Inspiring Black women

[Giningit]

Just that really. I’ve been thinking about which Black women I admire and Sharon White, ex OfCom Chief Exec and current Chairman of John Lewis. Her background doesn’t seem particularly privileged, so it seems that she got to where she is by sheer hard work and determination. Obviously I’m making a lot of assumptions here because I don’t actually know the woman.

@PoulePouletteEternellement I'm just paraphrasing what she said. You know families playing in the park, gardening, cooking dinner etc, all of these depictions of black people are missing in mainstream media.

all of these depictions of black people are missing in mainstream media

They're really not - except perhaps in the U.K. - which is a rather tiny place. (I'm sure you realise that in countries where white people don't get to call everyone else "minorities", all the cookery programmes, soaps, interviews, comedy, sport, art, architecture, literary debates, whatever are peopled by black people.)

It's perhaps a mistake to imagine that non-white people across the world see themselves only within the parameters dictated by British media ...

I'm sorry, zatarontoast, I don't mean to get at you in particular - it's just such an odd point of view.

What on earth do you imagine I do all day? Deal some drugs, scuffle with the police, weep in my chains? ...

Poule as a POC myself (but not black) I totally get where she is coming from, there is a paucity of non white families just being themselves in the media, doing the mundane everyday things that the white families are fawned over for. I grew up in an almost exclusively white area, and yes I'm ashamed to say had unknowingly internalized a lot of stereotypes.

But I hope people understand just what a galling (actually, horrifying) thing that is for me to read?

Yes poule I get that it is extremely galling, growing up and even now there are so many misconceptions about my own race and ethnicity. I am in the UK so exposed predominantly to white centric media, therefore to see black, brown and everything in between that isn't white being normalised in my eyes is a really good thing. There are British Asian Muslim women instagrammers for example who cook non Asian food and get applauded for it, as if non Asian food isn't a possibility for them Not everyone has grown up in a large city with exposure to diversity and it can have a massive impact on how you view others. Perhaps normalised isn't the best term, and centred is more appropriate.

Purely because they just came up on Insta (and because I admire her work), here are three of the artist Billie Zangewa's patchwork/ tapestry portraits. They seem quite MN!

Three more leisurely images ...

@PoulePouletteEternellement you have to remember not everyone who is black and non-white grows up with positive images of black and other non-white people doing everyday things simply because we are othered in the UK.

Zatarontoast - I agree - I don’t think in the UK we see enough visual portrayal of black people living their ordinary experiences.

I recently watched the film Us, directed by Jordan Peele, and it was so good to see a black family at the centre of a horror film. The film studio agreed this, although hitherto they would have doubted a black family would have wide appeal, because of Jordan’s brilliance and the success of Get Out. Jordan has said he won’t cast “white dudes” not becos he doesn’t like them but because “those stories have already been told”. We need to see more of these stories.

Inspiring black woman - Chi Chi Nwanoku. The founder of the Chineke Orchestra in 2015.

She’s brought together a group of predominantly black, world class musicians some of whom would have been denied an orchestral place because of their colour.

This will inspire generations of young musicians and hopefully will change the perception of who should fill these seats.

I'm watching 3 Non Blondes on Netflix and after a google of the actresses I read that
Jocelyn Jee Esien was the first single black women in the UK and the US to be given her own sketch show.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is another one of my favourites. I love how she is so comfortable in her own skin and relaxed with herself. If you watch her speak, her self-confidence (not arrogance) oozes through every pore, plus she is a brilliant writer.

Have to say, I disapprove of this concept on principle ... It kind of implies there's only a tiny pool of people to choose from - rather than billions. (Billion and a half, maybe?)

Maya Angelou. .....sadly passed over now but whenever I heard her talk.....it just made sense. I just ordered the first part of her autobiography "I know why the caged bird sings" to reread

Across Nigeria alone there are millions of brilliant, articulate comfortable-in-their skin women - teaching, acting, conducting cases in court or investigations for newspapers, carrying out surgery in hospitals, designing buildings, creating art, bringing up children ... Honestly, millions. But until recently the British media would only acknowledge one 'acceptable face' at a time. Being feisty. Or talking about suffering ...

Anne Marie Emafidon - a child prodigy, founder and CEO of STEMETTES, inspirational motivational speaker and still only 30!

@itsovernowthen

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is another one of my favourites. I love how she is so comfortable in her own skin and relaxed with herself. If you watch her speak, her self-confidence (not arrogance) oozes through every pore, plus she is a brilliant writer.

I was just about to write that! I think she’s fantastic. As you say very self-confident, knows who she is and her books aren’t bad either

@PoulePouletteEternellement Not sure I know what you mean?

Ok, I’ve just seen your follow up. I didn’t start this thread thinking that there aren’t that many black women to look up to, quite the opposite. I’m a black woman and know many fantastic ordinary black women.

It was more a case of highlighting specific black women in the public eye, who young girls could aspire/emulate. If we had plenty of names on one thread, perhaps it could be a useful resource?
I also have a daughter and would find this of use.

We live in a predominantly white society and very rarely do we say successful black women from all walks of life being celebrated.

PoulePouletteEternellment - I grew up in the Caribbean and saw successful and confident black women, leaders in politics, business, law, the arts, in fact everywhere. As will be the case in many other countries.

That is not the case in the UK and it's interesting that a number of the people mentioned here are from overseas.

@maggiethecat that's the thing, there are plenty of black women doing really well in the UK but they don't have representation on social media. There are plenty of black creatives for example, but you have to actually look for them, they haven't been given a platform, and on the contrary they describe how there has been an active movement to keep them marginalized. There was a post one of them shared on black pound day where a white counterpart in the same industry was posting about how BPD was just divisive and "served the elite" and it was excluding white creatives and was therefore discriminatory. So much work needs to be done to get over the myth that there just isn't the talent pool within the black community, it is absolutely there but structural barriers keep pushing it into the background.

Zatar - I know there are many successful black women in the UK but that they are not as visible as in other countries mentioned. That's probably the reason for the op.

Katherine Johnson
The film, Hidden Figures was truly inspirational.

@maggiethecat sorry I was just agreeing with you, not trying to educate you