Can a sistah breath? Why is the media and cinema so obsessed with the plight of the black female.

 

It seems like every time I turn around I read or hear something negative about African American women. First it was that terrible article in Psychology Today that some researcher wrote about black women being the most unattractive out of all women on earth. Then the documentary called Dark Girls about the troubles of dark skinned sisters in America. The preview shows a few dark skinned black women painfully sharing their stories about being a darker shade. The women are crying…it is hard to watch. Thanks to Tyler Perry and the creators of Precious I need to take a box of tissue to the movie theatre and prepare to cry from stories about black women who have been hurt, beaten, and abused. I mean I felt like all the women at the end of Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls should have jumped off the roof it was so depressing. Then there is the growing Aids rate and STD in African American Women. When did being a black woman get to be so troubling.

Over the last few years we have had some big triumphs. The president is married to an intelligent black woman. Disney gave us not only a black princess but a dark skinned princess at that. Yes she was a frog for 75% of the movie and married a Brazilian prince instead of an African prince, but you have to start somewhere..right? Also Queen Oprah created her own network and gracefully retired. Things are looking up right?

At the top of this week on WVEE Jill Scott gave a wonderful interview in which she talked about several things, one being her ideal man. She positively listed all of her wants in a man. Then the tables turned when Frank Ski read a response from one of his listeners. The listener stated all the things he didn’t want in an ATL woman. One major factor he talked about was that ATL women need hobbies or at least a good personality. I think he made a valid point, but the manner he did it in felt like an attack yet again on Black women and our problems. The listener was tired of meeting women who were always on the phone and couldn’t carry a decent conversation. Some of the words he used were ghetto, back fat having, stinking, cell phone talking, no-personality having baby mamas. Some of things he said were funny, but at the same time I was angered because it was so negative. I am so over the media, movies, psychologist, radio personalities, and actors telling black women why we can’t get a man, aren’t married, or how we need to fix ourselves. I am also tired of the black woman being treated like a commodity in rap videos or in advertisements like the controversial picture used in this blog.  

Honestly I don’t want to cry anymore.I want to celebrate!  I think it is time to heal from the hateful acts that were committed to us in the past and start finding ways to focus on the positive things black women are doing. Now that we know all of our problems how can we start taking some ownership on issues, healing, and fixing our problems. `Lets celebrate!

  

~Chi