Poverty, Race & Culture

Encountering racial stereotype can have very damaging effects on the development of a person throughout their entire lifetime. For an African American woman , such stereotypes affects how they perceive themselves or are viewed by other people in the society . Differences in the African American in terms of their family and work options and their experiences of stereotyping and discrimination have led to various norms related to ones race, and this affects the women value their gender.  The kind of perception people have makes the African American woman to feel vulnerable to mistreatment in the major areas of life which include academically, personally and even professionally (Watson, 2013). These mistreatments have negative impacts which comprises of feelings of anger, mistrust and feat.

After becoming accustomed to the notion about black women being loud, nagging and confrontational and even accepting it, I began to realize that this popular  “black girl with bad attitude “ notion was a way to undermine us and our capacity to connect, engage and feel. The negative characteristics are normally attributed to black women, and depict them as angry even when one is trying calmly to state their opinions (Sinclair, 2015). Whenever I have justifiable reasons for getting angry, I risk being viewed as having an attitude and nobody seems to care that I am angry because of some understandable reasons.  My reactions can be paralleled with the “strong black woman” notion which limits my ability to emote and as if to suggest that anger is the only emotion i can freely expresses or strength as the only quality. In addition, when a black girl is not being categorized into narrow personal aspects, she is being pitted against other women. Such kinds of treatment negatively influence my confidence level or hinder the desire to be open to others.

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