AWKWARD BLACK GIRL

I just discovered this web-based series and am already in love with it! We need more shows like this on TV to break down the stereotypes. As a black girl with slightly different and what some may define as quirky tendencies, I have largely been misunderstood by ignorant people who fail to understand that people are far more complex than stereotyped images show for. This just reminded me that I am not alone.

Darkie Conceptions within the Western Mind

"I am talking about a book which parades in the most vulgar fashion prejudices and insults from which a section of mankind has suffered untold agonies and atrocities in the past and continues to do so in many ways and many places today. I am talking about a story in which the very humanity of black people is called in question."

Chinua Achebe on 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad

A very subtle form of this is in stereotyping. I want to share this experience because not only has it scraped against my soul in an annoying way, it has illuminated a fact to me. One particular individual has been open enough to voice his percption of me on more occasions than even I can bear. But perhaps these have been good in showing me what thoughts could be lurking in people that think white and think European.

The black female sterotype returns to haunt me in the form of "you look angry", "OMG, you looked so pissed in that picture", "are you mad?", "why are you angry?"

Now I ask, has there ever been any offense in not smiling. Should I smile for every waking moment I expel air. For those who are not black and female and are allowed to contemplate serious things every now and then, I envy you. That you are not bombarded with a reminder of how angry the world thinks you are. Just because, you know, you are a black woman and that's what is expected right.

These questions along with "What's wrong?" when it's clear that nothing could be wrong irritate me on several levels. For me it does not imply concern, though the speaker may try to bring this across. Rather it is a sinister way of elevating themselves above you. Thinking that you are "sad" or "angry" "all the time" (real quotes from the same dude) reveals a firm belief in these status quo ideas that society has constructed. So deep, they defy the logic of what is in front of you. I could smile all day but it wouldn't change the thing deeply embedded in your mind and that things spells "angry black woman". Wonder where you heard that one.

Also, about thinking people of colour look the same. We don't fuckers, we don't.

Ngozi Adichie

I read The Thing Around Your Neck
last month. I found it beautiful. This woman is brilliant. So talented. Really don't know what else to say that could suffice to express the levels of admiration I have for her. She's going to go far. I can see it already. This is only the beginning.

For some reason, I only got the chance to see this now. But wow, she expressed this issue so concisely. "The Danger of the Single Story" is essentially that it inhibits us from seeing more of how things are. More of who people are. It limits us. She summarised this wonderfully in her closing sentence. 

"When we reject the single story, when we realise that there is never any single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise."

There is so much truth in just about everything she spoke of. She makes me so proud to be an African today.

A New Archetype: Nigerian Terrorist

In no way are terrorist activities justifiable. They are heinous, futile acts motivated by abstract concepts. But the fact that the 23 year old man who attempted to detonate some kind of bomb on a flight to Detroit is Nigerian does nothing to quell the international fears the world seems to retain in their minds when it comes to this nation. People find further reason to entrench negative ideas about Nigerians through incidents such as these. No matter how isolated and rare, there is now reason, proper reason at that to condemn them negatively.

That's a problem. In general, people are barely capable of individualising behaviours of certain types of people. They'll take what one person from that group has done and use it as a representation of the group as a whole. And it's only certain types of people. Usually the groups of which most are ignorant about.

Feministing explained this fact better than I have here. Props. Kudos.

 
I am certainly not trained or practiced in the business of psychology but I think that some counselling would have prevented Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab's actions. It sounds to me that he was just a young man struggling to find an identity and make peace with himself. We all go through it at some point. Who am I? Where do I go from here? etc etc General confusion that occurs when self-doubt and insecurity creep in. It helps to talk to someone about the internal crisis but he seemed to have alienated himself so much that he was far beyond any form of counsel. Being so closed up and faraway, who can help?

 "I have no one to speak too [sic],
 No one to consult, no one to support me and I feel depressed and lonely. I do not know what to do. And then I think this loneliness leads me to other problems."

With all that privilege and wealth, he still could not find some morsel of serenity within himself. Money sure can't buy you everything. Here's more proof of that. Why is it that despite his father's expressed suspicion's of the young man, why did he not take any serious measures to prevent his son from engaging in an act that would destroy his future. Why instead choose to contact authorities, report your own blood and leave him to his own vices. As if setting up a mouse-trap and standing close by to observe the subsequent and expected result. I smell a rat. This just doesn't sound like wholesome and loving parental behaviour to me. Sounds more along the lines of..."I have a problem child, he embarrasses me. I must find a way to get him out of sight and out of mind." Of course, this is just a speculation but inquiry, as we all know, is important. Never taking anything at face value. "People are not what they seem" in many cases.

Growing Up Girl, Being Black

When I read essays such as this one, I am reminded of how important it is to view the world through an objective and critical lens. Critique is necessary to avoid internalising fallacies and driving myself into a ditch. Objectivity is required to avoid getting angry.


Yet it makes tons of sense when spoken in light of perplexing encounters that leave you wondering whether or not some people are capable of seeing a fellow human being when looking toward you. Archetypes just annoy the hell out of me. Literally. When the machinations of this collectively racist and sexist consciousness reaches my understanding. My fires cool. Guess I just stop taking it to heart.

Pre-viewing Review Of "Precious"

A certain journalist working for the New York Press has come to plenty of people's attention by offering an utterly scathing and critical review about "Precious". Courtesy of the blogs I follow (to the right) that made mention of this review, I got a chance to read what he had to say here: www.nypress.com/article-20554-pride-precious.html

I have not seen the movie. It's not been released in my region but I am interested of course as I have been for several months now. So there is no stance assumable on my part but I will say that it's box office performance so far is severely impressive. This fact alone may be used by sceptics as a way to evince the Western fascination with black suffering. That a movie about African Americans is only capable of doing this well when it involves the harsh realities of life for those slugging through poverty, physical and sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and illiteracy as the lead character Precious does. I've pointed this out before. It is banal for whites to play leads in most of the movies that get this much attention. But very rarely do we see a woman of colour get the opportunity and if she does then it is in the most negative light possible. I can see how some may take this strand and use it as a way to denomize the movie. That it only seeks to galvanise the popular view of the black woman as the abused, misused person who needs saving (usually from those with lighter skin as it portrayed in "Precious") from a life destined for doom because of these pathological wounds.

I don't want to dwell to hard on this notion. We know movies perform a tremendous deal of damage in the archetypal images they create. So I will say this instead. As an antithesis to White's criticism of Oprah and Perry. Knowing what I know of the horrendous abuse that there two incredible individuals have encountered, I believe their support for this film emanated from a sincere place within themselves that believes stories such as these need to be told. We need to be reminded through film that the world is rife with stories of this nature and to carry on ignoring them is insensitive and somewhat inhumane. That wehave a movie that explores so deeply the psyche of a woman of colour and affords her a voice so raw, truthful and in-your-face means despite the negative aspects of her life that we can see a level of humanity to a people whose dignity and humanness are often ignored by mainstream society. This is not a representation of African American life. Whoever resorts to that thinking simply lacks rationale. But perhaps there are people who are that ignorant. I can't rule that out.

In all honesty, I am always pleased to hear the suppressed voices in society find a platform. No matter how painful there stories may be and how difficult they are to digest, they need to be told and we need to hear them.