I’m so glad you wrote this. For years, I’ve seen the troupe of the strong black woman, and I think it’s harmful. So many times I’ve seen black people portrayed as so strong, they don’t feel pain or can’t be hurt. This contributes to the abuse and terrorism of black people, because it’s assumed they can’t be hurt, and are also aggressive, leading to abuse. I have to say it, as a white person living in a racist society, I have to check myself regularly because I feel this ideology has been absorbed, without my consent, into me and my world.
I’ll never forget one time I saw a post card from decades ago that showed a photograph of a lynching. After I got over the horror of what I was looking at, my next thought was, looking at the victim
“wow, he looks like a such a strong man.” I then caught myself, he wasn’t a strong man, he was dead. Seeing him as strong, was probably what all the white people lynching him were thinking. I was horrified at myself, and realized I’ve been programmed to see black people as strong no matter what.
True, strength is respected in my culture, and this dehumanization of black strength is often hidden under a false attempt at a compliment of the string black woman. But it’s crossed the line, it’s used to dehumanize black people, and it’s everywhere.
I read an article on medium on how a black woman just having softness and vulnerability is an act of revolution, against the trope of always being strong. I see that. How brainwashed and racist our society is for viewing little girls as strong, scary, unhurt-able adults.
I’m so glad you pointed this out. I’m going to work on checking myself and asking what my assumptions are when talking to a little black child. What age am I assuming they are (is it exaggerated?) how am I viewing them?
Am I seeing her as a child? Time to question my assumptions.