Preview

African American Women Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
618 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
African American Women Essay
From Africa to America, African American women have embraced the spirit of creativity and survival. For years the black woman has been the backbone of our culture. It was our faith and positive spirits that played a great part in surviving slavery and being treated as second class citizens during the Civil Rights Movement. Now as we enter the 21st century, it is time to exert our strengths at a new level. The African American woman's role is to grow and prosper in business, support and be active in her community, maintain a strong family foundation, be spiritually grounded and to emend our health.

Black women entering the 21st century have surpassed boundaries and developed legacies in business fields such as architecture, theatre, finance, politics, education, and medicine. For example Oprah Winfery is on the wealthiest persons in the world, and is using her wealth in a positive way. Generations ago, our faces were only seen publicly in a negative light, now we have overcome the hardships and are finally being recognized for our excellence. It is also the role of a black woman to help voice opinions of our communities through politics. We are so quick to complain of the white man's injustice while we sit at home and allow our people to be overlooked. The 21st century is our opportunity to step out and show what we are all about in the business and the political world.

In our past it has always been the role of a woman to be the nurturing and advice giving source of the household. It is the duty of an African American woman in the 21st century to use that power to her advantage. Influence our youth by reinstituting the importance of faith and good moral values. It is our job to go to schools and stress the importance of higher education to our young black children. Many of our youth are giving up because of barriers holding them back. Young black women should not submit to peer pressure just to fit in with the crowd. It is not cool to be pregnant in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    One of the most unexpected parts of the interview was how Mrs. Woodson interpreted women of color’s self-esteem. While my research shows that African-American and Black girls have the highest self-esteem, Mrs. Woodson stated, “I think other ethnic groups probably have more self-esteem or portray they have more self-esteem.” This discussion about self-esteem among different female racial groups lead her to talk about her own daughter. She talked about how she would show her daughter articles of women, of color and of other races, who were achieving great things in many professional fields. With a combination of her high expectations for her daughter and influential role models, Mrs. Woodson feels her daughter was given the self-esteem and self-confidence…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Post Reconstruction was supposed to be a time of change for the world, especially for African Americans. Although post Reconstruction was believed to eliminate segregation and racial discrimination, many people noticed that there was actually little to no change that occurred. Luckily, slavery was part of the past and many great leaders including Abraham Lincoln had set out to change America in terms of equality. Unfortunately, post Reconstruction proved that nothing had changed for African Americans who remained struggling with racial issues that ultimately restricted their freedom.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Study Guide Hum 325

    • 1450 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In “The Power of Self-Definition,” Patricia Hill Collins stresses that self-reliance, self-knowledge, and self-valuation are necessary to empower Black women to create their own self-definitions.…

    • 1450 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    3. Additionally, with oppression racialized bodies are challenged by dominant notions of beauty and desirability. This takes place by reprimanding Brown, Black, Hispanic, and Asian’s for their features, when western culture rejects minority features it normalizes White features marking lighter skin, thinner noses, and finer hair as most appealing. When culture standards are unfavorable of one social group it creates insecurities in that social groups, and creates a problem like colorism which is favoriting a minority group with fairer skin. Society implements this by mostly casting on television young, tall, and robust white men who saves the also white, blonde-haired, petite, innocent women. Implanting these standards on movies, games, television, and dolls.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Health, black woman are dying from social ill, preventable disease and causes. Diabetes, HIV/Aids, hypertension, abusive relationships, and heart disease. All of these things can be prevented from happening. Hypertension is more likely to happen with black woman than other groups. African American woman also suffer from low self esteem, depression, health issues, and stress. Financial freedom, black woman typically live from paycheck to paycheck. A lot of woman can be overwhelmed with student loan debt and even credit card Education, African American woman are earning college degrees but there are still a lot of African American women without high school diplomas. The majority of black woman are earning degrees in the same field of history, sociology, law, humanities, and education. In the black community men and women together face a number of things together as a whole. Mass incarceration, there are over 1.6 million people are in prison and a high amount of them are African Americans.…

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Heritage makes up a large portion of our History. Combine that heritage with race and you have a foundation for establishing different beginnings of races that can trace their early origins back to the beginning of the United States. A giant melting pot as it has been described due to all of the immigration that occurred in the early nineteenth century. African Americans have established an enormous role in the beginnings and the history of the America. Their continuous fight for equality and rights as American people have spanned many years. The actions against African Americans immediately following the conclusion of the civil…

    • 3159 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I like to think of myself as a cheerleader for all black people, especially other Black Woman prospering life. I’m 26 years-old and I have achieved some success in some areas, and I have come to find that my biggest hater is usually another Black Woman. --Shoots fired, this is a sensitive subject but it needs to be talked about. Now, you would think because we are all born with the same two strikes against us (being black and being a woman) that would all share a bond or some sort of sisterhood. News flash- we all don’t. For the most part we will have our circle of supportive sisters, usually these woman are either already successful, on the path to success, or aspiring to be successful. But then we have those Black females who take pride in tearing down other black woman.…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Being an African American is not easy, not to mention being an African American in the southern Texas. Life is hard here and the discrimination and prejudice is just cruel and unfair. The color of my skin should not determine how I should be treated and what type of privileges, but mainly punishments, I shall receive. I’m getting tired of this place. I’m ready for a new life and new beginning. Things were never easy here and they’re only getting harder. Change is needed and if things don’t change I don’t know how much longer I will be able to survive, not just physically but mentally as well.…

