Aggressive Encounters & White Fragility: Deconstructing the Trope of the Angry Black Woman

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2017

Aggressive Encounters & White Fragility:

Deconstructing the Trope of

the Angry Black Woman

Trina Jones

& Kimberly Jade Norwood

ABSTRACT: Black women in the United States are the frequent targets of

bias-filled interactions in which aggressors: (1) denigrate Black women; and

(2) blame those women who elect to challenge the aggressor’s acts and the bias

that fuels them. This Article seeks to raise awareness of these “aggressive

encounters” and to challenge a prevailing narrative about Black women and

anger. It examines the myriad circumstances (both professional and social)

in which aggressive encounters occur and the ways in which these encounters

expose gender and racial hierarchies. It then explores how the intersectional

nature of Black women’s identities triggers a particularized stereotype or trope

of the “Angry Black Woman” and explains how this trope is often invoked in

aggressive encounters to deflect attention from the aggressor and to project

blame onto the target. After discussing the harmful effects of aggressive

encounters and the absence of effective legal mechanisms to address them, the

Article sets forth tangible steps that individuals can take to minimize their

incidence.

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 2018

II. WHY FOCUS ON BLACK WOMEN? THE NECESSITY OF

INTERSECTIONAL ANALYSES ........................................................ 2022

A. HISTORICAL ERASURE ........................................................... 2023

B. CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLES ................................................... 2026

Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law. I would like to thank my research

assistants, Kevin Zhao and Gloria Liu, for their excellent contributions to this Article. I am also

grateful to D. Wendy Greene, C.T. Woods-Powell, and my amazing sisters in Ladies Who Love

Books for their probing insights and generous guidance.

Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law and Professor of African & African American

Studies, Washington University. I want to thank my husband, Ronald Alan Norwood, Esquire, for

his insights and editing. I also want to thank all of the Black women whose stories appear here,

for their willingness to have their stories told.

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III. AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS: DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS ......... 2030

A. COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS AND PRIVATE SPACES ............ 2031

B. PROFESSIONAL SETTINGS ....................................................... 2034

C. INTERACTIONS WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT ............................... 2038

D. CROSS-GENERATIONAL EXPERIENCES ...................................... 2041

E. A BRIEF SUMMARY ................................................................ 2044

IV. (DE)CONSTRUCTING THE TROPE OF THE ANGRY BLACK

OMAN ....................................................................................... 2045

V. WHITE FRAGILITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROJECTION: THE

LAME GAME ............................................................................... 2051

A. WHITE TRANSPARENCY, WHITE FRAGILITY, AND AGGRESSIVE

CTS .................................................................................... 2052

B. PSYCHOLOGICAL PROJECTION ................................................ 2055

C. THE DECISIONAL MOMENT AND CONSEQUENCES ..................... 2057

VI. SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS: IS THERE RELIEF IN SIGHT? .......... 2059

A. COALITION BUILDING IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM .................... 2059

B. LEGAL INTERVENTIONS .......................................................... 2063

1. Constitutional and Statutory Claims .......................... 2063

2. Tort Claims .................................................................. 2065

C. CHANGING THE NARRATIVE AND A CALL FOR INDIVIDUAL

CTION ................................................................................ 2066

VII. CONCLUSION .............................................................................. 2068

I. I

NTRODUCTION

May 24, 2016, approximately 11:00 a.m. CDT (as posted on Facebook by

Professor Norwood):

So, I go to Home Depot today to get some paint. When I get to the

paint station, there is a couple sort of hanging back between the aisle

and the station. Another guy is at the station. I say “Hi,” and ask him

if he has been helped. He says “Yes, thank you, but you should check

with that couple over there.” What???????????

Yeah. He thought I worked at Home Depot despite the fact that

(1) I DID NOT have on one of those bright ass orange vests, and

(2) I LOOKED like the OTHER people in Home Depot: t-shirt and

jeans. Ok. I smile. I whisper to him, “I don’t work here; no need to

check with them. . .”

Then another man comes over. He looks at me and the dude I am

standing behind. He proceeds to stand at a different part of the

station. Paint person arrives. He helps the guy I originally spoke with.

