Cultural Perception

Although young black females in today's world are portrayed in many different ways in the media, one of the main stereotypes of black women is that they are seen as angry and uneducated.

In a study conducted by Essence magazine, researchers found that after studying black women in the media (especially young women ages 18-29) over a 10-day period, there was a consensus of the terms "angry black woman," "gold digger," and "baby mama" being used across all platforms of social media regarding young black females.

Researchers argued that with television shows like "Bad Girls Club" and "Basketball Wives" depicting black women in a negative light, they are grouped into a category and all seen as one single type of person.

The study found that in the media, black women are referred to in a negative light twice as often as they are regarded positively.

"We probably have more diversity of black female characters on television than ever before," said Tamara Winfrey-Harris, author of "The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative for Black Women in America" in an interview with USA Today. "The problem is there's nowhere near the diversity that our white counterparts have. We're still not allowed to be fully human in the ways they are."

Creator of popular television shows "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," and "How to Get Away With Murder" Shonda Rhimes was attacked on social media this year after a New York Times article referred to her as an "Angry Black Woman." The support for that statement came from when her black female characters in her shows lashed out or behaved angrily. There was no mention in the article about her white female characters' rants or angry behavior. To me, that judgment insinuated that when she created a moment for her black characters to feel angry or heated, that she was projecting her "Angry Black Woman" persona on them, but when she created white characters there were no remnants of her personality, even if they were exemplifying the same types of behavior she laces her black characters with.

This argument lacks depth. How can a woman who has created several parts and characters for multiple television shows not use some of her own feelings and bits of her personality in creating them? How come she is only seen as angry when her black characters get angry? Is it because of this stereotype that black women are angry and white women only get angry?

Something I noticed while researching the media coverage of young black females is that in some ways media sources are striving to get things right and depict these women as the people they are, not as their stereotype - but that was mostly in the case of celebrities.

There are still offensive comments on YouTube videos and Instagram pictures of normal black American young women that follow this stereotype.

Comments on the released video of a police officer pinning down a black teenage girl at a pool party in McKinney, Texas read like a print-out of all the stereotypes of black women listed in the study above.

Negative comments were focused on her potential to be angry and violent, because of the color of her skin.

The conclusion of these depictions of young black females in the media is that there is an overwhelming amount of racism in terms of what the color of their skin means for their personality and behavior. There is plenty of room for media to explore what other facets of their personalities are noteworthy, besides just those that focus on the color of their skin and what is believed about them as a group.