Myths About Black Girls That Need To Stop Being Told

By: Krystle Crossman

The media plays a large part in making black women think that they will never live up to their true potential due to the lies that are told to them. Here are seven lies that should stop being told to African-American women and girls:

1. Welfare: Due to racial bias that came from Ronald Reagan in the 70s black women are perceived as being “welfare queens”. While the percentage of African-Americans that are on welfare is higher than any other race this does not mean that ever black woman is going to end up on welfare.

2. Anger issues: Despite what is shown on television and in the movies, black women are generally not “angry women”. They don’t fight and scream at each other all the time as television networks would like us to believe.

3. Education: Women are told that they have more opportunities for education than men do. While the number of African-American women enrolled in post-secondary education is slowly rising they are still behind in numbers from other races.

4. Self-esteem: Black women often have lower self-esteem or high aspirations once they are in college despite how they may seem to everyone else.

5. No help needed: One of the biggest lies told is that black women do not need help when it comes to funding for college. There are scholarships that are available but many are given to black males or students of other races.

6. No prison: Black women are lead to believe that only black men are the ones that are fed through the justice system into the prisons however black women have a 1 in 19 chance of ending up in a cell.

7. Discrimination: Black boys are discriminated again in schools but so are black girls. They receive more punishment from teachers than any other race.