Then he asks, “Who is next?” The couple says nothing. I raise my

hand to say me, and the guy last on the scene says “No, I’m next.”

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So, I say, “Wait, not true. I was . . .” THEN DUDE COMES OVER TO

ME, while I am in MIDsentence, GETS IN MY FACE—he is a white

male, both older and ALOT shorter than me—and YELLS IN MY

PERSONAL SPACE that he was there first and I need to wait my turn.

Wait, did you read that? GETS IN MY FACE?????????? YELLS?????

MY???????????? PERSONAL?????????? SPACE???????????????

At this point in the story, I won’t share the exact words or tone or

volume of my response because I don’t want to lose some of you FB

fam who think so highly of me . . . but suffice it to say, I DO owe some

context (and maybe a piece of apology) to all in West County who

unwittingly became a part of my response. . . .

I will say that I demanded to see a manager. Poor sales person. He

was like, “I’m sorry! I didn’t know.” I assured him that I had no beef

with him. He did the right thing by asking who was next. The

problem was with the customer. Indeed, what should be done in

those situations? Maybe you call for backup immediately. I don’t

know. What I do know is that I was NOT about to be ignored and

made to wait. I know that. So, after demanding to see a manager, I

decided, hell with this, I am leaving.

As I am about to walk away, crazy man comes back near me and says:

“Look! I got here 20 minutes ago! No one was here so I got other

stuff I needed and now I’m back so I was here and I am next!”

Read that sentence again. “Look! I got here 20 minutes ago! No one

was here so I got other stuff I needed and now I’m back so I was here

and I am next!”

WHAT????? WHO in the world can LEAVE a line, go get other shit,

and then come back and tell the people who were not there before

that they were there first????????????

WOW. Kicker: He adds: “I didn’t even see you. You were NOT here.”

Hmmm. . . I didn’t even see you.

So, (1) he looked at me when he arrived. I KNOW he saw me. (2) I

am just under 6 feet tall. Tall girl! (3) I have beautiful chocolate skin.

Beautiful! (4) I have beautiful locs (thanks Michelle Yikhenah

Jamillah Borland). Locs! (5) I have really powerful eyes! Powerful!

(6) I am a “healthy” child as my mom would say. Big! And DESPITE

ALL THAT, he didn’t SEE me? Really?

So - Yes, an angry black woman was in Home Depot on Manchester

in West County today. BUT she had a RIGHT to be angry. . . And

please, don’t write a comment telling me that I spent more time on

this post than it is worth. I get to decide what parts of my life I want

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to share. This is a message I wanted my FB fam to know and it is

therapeutic for me to write. Not a waste of time for me.

May 24, 2016, approximately 7:30 p.m. EDT (Experienced and recounted

by Professor Jones):

On the same day as Professor Norwood’s encounter in Home Depot,

I was flying back to my home in North Carolina from Atlanta. I was

well rested, but a bit travel weary as my travel day had begun earlier

in the Dominican Republic. I am a frequent traveler and had chosen

a bulkhead seat for the extra legroom. (Bulkhead seats are on the

first row in each cabin of an airplane. As there is either a wall or

empty space immediately in front of these seats, they lack floor space

for the storage of personal items like a purse. One must store these

items in overhead compartments during takeoff and landing.) As I

entered the economy plus section of the cabin, I immediately

noticed the limited storage space in overhead bins and that the space

above my seat was occupied by safety equipment. I therefore placed

my bag in the overhead bin that was diagonally across the aisle and

one row ahead of my seat.

Enter trouble in the form of a White

businessman, in a designer suit, and fancy shoes. He appeared to be

in his late 30s or early 40s. Businessman demands that I move my

bag so that his companion (note not him, but his companion) could

place his travel bag in the compartment my bag was occupying. He

curtly tells me to place my bag in the compartment behind my seat

as there was more space in the rear of the plane. I pause in the

process of sitting, while he is glaring at me and waiting with the

expectation that I would immediately comply with his demand. I

then quietly, but firmly say to him, “I prefer not to have my handbag

behind me.” (This preference exists not only because I like to keep

an eye on my personal effects, but also because it is more difficult to

exit a plane if your luggage is located behind you.) Instead of making

a scene, however, I move my bag. In the process, I notice

Businessman (who was still standing facing the rear of the cabin)

looking at travelers in the rows immediately behind him with a long-

suffering gaze, and rolling his eyes as if to say “this stupid,

inexperienced woman.” At this point, I’m fuming. I’m mad at Mr.

