In 1962, when the brave, bold, fiery and fiercely eloquent, civil rights activist Malcolm X stated “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” He was right on target. Now, almost sixty years later, his deftly precise words still ring true. The most high profile, recent example (and there have been many as of late) are the distasteful comments made by right-wing FOX News personality Tomi Lahren.
The routinely loose-lipped, acid-tongued conservative commentator, took it upon her shamelessly arrogant self to make the baseless allegation that California senator and current Presidential candidate Kamala Harris “slept her way to the top.” To be more specific, her exact comments were “Kamala did you fight for ideals or did you sleep your way to the top with Willie Brown?” Yes, you read that correctly!
While the mediocre, obnoxious, certainly White and privileged Ms. Lahren has always been quick to routinely spout out irresponsible, unsubstantiated largely nonsensical rhetoric. Even by her paltry standards, this was a new low. As expected the always feisty and reliable watchdog, Black Twitter, (and pretty much all of social media in general) took the mentally dimwitted and seemingly clueless commentator to task for her arrogant, shameless and irresponsible comments. Indeed, Lahren’s commentary was so offensive that even her politically conservative sisters at FOX News took her to the verbal woodshed and gave her a much deserved, staunchly intense verbal dress down, chiding her for her disrespectful and misogynistic ways.
Realizing that she earned the wrath of women (and more than a few men) from across the political spectrum, Lahren backtracked, made a verbal U-turn and issued an appropriate mea culpa belatedly flogging herself for her untoward antics. Truth be told, her apology was/is likely not grounded in any genuine level of contrition. Rather, she like even the most densely ignorant, mentally wayward soul, is astute to the fact that the political, social and cultural climate of our current #metoo era leaves little if any room for such crass sexism even if such rhetoric being hurled comes from another woman.
Lahren’s buffoonery aside, the larger issue here is the fact that her comments represent a long, disturbing history of people denouncing and denigrating Black women. From President Trump on down, for some reason, it seems that humiliating and degrading Black women is an ongoing activity and there never seems to be any cease-fire on the horizon.
Why do so many people feel that it is acceptable to engage in such callous and disrespectful behavior toward Black women? I would argue that much of this attitude has to do with history. Historically speaking, men of all races (including Black men) have realized that they have been allowed a free sexual license to objectify, terrorize, sexually violate and demonize Black women, regardless of age, with impunity.
I think of books such as Harriet Jacobs 19th century classic Incidents in The Life of A Slave Girl, Ann Moody’s 1968 gripping, horrifying, and at times, heartbreaking work Coming of Age In Mississippi, and the powerfully written, well-documented award-winning book, At The Dark End of The Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance- A New History of The Civil Rights Movement From Rosa Parks To Black Power by public historian Danielle McGuire. These fascinating and at times, harrowing accounts demonstrated that White males realized that they had been allowed a free sexual license to treat, or rather, mistreat Black women without suffering any consequences.
Public disregard and disrespect for Black women is rampant. The one time mainstream, now obscure, largely diminished, loud-mouthed shock jock, radio host Don Imus took it upon his mentally unbalanced self to brutally attack Black Women. Remember the “nappy-headed hos” “hardcore ho’s, jigaboos” vitriolic remarks (as if he was a matinee idol, male stud himself, please!) made in reference to the Rutgers Women Basketball team more than a decade ago in 2007? I sure as hell do! His callous comments resulted in a temporary suspension from the airwaves from which he justifiably, never fully recovered from.
Even Michelle Obama has been the periodic target of vicious and hostile attacks from certain segments of the media and society at large, both during her tenure and even now as a former first lady. Comments about her supposed “attitude” and disposition, choice of clothes, physical features, etc… are routine topics in the right-wing bloggersphere.
Black women are frequently defined as “angry Black women,” “Jezebels” “uppity” (a number of Black men have had this term ascribed to them as well) and yes, of course, the word big, bad, blunt B-word,“ Bitch” has been employed by some of the more acidic detractors of Black females. The term “nigger bitch,” is one of the oldest demeaning slurs in our nation’s history. The level of ongoing, blatant disrespect is disgusting.
There are those who will argue that society treats women poorly regardless of race. This is true to some extent. However, for women of color and Black women, in particular, the problem is far more acute. For every Roseanne Barr (she is yesterday’s news I guess), Courtney Love, Tara Reed, Amanda Bynes …there is an Emily Watson, Meryl Streep, Elizabeth Warren, Joan Walsh, Jennifer Granholm, etc… to counterbalance the negative images of White women. This is not the case for Black women. Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, Diahann Carroll, Ruth Simmons, Claire Huxtable, and Stacey Abrams while plentiful in real life, are represented too few and far between in the mainstream media.
To be honest and keep it real, some Black men have contributed to the problem as well. From rap and hip/hop artists (and in some cases actors) such as Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence (in the case of Murphy and Lawrence probably or at least, hopefully without malicious intent), by portraying Black women in their films as often loud-mouthed, obese, unkempt, uncouth, socially awkward human beings devoid of any sympathy from the larger society. This is problematic. The ill-advised decision by Hollywood executives to greenlight the recent, racially charged, retrograde movie “Loqueesha,” a film loaded with stereotypical, demeaning, offensive nonsense certainly did not advance matters to be sure.
A number of people, in particular, Black folks, (certainly not all) have taken issue with actor and mega-producer, Tyler Perry’s “talk trash, tell it like it is, take no stuff,” frequently combative, pistol-packing, chain-smoking character Madea (Perry has decided to kill off the wildly popular character after this year) and place her in this category. Personally, I would not. Madea is far too multi-faceted and complex to be labeled as such.
The relentless effects of such demeaning and disrespectful behavior toward Black women in our society send a searing, disturbing and detrimental message to the larger society. Black women should be depicted as normal as any other group of human beings. They should not be portrayed as abnormal, freakish creatures who are hopelessly dysfunctional. Men of all races must confront the sexist, racial and cultural stereotypes that have been deeply ingrained in them from the time they were fresh out of diapers.
Moreover, Black women must make it clear that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, adopt and channel their inner Howard Beale, the fiercely strong-willed television executive played by Academy Award winner, the late Peter Finch in the critically acclaimed movie Network, declare that they are “MAD AS HELL” and do not intend to tolerate such a continual onslaught of debasement, disregard and disrespect. Society at large must reexamine its negative pre-conceived notions of Black womanhood. Needless to say, the media must do its part in helping to dispel dangerously pernicious myths associated with Black women.
It is a responsibility that must be undertaken. Such a conscientious task may not be easy to accomplish. After all, old habits are hard to break. Nonetheless, it is a crucial and mandatory step to take. Mistreating Black women (or any group of women or people) is unacceptable. PERIOD!
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This post was previously published on Medium.com and is republished here with permission from the author.
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