The Stereotypes of Black Women

Kaelyn Gundrum   

25 March 2014

Landscape Essay

Stereotypes of Black Women

  In the past few years, I have grown a lot closer to my little brother. Although most of the time our conversations don’t go too far past video games, food and what teachers to stay away from in high school, those things helped us get along better. But recently we had a setback that hit me harder than he realizes. On the night my mom told me my brother had a white girl friend, I shot him a look so cold that he literally jumped back. Though my mother felt the same as I did, she was fully aware that I rarely bit my tongue for anything. Then, I sat back and thought “I shouldn’t be like that, if he truly likes someone, race shouldn’t matter.” I was beginning to come around to the idea until I heard him mutter “That’s because all of the black girls are loud and ghetto.” I twisted my mouth, looked up and asked for the strength not to do anything drastic. Even though this was my first time hearing him say anything like that, it didn’t matter. He didn’t know how many times I’ve sat back in the shadows and heard black men put a label on all of us like that, and that I was now looking at him with the same resentment I’ve looked at them with.

  From about 6th grade up until my junior year in high school, I went around honestly thinking that I wasn’t worth anyone’s time because of the stereotypes that had been beaten into my head. Whether it was along the lines of “they’re all too loud” “they always want to fight” or “they don’t know how to act”, it was always something, and I did not posses a single quality everyone was always complaining about. The fact that I was quiet and no one singled me out, got me grouped in with the rest of the loud black girls that I grew up with, only because they made themselves known and were always starting trouble, so they were always the ones who were noticed. Besides that, if I had spoken up about the issue, no matter how I approached, I’m sure I would have received at least one “Oh, you’re just an angry black girl” coming my way.

  My junior year in high school was the turning point for me, I realized I had to make myself known without fighting, or being loud and obnoxious. Part of it could have been because the boys were finally starting to mature, but I like to think of it as a point in my life where I proved everyone wrong. When that time came, I got all of the attention I was searching for and heard the phrase “you’re not like everyone else” quite often. And every time a black man said that to me, I could hear my moms words echoing in my ear clear as day, “When your senior year rolls around, all of the boys will come to their senses, and they will be looking for the girls who are going off to college, who haven’t been around, the ones that are going to do something with their lives.” Even though I was and still am very young, I admit I had almost given up on my race, but this time I was proved wrong, and ended up finding a black man that treats black women like the queens they are. So I now know that they are still out there, and he will probably never understand how grateful I am for him, because of all of the negativity I’ve had to deal with, but more importantly, anyone who can prove me wrong is more than worthy. However, it may have worked out for me in the end, but I know there are other black girls feeling the same exact way I did feeling unwanted, rejected and being labeled for actions that are not their own, that would give anything just to feel appreciated. Love is love no matter the race, but do not completely rule out a whole group because of the first thing you see. It honestly breaks my heart to see history repeating itself like this, and seeing my brother being one of the people that I despised so much. My fourteen year old brother, his best friend, my cousin they all have a lot to learn and I’m trying my best to give them knowledge and my own experiences, because this type of ignorance is not bliss and if we can’t educate the next generation then no one will.

                                                                             

ScHoolboy Q Profile

Kaelyn Gundrum

12 February 2014
Celebrity Profile

  From “Banger” to “Blessed” ScHoolboy Q has long since proved himself to
underground Hip Hop, and is on the verge of showcasing his talents to the rest of the world. He managed to break loose from his quiet beginning and fall into a world of  trouble before landing in a spot in one of Hip Hop’s hottest upcoming labels, Top Dawg Entertainment.

  Born Quincy Matthew Hanley, one thing that caught my attention and saw in myself about ScHoolboy Q was him being born into a military family and having a peaceful start, but wanting to escape that, and there is no doubt that he found himself his share of trouble. Q was born in Germany on October 26th, 1986. After his parents split up, his mother soon moved him to Texas for three years, then after, they found themselves settling in Los Angeles, California where he was raised. Despite the fact that he played three sports, football, basketball and swimming, and maintained a 3.3 GPA in high school, Q could not manage to resist his surroundings and he soon found himself submerged in a life of gangs and drugs. But by leading a double life, about his books by day and streets by night, he earned the name “ScHoolboy Q”.

  The only outlet Q found to the madness going on around him was music. In his interview with the Hot 97 Morning Show, ScHoolboy Q explains how he feels about his gangbanging now, “Once you adapt to all of that, you get numb. It’s embarrassing for me to even really be talking about it in detail.” And goes on to further explain that he couldn't justify that kind of thing while having a daughter. After being arrested at the age of 21, Q realized that he had to do something with himself. This was the time when he became serious about music, and managed to go from banging off of 51st & Figueroa, to touring around the world.

  In 2006, Q first started working with Top Dawg Entertainment, although he released a mixtape in 2008 titled Schoolboy turned Hustla, he did not sign with TDE until 2009. He spent three years in the “mixtape phase” before finally releasing his first album Setbacks in 2011.
“The concept behind Setbacks was to talk about all of the reasons why I can’t rap. The reason I can’t accomplish what I want to accomplish is because I’m doing all of this dumb stuff.” Q admitted to Complex Magazine in a 2012 interview about his first official album. This time seemed to be when ScHoolboy Q was fully realizing his potential and how great he could be if he just got serious about things.

After realizing that he had a talent, Q decided to put challenge himself and his career has taken off since then. In 2012 he released his second studio album Habits & Contradictions. The album had generally positive feedback with comments on the album such as “truly genuine” “intoxicating” “full of aggression and hurt”  and “an impressive establishing trademark” from reviews in Rolling Stone, XXL, and Complex Magazine. Jayson Green writes in a review on Pitchfork.com “This lily-pad hopping means that it takes a while for buried emotion in Habits & Contradictions to surface.” And this is no secret, the erratic content of each song gives it away. In this album it is noticeable that Q is still semi-serious about some things, but at the same time, he gives us a glimpse of what he can really do and a little bit of his emotions.

  In an odd way, ScHoolboy Q’s life really relates to my own, strangely at this particular time. The way he’s procrastinated and struggled with taking advantage of his full potential in his life is something that I deal with everyday. Like Q, I play around and don’t take things seriously, but when I do, they’re not the things that should be my first priority and I take the chance of jeopardizing my future. That is why he is such an inspiration to me, because he came to his senses and put his talents to use, with nothing but greatness coming from his efforts. With his third album Oxymoron due to release this year on February 25th, ScHoolboy Q’s fans, especially myself, are nothing less than thrilled to see what else he has in store for us.