Arrogant because of his condescending manner. But I’m also mad

at myself because I moved the dang bag and did not deliver a lecture

on patriarchy (assumptions of male superiority and female

inferiority), implicit bias, intersectionality, etc. As I settled in for the

flight, I was stunned by his sheer presumption and I struggled to

recapture my Caribbean-inspired joie de vivre. I kept asking myself:

Would he have made the request had I been a White male business

1. Kimberly Jade Norwood, FACEBOOK (May 24, 2016, 11:00 AM).

2. On this particular plane, bulkhead seats on the left side of the plane faced a wall, while

the right bulkhead seats faced empty space reserved for emergency exits.

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traveler – or any White male? a Black man? a White woman? Maybe.

But would he have made the request in the same demanding and

patronizing fashion – or would he have been too threatened by a

Black man and too solicitous of a White woman to dare suggest that

either was so beneath him that they were not entitled to a modicum

of respect?

This Article is about the invisibility and dehumanization that Black

women experience on a daily basis and the psychological and material harms

that result. It is about how society does not recognize these injuries and

therefore leaves Black women without any form of redress. It is about the

complexity of that fleeting moment when Black women must decide whether

and how to challenge another’s assumptions about Black women’s status and

“place.” It is about the consequences of exercising voice, whether in angry or

moderated tones, and how that exercise can render one hyper visible and

threatening. It is about the phenomenon of displaced blame and how any

response to an aggressive encounter immediately risks deflecting attention

from the aggressor and placing blame squarely on the target. It is about how

in an instant, a reasonable Black woman, who is just going about her business,

gets transformed into the trope of the Angry Black Woman. It is about

intersectionality and what Black women, because they are Black and female,

experience at the hands of White men, Black men, and White women. It is

about White fragility and how very far the United States has to go to escape

the shackles of patriarchy and White supremacy.

As used herein, aggressive encounters are bias-filled interactions in which

aggressors: (1) denigrate Black women; and (2) blame women who elect to

challenge the aggressor’s acts and the bias that fuels them. This term captures

both micro-aggressive as well as macro-aggressive behavior.

Some aggressive

3. Trina Jones, Experienced on Delta Flight 1753 in seat 20A from Atlanta, Ga. to Raleigh-

Durham, N.C. (May 24, 2016).

4. This Article uses the word Black instead of African American. African American

generally refers to Black people in the United States who trace their ancestry to persons who were

enslaved and forcibly brought to this country from the African continent. Black is a more

universal term, including not only African Americans, but any brown descendent of the African

diaspora, regardless of whether they were born in the United States or in some other place (e.g.,

Brazil, the Caribbean, the African continent). Black thus includes persons described as Colored,

Negro, African American, persons of color, etc.

5. For a definition of these terms, see Anthony V. Alfieri, Community Prosecutors, 90 C

ALIF.

L. REV. 1465, 1503 (2002). Professor Alfieri notes:

Critical race theory delineates two kinds of aggression: micro and macro. Racial

aggression differs from racial violence in its sparing use of material force and

physicality. Exerted by individuals and at times groups, microaggression aims chiefly

at the individual person of color: his or her state of mind, language, and daily act of

being in the world. Macroaggression, in contrast, points to the collective community

of color. Enacted by groups, often in concert with the state, or by the state itself,

macroaggression unleashes cultural, economic, and political forces of harm. Those

forces may cause cultural degradation, economic hardship, or political

disenfranchisement.

Id.; see also Derald Wing Sue et al., Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Implications for Clinical

Practice, 62 A

M. PSYCHOLOGIST 271, 271 (2007) (“Racial microaggressions are brief and

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encounters, like those described earlier in the Home Depot and airplane

examples, are initiated without Black women doing anything other than just

being. Other aggressive encounters occur when Black women speak in

opposition to an injustice that has been done to another person (e.g., object

to the unfair treatment of a family member). In both scenarios, aggressors

respond by shifting attention from their underlying acts and deflecting blame

to Black women.

