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Black Women are the great American success story: they must not only acknowledge their power, but wield the hell out of it.
In 1962, Malcolm X famously observed: "The most disrespected person in America is the Black Woman...The most neglected person in America is the Black Woman." From the Civil Rights movement to Black Lives Matter, Black Women continue to be marginalized. In an era in which many key issues at the heart of racism directed against the Black community, such as disproportionately high rates of incarceration, homicide, and unemployment, affect primarily "our men and boys," the challenges Black women face are not front and center.
Yet, Black Women are the great American success story. But like a shadow's distended, colorless depiction of reality, this truth has been contorted. In The Rise of Black Women in America, Charity C. Elder-award-winning journalist and digital media executive-makes the counterintuitive argument that there has never been a better time to be a Black woman. In a historical and sociological framework that weaves together poignant personal narratives and a new national survey of Black women conducted in partnership with the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, the author reframes pejorative stereotypes of Black Women by reporting on the untold story of triumph and ascendance.
Since Angela, one of the first Africans forcibly transported to the American colonies in 1619, Black Women have overcome formidable obstacles. Four hundred years later, they continue to scale the upper echelons of society: politics, arts, media, education, science, business and beyond. Achievements exemplified in Vice President Kamala Harris, MSNBC president Rashida Jones, US Naval Academy Brigade Commander Sydney Barber, Simon & Schuster publisher Dana Canedy, and the inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman. Success is not an anomaly, but a defining characteristic. Black Women have amassed power-now, Elder argues, we need only to acknowledge it and then wield the hell out of it.
In 1962, Malcolm X famously observed: "The most disrespected person in America is the Black Woman...The most neglected person in America is the Black Woman." From the Civil Rights movement to Black Lives Matter, Black Women continue to be marginalized. In an era in which many key issues at the heart of racism directed against the Black community, such as disproportionately high rates of incarceration, homicide, and unemployment, affect primarily "our men and boys," the challenges Black women face are not front and center.
Yet, Black Women are the great American success story. But like a shadow's distended, colorless depiction of reality, this truth has been contorted. In The Rise of Black Women in America, Charity C. Elder-award-winning journalist and digital media executive-makes the counterintuitive argument that there has never been a better time to be a Black woman. In a historical and sociological framework that weaves together poignant personal narratives and a new national survey of Black women conducted in partnership with the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, the author reframes pejorative stereotypes of Black Women by reporting on the untold story of triumph and ascendance.
Since Angela, one of the first Africans forcibly transported to the American colonies in 1619, Black Women have overcome formidable obstacles. Four hundred years later, they continue to scale the upper echelons of society: politics, arts, media, education, science, business and beyond. Achievements exemplified in Vice President Kamala Harris, MSNBC president Rashida Jones, US Naval Academy Brigade Commander Sydney Barber, Simon & Schuster publisher Dana Canedy, and the inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman. Success is not an anomaly, but a defining characteristic. Black Women have amassed power-now, Elder argues, we need only to acknowledge it and then wield the hell out of it.