The Angry Black Woman Stereotype

In the summer of 2016 my friend shared with me a vlog by Kimberly Foster, (the founder of forharriet.com) entitled ‘Let's Get Real About Black Women and Colorism’. In the vlog Kimberly shared a surprising study by Margaret Hunter from her article ‘The Persistent Problem of Colorism: Skin Tone, Status, and Inequality’ that light skinned African American women marry spouses with higher levels of education, higher incomes, or higher level of occupational prestige, than their darker-skinned counterparts. I found this very interesting but I was not surprised as within the black community it is widely known that some black men perceive black women to be angry, rude and too tough to handle and is the main reason why they do not want to date darker skinned women. For example, rapper Kodak Black recently said in an interview that he doesn’t like black women because they are too tough, he prefers light skinned women because they are more sensitive and they can be ‘broken down more easily’.

The representation of black women within the media industry is very negative; they are seen as strong, loud, opinionated, scary or someone who is objectified, sexual and animalistic. The women shown on screen in movies, TV shows and magazines don’t represent the women in my family or my friends. Where does the negative connotation come from? There is an element of truth in everything; the perception hasn’t been plucked out of nowhere, but why is it main depiction of black women? There have been some new representations which are on screen that are showing black women to be young, quirky and sophisticated like ‘Tracy’ in Michaela Coel’s E4 sitcom ‘Chewing Gum’ and ‘Issa’ and ‘Molly’ in ‘Issa Rae’s comedy/drama ‘Insecure’. But there is still room for improvement. I wanted to produce a documentary highlighting this issue and for audiences to get a better understanding as to why this perception is shared amongst black men and the media.

The documentary features interviews with young black men and women, as I wanted to get different opinions and perceptions of ‘the angry black women stereotype’. The men share why they have said darker skinned women are too tough to handle and the women give examples why they think the perception exists.

To produce the documentary I recruited participants via the casting website ‘Star Now’ and began shooting interviews throughout February and March 2017 with men and women across the UK and released it online in June 2017.

Check out short documentary below

Black Women Are Too Tough To Handle?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixmriyobGe0

Kashif Boothe Entertainment 

I produce short films, web series' and documentaries under my production company Kashif Boothe Entertainment. In the summer of 2015 I began producing a documentary series on relationships, the first episode was selected for the 2016 Ozark Shorts Film Festival. In February 2016 the third episode on Gay/Lesbian relationships was featured on towleroad.com and the documentary series was selected as the editors top pick on hiive.co.uk w/c March 7th 2016. In Spring 2016 I released the documentary 'Being Light Skinned', it was selected into the 23rd Annual African American Film Marketplace and S.E Manly Short Film Festival Showcase in Hollywood, California, was screened at the event forum ‘Afrocentrikal’ and featured various websites including ClutchMatchmagazine.com, trueafrica.com and on hiive.co.uk as the editors top pick w/c May 2nd 2016. In September 2016 I released my doc series 'What Is Good Hair?' and was screened at the Voices of Colour event in November 2016. In November 2016 I premiered the comedy web series ‘Nate & Jamie’ which has been featured on numerous websites including the britishblacklist.co.uk. This spring I released three short documentaries covering cultural appropriation, the stereotype of the angry black woman and on the controversial article by Satoshi Kanazawa that black women are physically the least attractive.