This Article seeks to raise awareness of aggressive encounters and to

change the narrative concerning Black women and anger. The analysis

proceeds as follows: Part II explains why this Article focuses on Black women

as opposed to other targets of aggressive encounters. Part III examines the

myriad circumstances (both professional and social) in which aggressive

encounters occur and then analyzes the ways in which these encounters

expose gender and racial hierarchies. Part IV explores how the intersectional

nature of Black women’s identities triggers a particularized stereotype or

trope of the “Angry Black Woman.” Part V examines White fragility, explains

how it factors into the moment when Black women must decide whether to

respond to aggressive acts, and analyzes the ways in which the exercise of voice

by Black women leads to psychological projection and displaced blame. Part

V then discusses some of the very real and harmful effects of aggressive

encounters. Part VI explores implications of this analysis and sets forth

possible solutions.

II. W

HY FOCUS ON BLACK WOMEN?

THE NECESSITY OF INTERSECTIONAL ANALYSES

Black women are not the only targets of aggressive encounters. White

women and Black men, among others, also experience macro- and micro-

aggressive behaviors. Without seeking to diminish the significance of White

women’s and Black men’s experiences, this Part explains why Black women

merit separate analysis. In short, this Part explains that Black women’s realities

and the stereotypes to which they are subject overlap with, but sometimes

differ from, those of their allies in struggles for racial and gender justice.

Thus, conflating the experiences of Black women with those of Black men or

White women—or assuming that Black women’s concerns will be addressed

in one-dimensional discussions of race or gender—renders the harms that

Black women face invisible.

commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or

unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward

people of color.”).

6. As Professor Paulette Caldwell has noted:

[B]lack women’s invisibility serves to blind all women and all blacks to the interactive

relationship between race and gender, leads to the development of legal theories

and social policies directed at either race or gender without fully considering the

implications of such theories and policies, and ultimately assures the perpetuation

of domination on the basis of race and gender for all women and members of

subordinated races.

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A. HISTORICAL ERASURE

For centuries, Black women have pointed to the ways in which they are

differently situated from Black men and White women. For example, in 1851,

Sojourner Truth—a Black female civil rights advocate—disrupted and

ultimately saved a Women’s Rights Convention, when she famously asked

“Ain’t I a Woman?”

The White suffragists who had convened the conference

feared that their message would be eclipsed or harmed if it were intertwined

with abolitionist efforts.

Indeed, Sojourner’s presence set off a wave of panic

and nervous energy amongst the assembly, with several women anxiously

beseeching the chair of the convention, Frances Dana Gage, to prevent

Sojourner from speaking.

After sitting silently and listening to White women

describe the discrimination to which they were subject, and more importantly,

when White male theologians assailed these women, Sojourner stood and

shared the following:

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be

something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South

and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men

will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into

carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place

everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-

puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at

me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered

into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could

work as much and eat as much as a man––when I could get it––and

bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen

children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out

with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a

woman?

Paulette M. Caldwell, A Hair Piece: Perspectives on the Intersection of Race and Gender, 1991 DUKE L.J.

365, 395.

7. The story of what transpired at this Convention is recounted in several places, with

different spellings used to capture Sojourner’s words. This Article uses language set forth on the

Sojourner Truth Memorial website. Sojourner’s Words and Music, S

OJOURNER TRUTH MEMORIAL,

http://sojournertruthmemorial.org/sojourner-truth/her-words (last visited May 2, 2017) (“‘Ain’t

I a Woman?’ as recounted by Frances Gage, in 1863”); see also N

ELL IRVIN PAINTER, SOJOURNER

TRUTH: A LIFE, A SYMBOL 164–75 (1996) (using different spellings).

8. P

AINTER, supra note 7, at 166 (recounting events at the Convention as told by Frances

Dana Gage). Painter notes, however, that Gage may have overemphasized the anti-black

sentiment in her account. Id. at 169.

