But it’s unclear whether we are really being taken seriously. Black women who hold their communities together also hold our broader American community together. Black women turn to sass when rage is too risky - because we have jobs to keep, families to feed, and bills to pay.

But this is not a sassy black girl’s tale. Not wanting to offend this woman who I otherwise really liked, I simply said, “We’re not all like that.” She looked disappointed. She loved it, she said, when black women put their hands on their hips and swiveled their necks in protest. To her, these stereotypical portrayals made black folks seem understandable, even though to me, her descriptions felt like we were exotic others. My Malaysian roommate, who had seen many episodes of the old nineties sitcom Family Matters, told me that she loved black women because we were sassy like Harriette and Laura Winslow, the main black female characters on that show. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one’s own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again.Years after that, I was doing a summer abroad in South Korea. In Brittney Cooper’s world, neither mean girls nor fuckboys ever win. And it took another intervention, this time staged by one of her homegirls, to turn Brittney into the fierce feminist she is today. When Cooper learned of her grandmother’s eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less. It’s what makes Michelle Obama an icon.Įloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It’s what makes Beyoncé’s girl power anthems resonate so hard. Black women’s eloquent rage is what makes Serena Williams such a powerful tennis player. But Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting.įar too often, Black women’s anger has been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy. So what if it’s true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be.

Roxane Gay: “I encourage you to check out Eloquent Rage out now.”

Brittney cooper eloquent rage