Their Moving and Powerful Words...

What Charde Hunt-Jeanty, Christina Watts, and Desire Marshall had to say in the video and in class was extremely moving and powerful. Their voices were full of strong emotion. I was able to feel the anger, yet passion, they felt towards the issue at hand. However, that leads to one of the topics that they brought up during the discussion: black women and the anger they carry and voice. One of the guest speakers was explaining how black women are not "allowed" to be angry, where if they were to try to strongly address a matter, they are often told to "calm down." Further, one of the guest speakers was describing her childhood: her mother raised her to never express her anger and to always stay calm because it had a strong association to being an African American and her mother wanted to assimilate her into a "white" lifestyle. I can't help but feel so angry at this and how wrong it is that an individual would not want to express her real emotions just because society says she can't, or that society will judge her if she does. I truly believe that everyone should be able to freely express themselves in whatever manner they desire, especially if they feel strongly about a certain matter.