9. Id. at 166–67.

10. S

OJOURNER TRUTH MEMORIAL, supra note 7. Sojourner also offered a powerful rebuttal

(reportedly with some success) to the theologians’ assertions that women were too mentally

feeble to vote, and inferior to men because God/Jesus was a man. Sojourner observed:

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of

audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s

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In this powerful speech, Sojourner not only proclaimed Black women’s

womanhood, she also called attention to Black women’s history of oppression

and the fact that in key respects this history differed from that of White

women. Unlike White women, who allegedly had been placed on a pedestal

(which was revealed to be a cage)

and who had been assumed too delicate

to exercise basic civil rights like the right to vote, Sojourner noted that Black

women had plowed and planted and endured the ravages of slavery.

Yet,

they too were denied the right to vote. In short, Sojourner revealed that

arguments used to subordinate White women were different from and at

times contradicted by arguments that were used to subordinate Black women.

This formerly enslaved woman and itinerant preacher clearly saw the

intersectional nature of women’s experiences and the ways in which

recognition of this multidimensionality could counter arguments made to

oppress all women (e.g., Black women’s experiences in 1851 countered the

narrative that women were too delicate to exercise basic rights of citizenship).

In her vulnerability, Sojourner exercised her powerful voice to expose and to

resist: (1) the prioritization of White women’s needs; and (2) the assumption

that White women’s experiences represent the experiences of all women,

when in fact they do not.

A similar challenge to the erasure of Black women’s history, the

prioritization of White women’s objectives, and the assumption of a universal

women’s experience has been made by women of color in the academy. In

1982, in a powerful collection of essays entitled All the Women Are White, All the

Blacks are Men, But Some of Us are Brave,

Gloria Hull and other Black feminists

rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart,

wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men,

‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your

Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down

all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side

up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Id.

11. As Justice Brennan famously noted, the “romantic paternalism” justification for sex

discrimination put White women in a cage, rather than on a pedestal. Frontiero v. Richardson,

411 U.S. 677, 684 (1973) (“Traditionally, [sex] discrimination [in the United States] was

rationalized by an attitude of ‘romantic paternalism’ which, in practical effect, put women, not

on a pedestal, but in a cage.”).

12. P

AINTER, supra note 7, at 167.

13. These challenges not only affected first-wave feminism, they also plagued second-wave

feminism. For a discussion of the ways in which first- and second-wave feminism failed to address the

specific needs of women of color see A

NGELA Y. DAVIS, WOMEN, RACE & CLASS 110–26 (1981); ESTELLE

B. FREEDMAN, NO TURNING BACK: THE HISTORY OF FEMINISM AND THE FUTURE OF WOMEN 91–93

(2002); P

AULA GIDDINGS, WHEN AND WHERE I ENTER: THE IMPACT OF BLACK WOMEN ON RACE AND SEX

AMERICA 159–70, 299–311 (1996); and Kirsten West Savali, ‘When and Where I Enter’: The Racist

Expectations of Whites-Only Feminism, R

OOT (Apr. 23, 2016, 3:00 AM), http://www.theroot.com/when-

and-where-i-enter-the-racist-expectations-of-whit-1790855079.

14. See generally A

LL THE WOMEN ARE WHITE, ALL THE BLACKS ARE MEN, BUT SOME OF US

ARE BRAVE: BLACK WOMEN’S STUDIES (Gloria T. Hull et al. eds., 1982).

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examined how discussions of gender and race often exclude the voices of

Black women. In other words, the essays explore how Black women are

rendered invisible in both dialogues about race and dialogues about gender.

In the legal academy, Professors Kimberlé Crenshaw and Angela Harris

have offered similar critiques to Hull. In her seminal article, Demarginalizing

the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination

Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,

Professor Crenshaw critiques

the “tendency to treat race and gender as mutually exclusive categories of

experience and analysis.”

She notes:

[D]ominant conceptions of discrimination condition us to think

about subordination as disadvantage occurring along a single

categorical axis. . . . [T]his single-axis framework erases Black

women in the conceptualization, identification and remediation of

race and sex discrimination by limiting inquiry to the experiences of

otherwise-privileged members of the group. In other words, in race

discrimination cases, discrimination tends to be viewed in terms of

sex- or class-privileged Blacks; in sex discrimination cases, the focus

is on race- and class-privileged women.

