Bitches and Hoes

I never thought I would be so interested and frustrated about the stereotypes of black people. I always used to say ” Well it’s a stereotype, it’s not about me.”, but now i realize the potential of a stereotype ruining who you try to be as a person. It affects the first impressions you make and how people will perceive you even after they know who you through and through.

In my psychology class today, I learned about the behavioral confirmation bias, that causes people to act they way we perceive them to be. to illustrate, you have meeting with Jane who according to your friend is a little coo-coo, your perception of Jane(coo-coo) will cause you to act differently towards her. Jane on the other hand wanting to be accepted by you will act in a manner that will fit in the way you are treating her. Thus Jane is going to satisfy your perception of her and any changes she tries to make in her personality would have already been clouded by the coo-coo perception you had before you met Jane.

In my opinion this is the same thing that happens with stereotypes. Trying to draw examples of the behavioral confirmation bias from stereotypes in my own life, brings to mind a number of situations. Being from Africa people tend to belief that I am not fluent in the English language nor do I have knowledge about anything modern. .

All that aside, being a black female places so many stereotypes before you. The two I want to talk about are Hoe and Bitch. The Bitch is known to be aggressive and needs to be tamed but the hoe is known to be very sexually active with different men and thus has a lot of experience of sex. These stereotypes, i believe are reinforced through the hip-hop music of today. Every one rhymes and boogies to a story of a bitch being put in her place or how a hoe is fucked. Funny, even us girls wine to these songs. We then stand aback and claim the song is not about us, so why care. What we need to realize is that those songs may affect how that manager will look at you when you go for that interview. that song will affect that relationship you are trying to commit or even how many people listen to you during your presentation.

Black women should fight against such discriminating music in order to save ourselves from a negative behavioral confirmation bias. Black women need to own their bodies in a way to bring them pride and success.

Remember that your bodies are the temples of God don’t let anyone mess with God’s property!