Presenter: Debonair Oates-Primus
Audience: Faculty, Staff, Administrators
Join Zoom Meeting: https://ccp.zoom.us/j/91956229412?pwd=TGkrQW5Nc0RxZ08xQlBYc0ZUN2pPdz09
Passcode: 616789

Program Description

What happens when a Black woman gets labeled “aggressive,” “difficult” or “unprofessional” in the workplace? If history is any indicator, this troubling mischaracterization helps her to become even more vulnerable to marginalization, and it ruins her potentiality for career advancement. Michelle Obama, Serena Williams, Jemele Hill and Shonda Rhimes are just a few high-profile Black women who have suffered public scrutiny after being labeled “angry and aggressive.” Black women work hard to be seen as affable because their likeability and public perception are tied to their survival. The angry black woman trope is one that has permeated every segment of our society from pop culture to social media, to even our classrooms and offices. Like most stereotypes, this one has limited the expression of Black women’s full range of emotions, but recent studies have also found that Black women experience negative health outcomes including anxiety, at a greater rate than their white counterparts. In this session we will discuss the long-lasting effects of this one-dimensional view of Black women and learn how we can overcome the stereotype and what our institution can do to stop this stereotype from persisting.