This focus on the most privileged group members marginalizes

those who are multiply-burdened and obscures claims that cannot

be understood as resulting from discrete sources of

discrimination. . . . [T]his focus on otherwise-privileged group

members creates a distorted analysis of racism and sexism because

the operative conceptions of race and sex become grounded in

experiences that actually represent only a subset of a much more

complex phenomenon.

Importantly, Professor Crenshaw maintains that Black women’s

experiences are not merely additive (Black men’s experience + White

women’s experience = Black women’s experience). Rather, Crenshaw’s

insight is that race and gender are always interconnected and never exist as

separately distinct, disaggregated identities.

15. The anthology provided materials for courses in the nascent field of Black women’s

studies. In speaking to the need to study Black women’s experiences, Hull notes that “[w]omen’s

studies courses . . . focused almost exclusively upon the lives of white women, [and] Black studies,

which was much too often male-dominated, also ignored Black women.” Id. at xx.

16. See generally Kimberlé Crenshaw, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black

Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics, 1989 U.

CHI.

LEGAL F. 139.

17. Id. at 139.

18. Id. at 140 (emphasis added).

19. Other scholars have employed different terminology in critiquing a single-axis

framework. See, e.g., Devon W. Carbado, Black Rights, Gay Rights, Civil Rights, 47 UCLA

L. REV.

1467, 1518 (2000) (describing the problem as one of “compound discrimination”); Darren

Lenard Hutchinson, Out Yet Unseen: A Racial Critique of Gay and Lesbian Legal Theory and Political

Discourse, 29 C

ONN. L. REV. 561, 633–34 (1997) (employing the term “multidimensionality”);

Mari J. Matsuda, When the First Quail Calls: Multiple Consciousness as Jurisprudential Method, 14

OMEN’S RTS. L. REP. 297, 297–99 (1992) (employing the phrase “multiple consciousness”).

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Professor Angela Harris has added to the analysis by pointing out that

there is nothing “essential” about gender that causes all women to share the

same experience of sexism. There is no monolithic or universal “women’s

experience.” Rather, “sexism” is always mediated by racism, classism,

homophobia, etc.

Harris explains:

[T]he result of th[e] tendency toward gender essentialism . . . is not

only that some voices are silenced in order to privilege others (for

this is an inevitable result of categorization, which is necessary both

for human communication and political movement), but that the

voices that are silenced turn out to be the same voices silenced by

the mainstream legal voice of “We the People”—among them, the

voices of black women.

Harris extends her anti-essentialism critique to race, noting that “[a]

corollary to gender essentialism is ‘racial essentialism’—the belief that there

is a monolithic ‘Black Experience,’ or ‘Chicano Experience.’”

Although the

majority of this Subpart has examined gender essentialism, interrogating

racial essentialism is equally important because society often overlooks Black

women’s contributions to racial justice struggles.

B. C

ONTEMPORARY EXAMPLES

The above analysis shows that for centuries mainstream feminism has

asked Black women to put aside race and to focus on gender;

at the same

time, movements for racial equality have asked Black women to put their

concerns about sexism on hold until racial justice is achieved.

While

20. See Angela P. Harris, Race and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory, 42 STAN. L. REV. 581,

585 (1990) (defining “gender essentialism” as “the notion that a unitary, ‘essential’ women’s

experience can be isolated and described independently of race, class, sexual orientation, and

other realities of experience”).

21. Id.

22. Id. at 588.

23. See G

IDDINGS, supra note 13, at 183–97, 302 (discussing the complex relationship of Black

men and women in struggles for racial justice); Tarana Burke, History Repeats Itself: The Dangers of Erasing

Women from the Movement, R

OOT (Oct. 22, 2016, 6:15 AM), http://www.theroot.com/history-repeats-

itself-the-dangers-of-erasing-women-fr-1790857379 (discussing history’s failure to acknowledge Black

female leaders of the Civil Rights Movement like Diane Nash, Marie Foster, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou

Hamer, and Johnnie Carr).

