gender based discrimination, the outcome is not likely to favor the Black women. Noting, whether the woman chooses to speak up or be complicit to the discrimination, her character will be judged. Author and Professor of Law at Columbia University and at the University of California, Los Angeles Kimberlé Crenshaw defined and pioneered the analysis of the term "intersectionality" which describes this dual conflict experienced by black women specifically. In her Ted Talk, Crenshaw explains that black people experience a unique discrimination from white people, and women experience a unique discrimination from men. Black women, consequently, experience a unique form of discrimination from black men and white women and cannot only be judged based on the singularities of race or gender.