Black women have the range. Range in their ideas. In their thinking. In their consumption. In their navigation and their drive. They are the g.o.a.t.s of this world. In the United States, at least 17% of Black women start or run their businesses compared to white women at 10% and white men at 15%. We’ve normalized defining Black women as the wonder women of this world. The one who can handle everything and do no wrong because she’s trained to think highly of herself. We see it in the movies, sitcoms, books, and comic books and hear it in the music. But with the images of the Black woman warrior, I question the agenda that illustrates her as a saviour to all but herself. How do black women rise from the bottom of the totem pole in a world that expects them to always climb alone? This agenda is calculated. And although I love to see us, Black women, in power positions as the super-heroines, or the boss, I’m not blinded by the trickery of how society will put Black women in the forefront of a movement that is willingly putting us in danger.
Unclothing this colonial depiction of Black women - specifically dark-skinned black women is a way to reject patriarchal expectations they have on us. We are allowed to choose which fights we want to fight or reject. We are entitled to love power and decide how it looks. And we’re allowed to say no when the appreciation and respect are not reciprocated.
For decades, Black women have been stereotyped as mammies, matriarchs, welfare recipients to justify this oppression. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins highlights a generalized ideology of domination which expresses that “stereotypical images of Black womanhood take on special meaning. Because the authority to define societal values is a major instrument of power, elite groups, in exercising power, manipulate ideas about Black womanhood. They do so by exploiting already existing symbols or creating new ones.” According to Hazel Carby, these stereotypes function as a disguise. An unrealistic and unjust way of how to view Black women. It also capitalizes on why Black women are rejecting the strong black woman title. Because it's deeper than the physical attributes of the body but the power of the mind.
It's a lot to be intelligent while carrying the burden of all black lives. To be the face of a movement that rarely protects you because you are constantly still the butt of jokes. Despite the elegance, grace, and confidence that we have to show, there are still a lot of imperfections and not a lot of spaces that guarantee those vulnerabilities to be free. There are still decisions created without our permission. On May 11, Colin Kaepernick released an image of a book cover on his Instagram page from his publishing company, Kaepernick Publishing titled the Abolition For the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing and Prison. The cover is of a young Black woman at a protest. His Instagram post stirred a lot of backlashes where a lot of the comments were of Black women urging him to change the cover. Three months later and the cover is still the same. Hiding behind Black women and allowing us to be the targets of hate and danger is a conservative approach. It sets us up to continuously do work that benefits the freedom rider. Youtuber Paris Milan created a petition on Change.org to change the cover. At least 40,646 people have signed it. The goal is exactly 50,000 signatures. Milan writes:
“The art cover created by artist and Ex-Black Panther Emory Douglas displays a Dark Skinned Black Woman promoting "Abolish the Police and Close the Prisons."This art is harmful to the image of particularly Dark Skinned Black Women who are often promoted in the media as loud, undesired, aggressive, masculine, combative, and promotes the false agenda that Dark Skinned Black Women is an oppositional force to law enforcement. This will contribute to more instances of us being the recipients of rampant wounding misogynoir. We are already a marginalized, unprotected, and ignored group who have the highest rates of intraracial-related domestic violence, and this art cover going mainstream will further contribute to our mistreatment in society. Our hair is not a revolutionary act. Our skin is not a political statement. And our fuller features are not a think piece. Darker Skinned Black Women deserve to be represented in positive lights that highlight our womanhood, femininity, and confidence. Please stop using the most overworked, underserved recipients of misogynoir and colorism to be the face of your movements at the expense of our image and safety. Thank you.”
The super-heroine and the masculine identity
For the women who love power, I love it too. But only if I get to decide what that power looks like. The portrayal of Black super-heroines in pop culture is coded. It employs codes that render images of Black women's expectations because some of us have allowed it. We have no problems with being headstrong; it just becomes a problem when we aren’t given a choice to express our femininity that is so easily accustomed to white women. Patricia Hill Collins makes the point that “because Black women so routinely compete with men and are successful at it, are seen as less feminine, and highly educated Black women are deemed to be too assertive.”
In 2019, after actress Lashana Lynch confirmed that she would be playing 007 in the new James Bond film, No time to die, which premieres later this year on October 8, the hate was so vile against her that Lynch deleted all her social media accounts and returned after the bullying died down.
Lynch plays Bond’s secret agent number 007; after he retires. Bond is still Bond. He's just been replaced as 007 by Lynch's character. From the New York Post, writer Rob
Bailey-Millado says, “This is a Bond for the modern era who will appeal to a younger generation...Bond is just having to learn to deal with the world of #metoo.”
Including the Me Two Movement rhetoric in the explanation of the film is unnecessary. It has a way of advocating gender wars, and this movement is about listening to survivors and community building for the safety of all.
The argument that stands still is the masculinity of Black women. The strategy is, if women want to be viewed as equals, they'll be characterized as strong independent women who will refuse help from anyone because she's used to climbing that totem pole alone. And it's not a complete lie because women do it every day. That's why we can play these roles. Being chosen as the warrior, and used as the face of this feminist agenda, is causing more harm to our image than good. We don't want to be feared. It makes us targets. When we cry out: 'protect black women,' this is what we mean: Protect our image that opts to taint any image we create for ourselves. Protect us when we are outspoken and told that we are too aggressive. Protect us in the battle of colourism, homophobia, body shaming etc. And hear us when we say no.
But there are still some black women who can't see the media's manipulative tactics on us. They can read books, but not the room. And I finally read the room. Black women have the right to be selfish because it's pretty selfish for them to make us the carrier of everybody's problems. The white woman's image will never be tainted as they'll do to ours. We can never be the damsel in distress, and it's rare to be the leading lady on a regular superhero show. Candice Patton, who plays Iris West in the Flash, is one of the only ones. But the racism that she's experienced on and off-screen for the seven years that she's powered through that character was probably mentally exhausting. Because there are so few of us in those roles, we start to think about who will watch these shows and finally see ourselves on screen. And that's why it matters which characters we sign up to be. There's always going to be a fight, whether we like it or not.
"It's just something we unfortunately as black women learn how to do. We just put on the cape and keep going." - Candice Patton.
I’m not every woman. Despite what Whitney Houston sang.
There are unsafe representations among us. It's robbing our innocence. Because to be everything without a choice is to remain objectified. Writer Trudier Harris stated that “the African American woman has had to admit that while nobody knew the troubles she saw, everybody, his brother and his dog, felt qualified to explain her, even to herself." In that case, others get to exploit, regulate the entirety of our being, and it's not okay. It's that simple. But to the woman who hides behind her emotions because you're always expected to know and do better when you can't afford not to be the best while others can repeatedly fail and be saved, you are not alone, and in my book, you are still a super-heroine. You're written everywhere. You are the Olivia Popes, the Michaela Pratts, the Anneliese Keatons or the Queen Sonos of this world. Women are allowed to love power, but we don't have to do it all to claim that power. To be everything is impossible. It tells us, black women, that our looks don't give us access to be vulnerable and define our femininity. I know for a fact that I'm not every woman. It's not all in me. But if I want to be, I can still clock out, remove the cape and just be.
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