24. See Sherri Williams, Historic Exclusion from Feminist Spaces Leaves Black Women Skeptical of March,

NBC N

EWS (Jan. 21, 2017, 9:24 AM), http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/decades-exclusion-

leave-black-women-skeptical-womens-march-n710216 (“[T]he roots of the early feminist movement

were entrenched in disregard for black women. Suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony infamously said, ‘I

will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not

the woman.’”).

25. See Cherise Charleswell, Herstory: The Origins and Continued Relevancy of Black Feminist Thought

in the United States, H

AMPTON INST. (Feb. 27, 2014), http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/black-

feminist-thought.html (“All too often [during the Black Liberation Movement and Women’s

Movement], ‘black’ was equated with black men and ‘woman’ was equated with white women; and the

end result of this was that black women were an invisible . . . .”). Debate surrounding the controversial

nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court illustrates this point. See

Emma Coleman Jordan, Race, Gender, and Social Class in the Thomas Sexual Harassment Hearings: The

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2017] AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS & WHITE FRAGILITY 2027

understanding the need for solidarity, Black women have fought against the

disaggregation of their beings and the conflation of their experiences with

those of Black men and White women. This struggle continues today, as the

following sample of recent incidents illustrates.

Black women’s articulated fear, pre-election 2016, that a Hillary

Clinton presidency would ignore the concerns of women of color.

Black women’s shock and consternation, in the days after the 2016

U.S. presidential election, upon learning that a majority of White

women abandoned Hillary Clinton, feminism, and anti-misogynistic

efforts, among other things, and voted for Donald Trump.

The

voting data reinforced some Black women’s fears that White women

would prioritize White racial hegemony not only over sisterhood,

but also over other equality objectives (e.g., fighting homophobia,

racism, religious inequality, abuse of disabled persons).

The need to create #SayHerName in order to show that women of

color are also subject to violence at the hands of law enforcement.

Hidden Fault Lines in Political Discourse, 15 HARV. WOMEN’S L.J. 1, 7–23 (1992) (analyzing class, race,

and gender conflict during then-Judge Thomas’s hearing).

26. See Britni Danielle, What Do Black Women Really Think About Hillary Clinton’s Nomination?,

BONY (June 9, 2016), http://www.ebony.com/news-views/hillary-clinton-nomination (collecting

Black women’s social media reactions to Hillary Clinton’s presidential nomination); June Eric-Udori,

Why It’s OK for Black Women to not “Be With” Hillary Clinton, R

EVELIST (Oct. 27, 2016), http://www.

revelist.com/real-talk/hillary-clinton-black-women/5451 (describing why Black women might be

concerned about future Clinton policies).

27. Fifty-three percent of White women voted for Donald Trump; 94% of Black women voted for

Hillary Clinton. Charles D. Ellison, Black Women Were the Only Ones Who Tried to Save the World Tuesday

Night, R

OOT (Nov. 9, 2016, 4:00 PM), http://www.theroot.com/black-women-were-the-only-ones-who-

tried-to-save-the-wo-1790857646; see also Shamira Ibrahim, Once Again, Black Women Did the Work White

Women Refused To, VSB (Nov. 9, 2016), http://verysmartbrothas.com/once-again-black-women-did-

the-work-white-women-refused-to (noting that “91 percent of Black Women with a college degree voted

for [Hillary Clinton]”).

28. Ibrahim, supra note 27.

29. See #SayHerName: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women, A

FR. AM. POL’Y F., http://www.

aapf.org/sayhernamereport (last visited May 2, 2017) (describing #SayHerName “as a resource for the

media, organizers, researchers, policy makers, and other stakeholders” to highlight the violence

committed by law enforcement against Black women and girls). Although Black Lives Matter was

founded by three progressive Black women who seek to examine police violence through an

intersectional lens (e.g., by examining all Black lives), public attention has focused primarily on the

high-profile killing of Black men. See About the Black Lives Matter Network, B

LACK LIVES MATTER,

http://blacklivesmatter.com/about (last visited May 2, 2017) (stating that Black Lives Matter “goes

beyond the narrow nationalism that can be prevalent within Black communities, which . . . keep[s]

straight cis Black men in the front of the movement while our sisters, queer and trans and disabled folk

take up roles in the background or not at all”); Lilly Workneh, #SayHerName: Why We Should Declare that

Black Women and Girls Matter, Too, H

UFFINGTONPOST (May 21, 2015), http://www.huffingtonpost.

com/2015/05/21/black-women-matter_n_7363064.html (reporting that several activist organizations

felt that the Black Lives Matter movement “ha[d] become especially focused on the lives of black men,

with women and girls seemingly an afterthought”).

