And I just think, you know, the biggest superheroes we've ever have have been black women who have looked at a set of conditions that are designed for them to fail and designed to kill them and said, we're going to live anyway. And she was saying it was the authenticity of your emotion that made me want to listen.ĪINA: Now Cooper thinks about the energy that comes from her anger not as something to be managed but as a superpower to be used.ĬOOPER: We think about superpowers as, like, Batman using his smarts to outwit everybody or whatever. ![]() As a lecturer at a university, this was at the front of her mind.ĬOOPER: It was just always that I thought that I should, like, be in better control because I wanted people to respect me, and I didn't want my anger to cause people to not be able to hear the things that I was trying to say.ĪINA: Her feelings changed when she ran into a former student on campus one day.ĬOOPER: You know, she said, I love to listen to you lecture because your lectures were, like, filled with rage, but it was, like, the most eloquent rage ever. Cooper says that black women have had to be more strategic when expressing their anger, but it doesn't mean that they shouldn't. LINDSEY GRAHAM: This is going to destroy the ability of good people to come forward because of this crap.ĪINA: It was a turning point during the hearings, and Justice Kavanaugh was ultimately confirmed. Senator Lindsey Graham was shouting during Justice Kavanaugh's testimony. It's something that they want to control rather than address.ĬOOPER: Unless, of course, we're talking about white men being angry and then, you know, the whole sort of American political system is designed to respond to white male anger and white male discontent.ĪINA: Cooper has pointed to the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as an example. It is designed to discredit them and to say that they are overreacting, that they are being hypersensitive, that their reaction is outsized.ĪINA: And she says this happens because generally, anger is an emotion that people are really uncomfortable with. MICHELLE OBAMA: That was one of those things that you just sort of think, hey, you don't even know me.ĪINA: Whether or not they are actually angry, Cooper says that labeling black women that way has a particular effect.ĬOOPER: Whenever someone weaponizes anger against black women, it is designed to silence them. OPRAH WINFREY: When you were labeled that angry black woman, was that one of the things that knocked you back a bit? Right before leaving the White House, she talked about it with Oprah. Even someone like Michelle Obama has talked about trying to distance herself from the stereotype. She's a professor and author of the book "Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower." Cooper says that the stereotype known as the angry black woman used to be called the Sapphire, and it's a stereotype that black women still struggle with almost 70 years after Sapphire was introduced onscreen. ![]() MOORE: (As Kingfish) Now, wait a minute.ĪINA: This is Sapphire, and she constantly nags at her husband throughout the series.īRITTNEY COOPER: She's always berating people, particularly men, and just is not in control of her anger.ĪINA: And that's Brittney Cooper. You had no business stuffing yourself the way you did at mama's house last night. TIM MOORE: (As Kingfish) I was a sick man.ĮRNESTINE WADE: (As Sapphire) Sick man nothing. (SOUNDBITE OF THE JEFF ALEXANDER CHORUS' "ANGEL'S SERENADE")ĪINA: The show was the first TV program to feature an all-black cast, and one character in particular was known for her sharp tongue. Some trace the stereotype back to the 1950s and a TV show called "Amos 'N' Andy." She shows up everywhere from pop culture to politics. MAYOWA AINA, BYLINE: The angry black woman is pretty well known. ![]() Today, we have a story from NPR's Mayowa Aina about one author who thinks it's time for black women to embrace their rage. All this month, NPR is exploring the power of anger. It's a label that many black women have struggled with in their professional and personal lives. At some point during their public lives, they were labeled as angry. Michelle Obama, Oprah, Serena Williams all have something in common.
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