    • 1353 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Attaining a higher education as an African American youth is significant because it is one of the most important achievements in today’s society that helps ensure a quality way of life. While gaining an education is still a financial challenge for most African Americans, there are still more opportunities than ever before for young people to acquire a post-secondary education. The more education a person has, the better one’s chances are at being successful. An education helps one have a better outlook on life because they have a more positive mindset which can make a difference with the type of character they portray and even the awareness to be in tune with their spiritual and physical well being.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    African American Woman

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Historically, the media perpetuates ideas about race and ethnicity that places African American women at a clear disadvantage.” The earliest forms of these sexual notions and oppressive manners dates back to slavery. America has had a vast craving of exploring the unknown and trying to learn and interpret different cultures. Although the concept of race is constantly changing, and currently is viewed as a state which does not have any biological meaning it is constantly a crucial part in African American Woman lives which have perpetrated them in a sexual manner. The very idea above and the fact that America since earlier years has had an overarching sense of curiosity to explore and exploit cultures and races that were not yet understood…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Argumentative Speech Good morning ladies, here we are in the year 1904, surrounded by multiple ideas of who should do what and what one shouldn’t do. Thing is that's just a matter of ideology, as I stand here and instruct you all in behalf of us (the Negro women) I don’t understand, nor settle to the idea of having limited amount of resources each of us “can” do. For example the jobs we are allowed to conduct and how only very little of us can actually become a professional. Perhaps not being able to take self decisions on what we may desire, has always been a huge controversial topic in the other races.…

    • 1699 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Paternalim

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As Americans we can be what ever we want to be. There is no government to stop women from going to school, and there is no one putting restrictions on jobs based on race. In fact there are laws against sexism and racism. There is no excuse to not try your hardest to get where you want to be in life. In this day and age we have an African American president and women in congress. It may not have been easy for them but they didn’t let it keep them from achieving their goals. In Langston Hughes poem “Let America Be America Again” he says, “I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars, I am the red man driven from the land” he trying to explain that America wasn’t such a great place. That people where taken advantage of. America has grown from these times and learned from the mistakes that where made. The then, oppressed groups of people have now accomplished more then they ever thought possible, with the help of the American dream. An excellent example of perseverance is in the article by Ben Mangan “American Dream: Dead or Alive”, he says “ In this country, anyone can make it if they work hard enough”. People of all races and gender are making positive changes in their lives because they are strong willed and fight for what they believe they can do to make their lives better. Opportunities are not things to be handed out to the people who…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mammy

    • 1196 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Being part of two marginalized groups historically deemed inferior, Black women are distinct from Black men or White women. The binary conceptualization of Black and White womanhood assigned Black women as ‘bad womanhood’ consisting of all the negative traits of disgrace, whereas White women were attributed all the idealized aspects of “true womanhood” (Parker, 2005, p. 34). Racial and discriminatory representations of Black womanhood are centred on derogatory images such as the Mammy or Jezebel; consequently, they encounter distinctive and unexplored barriers that inhibit their career and leadership development. Drawing on the works of Patricia Parker on Black women leadership as well as Yvonne Due Billing and Mats Alevesson on feminine leadership, this paper hopes to delineate the distorted conceptualization of Black women. Primarily, it will map out how the Mammy image has influenced and affected the modern-day professional Black women. As Parker (2005) suggests, the Mammy image has had a profoundly derogatory, dehumanizing characterization of Black women; thus, the stereotype became a rationalization for economic discrimination.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    At a young age some of us are introduced to the innocence of a crush. The fluttering sensation of butterflies in the pit of ones stomach. The awareness of the sheer joy that being near said 'person of interest'. In addition to this experience, some can also relate in their fair share of embarrassing encounters with their crushes. In particular my mind drifts to a memory that sticks out like a sore thumb, one found in my years in middle school. My crush was very obvious, even I was slightly aware of such. I was beginning to predict that he in particular also knew I had my eyes on him. Although I had ensured rejection as the baseline for where my expectation…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Afrocentric feminism is the development of Black feminist thought focused specifically on the ever-increasing number of African-American women acting as agents of knowledge and challenging current White male dominated legitimizing institutions to contest old epistemologies of knowledge and produce new methods of conceptualizing and reconciling intersectionality of race, gender, and class oppression in the matrix of domination. More explicitly, Afrocentric feminist thought demonstrates the value of empowering oppressed peoples and analyzing group relationships from the standpoint of other groups.…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays