Calling us angry? Michelle Obama and the 'angry black woman' label

[seabeyond]

Pamela Merritt: 'If you aren't angry, the odds are you are one of the people pissing me off'
Michelle Obama denied that she is an angry black woman, following a new book's allegations of infighting with her husband's staff. I appreciate that the first lady was responding to the stereotyping many black women face, that paints us as unhinged and angry without justification. But I wish she had taken this opportunity to educate the masses on the fact that black women have the right to be angry. I started my blog, AngryBlackBitch, to challenge the stereotype that black women are irrational in our anger. My inspiration was being raised to believe that one of the worst labels I could earn was that of an angry black bitch. I was taught that "anger", when channelled through a black woman, was unacceptable. My family made it clear that black women who expressed anger were making trouble for themselves and the punishment for black women who expressed it was severe – bad school grades at school, future unemployment, and a general lack of opportunity and happiness. They spoke from experience – having grown up in the segregated south where getting angry over discrimination was often met with violence and additional discrimination.

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Hannah Pool: 'It's a handy way to put a black woman down'
I'm not so much an angry black woman as a livid one. I live in a state of perpetual rage, only ever one news story away from flying off the handle. I start most mornings shouting "racists" at the radio, and end many of my days shouting "sexists" at the TV. When I'm not bawling at inanimate objects, I'm applying cocoa butter to my skin, which is incredibly dry, or trying to manage my "unruly" hair. If I'm not the wrong gender for a position of power, I'm the wrong colour: invariably my face doesn't fit for both reasons.

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Bonnie Greer: 'Chicago Southsiders are blunt, honest and pull no punches
As a Chicago Southsider born and raised, I know where Michelle Obama is coming from. Southsiders are blunt, honest and pull no punches. We can't afford to, because life is too tough. To step back and take it goes against our very grain – and as the mother of two black girls, there is no way that Michelle is not going to go on the record about her purported activities in the White House. If indeed she was "F-bombed" by former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, it would have been water off a duck's back. And that book doesn't really bother her, either.

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Bim Adewunmi: 'The fear of being labelled an ABW makes you bite your tongue all the time'
Many things make me angry: queue-jumping at train stations, a colleague saying something wrongheaded about sexism and misogyny, being left on hold by the tax office for half an hour, someone repeatedly getting my name wrong … People get justifiably angry about all of these things every day. But if I articulate my anger in any of these situations, it's all too easy for my reaction to be categorised as yet another display from the "angry black woman".

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Latoya Peterson: 'Channel all this righteous anger into action'
I'm loth to reclaim stereotypes – which, after all, are just fictions applied to people on the thinnest of pretexts by others. There's nothing to like. But I think anger gets a bad rap these days. Why shouldn't we be angry when poverty is growing – and not just in the United States, but around the world? Occupy Nigeria was kicked off when the president removed a fuel subsidy that doubled and tripled the price of fuel overnight. While all across the world, from Greece to Bahrain, to Iran, to Egypt, to the USA, the youth have taken to the streets.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/12/michelle-obama-angry-black-woman
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i have been thinking about that poll redqueen put up. http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002631791 . and the reasoning of women. there was the whole angle of a few men that insisted, demanded thru ridicule, insult and dismissiveness that women not have issue. but, i found the womens comments more interesting. i, of all people, dont have confident issue. so, because i recognize as a whole the effect of "girl" and choose to discuss and think how this effects society really has little issue about my self esteem or confidence or ability, as a woman or two accused. now, if i bowed out to the pressure of insult, then that might have something to do with my self esteem level. but, i found it interesting those that felt it was such a little issue. angry black woman is not exactly the same as "girl" but it is the same as giving women girl, too. i dont think we can so easily dismiss these women. oh, i know, there will be some.

not me.