When Will The Media Start Portraying Black Women Without Betraying Them?

Further, black women continue to be commodities in the music industry–and some have embraced this as a way to advance their own careers. This year, Nicki Minaj’s released her video for “Stupid Hoe,” where she is depicted as an animal in a cage. Dodai Stewart at Jezebel described the image as being “a tired, troubling visual. In this context, we’re supposed to see Nicki as threatening, wild, dangerous. But the objectification and exoticization of black women is steeped in racism.” Song lyrics and music videos are powerful images that make traction inside and out of our community, and yet we still rely on images that should have been put to rest long ago.

This year we also saw the return of Tyler Perry’s controversial character Madea, this time in an all-white cast in Madea’s Witness Protection. Perry has been criticized before as perpetuating a mammy-like character, but has defended Madea as representing black women he has known. Author Nelson George, also defended the character, saying “comedy and stereotypes go hand in hand.” Perhaps that is true, but stereotypes go hand-in-hand with prejudice as well. I give Perry credit for making roles in his movies for black actresses when so many studios continue to bypass them, but placing Madea in a white movie removes this element of empowerment and aims to share the character with a wider audience. As Thembi Ford puts it, it’s “nerve-wracking to realize that a rehashed mammy has been reappropriated for mainstream consumption… Madea is still as violent and angry as ever, but as a caricature, not as a sympathetic character”

While Iconic underscores the great affects the music and film industry has on images of black women, it leaves out one important industry: social media, where snide remarks can be elevated to public discourse. This summer, much attention was paid to the criticism of Gabby Douglas, whose pulled back hair was criticized by many black women on Twitter for not being properly done. Blog commenters also criticized Solange Knowles’ natural look for being “unkempt” and giving natural hair a bad name. Social media enables us to share our opinions in very public ways, making it possible for criticism and comments to be consumed and felt by those we’re discussing. Luckily, these two women let the comments roll off their shoulders. Just as Iconic highlights the power of styling black women’s hair, Douglas’ and Knowles’ ‘dos signify the practical hairstyling of an Olympian and the carefree spirit of an individual.

While these debates reveal the need for us to do better by black women, they also highlight the fact that in every instance, black women are the ones stepping up and expressing frustration that we’re still talking about these things–that the concept of the video girl is alive and well, that the angry black woman and mammy are go-to characters, and that our hair seems like it will always be a topic of conversation. Johnson concludes Iconic showing how the black women she features are able to combat negative stereotypes and pursue their goals, saying “their knowledge of these stereotypes helps them develop counterimages that support truths about themselves.” While we need to do better as a community, it’s not going to change overnight, but Iconic reminds us that black women have always risen above it all and will continue to rise.

Tracey Ross is a freelance writer living in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and completed her graduate work at Princeton University, earning a Masters in Public Affairs. Her writing focuses on women, race, and urban policy, and has been featured in Racialicious, Next American City, and The Hairpin. 

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