Open Accessso Angry, so Black
Author(s) -
Kwene Appah
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
new sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2563-3694
pISSN - 2563-3686
DOI - 10.25071/2563-3694.38
Subject(s) - oppression , feeling , black women , compensation (psychology) , perspective (graphical) , sociology , gender studies , psychology , aesthetics , social psychology , art , political science , law , visual arts , politics
The constant fear that exists within me, in both academic and non-academic environments, to avoid being the ‘angry black woman’ has left me paralyzed and feeling invisible. Academia, even academia that is centered on human betterment, is whitewashed. It is disheartening learning about the oppression of the marginalized from a perspective that can only empathize. It is from this place that I anchor the following poem. What the poem lacks in length it makes up for in raw emotion. The burden of being Black and femme for the entirety of one’s life is a heavy cross to bear. Black women are continuously failed inside and outside of the Black community. Black women are the foot soldiers, the healers, the tacticians, the martyrs, and yet, their compensation is abuse. In this year of 2020, a devastating decade that has still not given us any peace, I fully accept being the angry Black woman. Unequivocally, unapologetically.