This image describes your beauty to me:
The image is of the Goddess Yemaya...
Out of the million of writings on African American Women and images of beauty, I will be writing from a mental health perspective. Many of my younger sistahs out there, many of them single and very smart, are frustrated when the men who are the the object of their affection tell them that they prefer women from another ethnic group because Black women are unattractive to them. Aside from that hurting us at our core and seeing how much misogyny is in our music, how does this affect the behavioral psychology on Black Women in the United States?
It decimates us...
From campaigns bashing women who have babies out of wedlock to inability to sell products unless a caricature is implemented like that of Oprah in mainstream media:
It goes to show us that within a hundred of years, the degenerate images of what a Black Woman is has evolved rapidly... What do we as educated women do to protect the self-esteems to become mentally health of our young girls coming up entrenched in this kind of negative reinforced stereotypes?
NOTHING!
The social determinants of health said that health is not obtained due to poverty and injustice. Beyond the fact that these images are hurtful when many Black Women do not fit these stereotypes, the fact that it eats our minds psychologically and our souls spiritually is what makes this hurts mentally.
Then this statement ran across my desk:
The Sapphire Caricature portrays Black women as rude, loud, malicious, stubborn, and overbearing.1 This is the Angry Black Woman (ABW) popularized in the cinema and on television. She is tart-tongued and emasculating, one hand on a hip the other pointing and jabbing (or arms akimbo), violently and rhythmically rocking her head, mocking African American men for offenses ranging from being unemployed to sexually pursuing White women. She is a shrill nagger with irrational states of anger and indignation -- prone to being mean-spirited and abusive. Although African American men are her primary targets, she has venom for anyone who insults or disrespects her. The Sapphire's desire to dominate and her hyper-sensitivity to injustices means that she is a perpetual complainer, but she does not criticize to improve things; rather, she criticizes because she is unendingly bitter and wishes that unhappiness on others. The Sapphire Caricature is a harsh portrayal of African American women, but it is more than that; it is a social control mechanism that is employed to punish Black women who violate the societal norms that encourage Black women to be passive, servile, non-threatening, and unseen.
This article goes into detail about the subjugation of Black Women. The fact is we are violate societal norms, it is hard to be passive when we see and experience injustice and racism, we will not go back to servitude and we threaten just because we are there. And we cannot hide because we are present...
This seems to happen to more highly educated African American women. It is because we have all this education, experience in the injustice and racism that we want to save those younger than us so that they do not suffer our fates. For the next little Black girl...Give back to those...Reach those and lift as we rise...
But who is bolstering those up when our souls are depleted?
NO ONE!
The back story first: While I hold a doctorate in molecular genetics and have done research in cardiovascular biology with published papers, my interest in mental health and wellness is borne from finding ways to deal with my own ailments. I write this blog when I need healing outside of what my therapy regimen provides.
Another way I seek therapy is through social media and in particular roleplaying by writing stories and performing them on social media outlets, such as Twitter. I found this thrilling and exciting for me. It is what "floats my boat" in life. But the themes I examine are that form a mental health nature or injustice. I ought to have know that racism is pervasive and worse on social media due to the perceived anonymity by people who do not know how to interact with diverse people. Moreover, the young people do not know their history, so one must be patient in teaching them that reality by slowly advancing their story with multiple inputs.
Kids do and say anything and when I say kids, I mean those under 25 years old. My favorite roleplaying genre is Science Fiction. My favorite writers is Octavia Butler. As a scientist who is now a business woman, I often wonder who is putting the science in the fiction? Like that of Aldous Huxley and Ray Bradbury? With there being a lag in science education overall and lack of women in science in general, what would be the numbers of African American number in science courses today, then those who choose to write about it in a fictional format?
Then posit that with multiple media inputs, such as novels, comics, graphic novels, animation, movies along with social media where the bulk of young people get 90% of their historical information? What would be the image pervasive about African American Women?
Then I found the answer of this "bamboozled fantasy " in the most likely of places as to why this is happening to us Sistahs out there. An answer in pornography (NSFW NSFW NSFW):
This image sends a message to our young African American women that the ONLY way to any man's heart is be ignorant, subdued and sexually violated...Then like that sexual violation as an appreciation of kindness...
What is worse is many African American womens' ancestors--the Black Women to come before us--were actively sexually violated in this manner. Including my own ancestors...
Many Black women have been sexually abused by either molestation or rape, either in a relationship or not. Add the layer of education with the knowledge of the injustice and racism, involved and have men, some Black, actively berate our existence publicly on social media in blogs or elsewhere through the caricaturization of our images we condone as beautiful...
That we cannot sell ideas unless we placate the masses who buy our products. That we are hypersexualized. That we are only worthy for an exotic sexual adventure...
Well...
What does that do to a Black Woman's mental health state and self-esteem?
We commit suicide...
That is what it does...
No one will protect us. We protect ourselves, by ourselves for ourselves. No one comes to the sanctity of Black Womanhood other than Black Women. And even then, we are attacked by our own...
What can we do since we cannot change this ugliness? Survive? Are we?
NO...And yes...
We can be oblivious and hope that we do not die of breast cancer in an early age because this kind of oppression become suppressed physical ailments.
Or we can fight, but be dehumanized to an element like the Sapphire Caricature...Shunned and shamed as unladylike by even those in our community. Our words unheard. Our thoughts suppressed. Our humanity ignored.
We can also go crazy... Probably where I am as I write this... And that list is in my blog posts.
Lastly we can evolve...
How?
I really do not know, anymore in this day of age of Social Media? But life is ever-changing and everlasting... We can become that which we seek as beautiful. Because these caricatures are a recent historical development. Human history is possibly 200,000 years old. Recorded history is possibly 5000-8000 years old. And modern human beings are thought to derived from Africa. And if African natives were the cradle of civilization, then at some point we LOVED Black women and found them beautiful... They are our mothers, our sisters, our aunts and our grandmothers. They brought life forth into us and continued life even in the midst of all pain... Life goes on... Everlasting to everlasting...
From Beloved by Toni Morrison:
Baby Suggs: And the beat, beat, of your heart... Love it. More than the lungs that need yet to breathe free air. More than the womb, which holds life. More than the private parts that give life. Love your heart. This... this is the prize. Amen. This the prize... Amen!
Baby Suggs: Over yonder, they do not love your flesh. Oh, my people... they do not love your hands. Those, they only use, tie, bind, chop off and leave empty! Love your hands! Raise them up, and kiss them.
Go to 7:27 minutes to understand...
The struggle we fight for is for principalities...But remember LOVE is what carries to triumph over hate and fear. Because really, anyone who subjects a woman based on her beauty is insecure his/herself and fears you.
Remember YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!
