The Invisibility of Black Women.
How many of you are going to scroll past this article, based on the title alone?
I am fortunate.
And I’m aware of it.
I am fortunate in so many ways and I’m grateful.
I did not have to grow during a time when segregation was the law of the land. I never witnessed atrocities towards Black people, perpetrated by White people, just because we wanted the same rights. Nothing more or less.
I never saw Whites only signs.
Never been called nigger.
I am fortunate.
But in my good fortune, I am also unseen. At the bottom of the totem pole of racial and gender hierarchy, as I have explained it in the past. And when I say I’m unseen, I don’t mean ‘me’ personally. I mean those of my same race and gender identification: Black Women.
Black women have been type casted in a variety of roles over the years:
Strong Matriarch
Hypersexual Jezebel
Welfare Queen
And of course, Angry Black Woman.
And with all those labels, we are still unseen. Let me give you some examples:
