Or was the accusation levelled at Michelle Obama in a recent book an archaic stereotype that needs to be turned on its head? ITN news reader Charlene White, Mercury Award winner Speech Debelle and entrepreneur Yolande Letshou share their thoughts. As told to Mary Bello.
Charlene White: “It’s about boxing clever and channelling anger intellectually.”
The stereotype is one that black women face on a daily basis, but it is definitely more prevalent in the USA. Generally people always want to focus on ‘emotional negatives’ when it comes to women – irrespective of colour. Take parliament for example; whenever women make really strong comments in Prime Minister’s Questions, the attitude is, “Oh here we go, some woman banging on again.” With us ladies, when we articulate ourselves it’s less about anger and more about passion. As black women I think we generally try and keep our anger levels low so that we aren’t labelled negatively. That’s not to say that we don’t have things to be angry about within British society! From the way in which there aren’t many positive black female images on our TV screens to the cosmetics available – there is more than one shade of black woman! We reach an age where you can’t let everything frustrate you, instead it’s more about rolling your eyes. Things will change eventually! I was raised to express how I felt if something upset me and not hold back, but in a smart fashion. In the job I do I’m not one to rant and rave in order to disagree – I use intellectual passion.
Speech Debelle: “It’s not anger that we exude, we are just passionate!”
Some people do not understand the difference between passion and anger – they are very different things. That boils down to people being from different cultures. Within some cultures people speak loudly or with more vigour than others. Take New Yorkers for example – they are very confident and forthright, whereas people from Britain are a lot more timid and shy. The person who wrote that comment about Michelle Obama clearly hasn’t spent enough time around African Americans. Yes, black women are typically quite passionate when they have a strong belief in a subject and I think it’s so disrespectful to dismiss passion as anger. Michelle Obama is such an intelligent woman who wrote amazing dissertations whilst at university about black culture and history. It’s very insulting that these comments were directed towards her. To me it is a form of belittling her achievements. We, as black women, have a responsibility to ourselves to not allow situations or history to determine what we become. You only become angry if you are frustrated with your situation. Instead of emoting anger, the solution is to try and better ourselves – just like Michelle.
Yolande Letshou: “Society wants us to be angry but it’s time to just say no!”
I feel that it is annoying we are tagged as angry. We have so many stereotypes thrown at us; ‘Black women are angry,’ ‘Black women are aggressive,’ ‘Black women are always single,’ or ‘Black women are not friendly.’ So, to have such a negative public label put on Michelle Obama, who is pretty much an icon and a great role model for many black women – both young and old – is diabolical. The Obamas have proven to the world that black people can achieve anything if we put our minds to it. They show us that there is no limit to the success, influence and power that we can have. So now this small-minded writer has attempted to pull down what the Obamas have built up. Why was that necessary? Of course there are things that give black people the right to be angry at times. We are still at a disadvantage in the workplace, the education system, the justice system. Within the black community I wouldn’t say that we encourage anger and it’s a stereotype that I shy away from. Despite the adversities and stark racism that we still experience in the 21st century, the solution is to rise above it with intelligence and grace – just as Michelle did when she denied that she is an ‘angry black woman’ following the new book’s allegations.
