Angry Black Women

Quotes from Claudia Rankine's Citizen

“A friend tells you he has seen a photograph of you on the Internet and he wants to know why you look so angry. You and the photographer chose the photograph he refers to because you both decided it looked the most relaxed. Do you look angry?... Obviously this unsmiling image of you makes him uncomfortable, and he needs you to account for that.”

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“For Serena, the daily diminishment is a low flame, a constant drip. Every look, every comment, every bad call blossoms out of history, through her, onto you. To understand is to see Serena as hemmed in as any other black woman thrown against our American background.” 

Our society has the tendency to label African American women “angry black women” as soon as we are no longer able to keep quiet despite the constant scrutiny and judgement we face in our day to day lives. Some people group all African American women as always being upset: waiting to yell and hit someone or resorting to violence over small inconveniences. In my own experience, people have made comments about me like “she looks like she’s about to fight you” just because of my facial expression or because I am disagreeing with someone. I know my character, and I know that I wouldn’t cause harm to anyone over something small but it seems like other people envision me to be that way because of my race and gender. 

This stereotype also ties into Serena. She was labeled an angry black woman by the press because of her response to a referee who she believed was making unfair calls. Other races and genders are able to express their distress about certain events, but when Black women do, we are seen as extremely violent; and others think we need to calm down and suppress our emotions. 

This “angry black woman” stereotype is unfair. Our anger and emotions are not unwarranted and we should have the freedom to react to the issues that we believe hinder on our well being.