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2028 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

Actress Julie Delpy’s suggestion that sexism is worse than racism in

the entertainment business, a suggestion that ignores that all women

are not White and all Blacks are not men.

The media’s erasure of the accomplishments of Venus and Serena

Williams, who have won multiple Olympic gold medals (among

other championships) in tennis.

The particularized form of gender-race-class norming directed at

Black women and girls through regulation of their hairstyles and

appearance. Problematic actions range from school and

employment regulations prohibiting natural hairstyles,

30. During the 2016 debate over racism in Hollywood, Delpy stated:

Two years ago, I said something about the Academy being very white male, which is

the reality, and I was slashed to pieces by the media. . . . It’s funny — women can’t

talk. I sometimes wish I were African American because people don’t bash them

afterward. . . . It’s the hardest to be a woman. Feminists is something people hate

above all. Nothing worse than being a woman in this business. I really believe that.

Sharon Waxman, Julie Delpy Says Hollywood Dumps on Women Most: ‘I Sometimes Wish I Were African

American,’ W

RAP (Jan. 22, 2016, 2:33 PM), http://www.thewrap.com/julie-delpy-hollywood-dumps-

women-sometimes-wish-african-american; see Erin Keane, White Hollywood Meltdown: Now Julie Delpy Says

It’s Harder to be a Woman than to be Black in Hollywood, S

ALON (Jan. 22, 2016, 5:31 PM), http://www.

salon.com/2016/01/22/julie_delpy_says_nothings_harder_than_being_a_woman_in_hollywood_i_

sometimes_wish_i_were_african_american_because_people_dont_bash_them. Where do Black

women fit in Delpy’s frame? Are they just Black and not women? Does their Blackness insulate them

from the ravages of sexism in Hollywood? One suspects that Viola Davis, Halle Barry, Angela Bassett,

and Taraji P. Henson among others would argue that the combination of race and gender are deeply

limiting. T

ARAJI P. HENSON, AROUND THE WAY GIRL ch. 11 (2016); Jessica Goldstein, Why Viola Davis

Won’t Stop Talking About Racism in the Entertainment Industry, T

HINKPROGRESS (Sept. 4, 2015),

https://thinkprogress.org/why-viola-davis-wont-stop-talking-about-racism-in-the-entertainment-

industry-7b5b81692c56; Taylor Gordon, Gabrielle Union Says Racism in Hollywood Blocks Black Women from

‘Smart’ Comedic Roles, A

TLANTA BLACK STAR (Feb. 9, 2015), http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/02/09/

gabrielle-union-says-racism-hollywood-blocks-black-women-smart-comedic-roles; Julian Kimble, 15

Years After Halle Berry’s Historic Oscar Win, Black Actresses Remain Afterthoughts, C

OMPLEX (Feb. 21, 2017),

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2017/02/halle-berry-oscar-win-racism-sexism-hollywood.

31. After winning a gold medal at the Rio Olympics, the media praised Andy Murray for

being the first person to win two Olympic medals in tennis. Murray promptly corrected the

media’s error by noting, “I think Venus and Serena [Williams] have won about four each.” Marie

Solis, Andy Murray Was Lauded for Having Achieved a “First” the Williams Sisters Already Claimed,

MIC

(Aug. 15, 2016), https://mic.com/articles/151530/andy-murray-was-lauded-for-having-achieved-a-

first-the-williams-sisters-already-claimed?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=main&utm_

campaign=social#.QAwhAcYXr. Interestingly, in reporting on the media’s mistake, the press

emphasized the erasure of “women’s athletic achievements”—and overlooked that Venus and

Serena are Black women. Id.

32. See, e.g., Equal Emp’t Opportunity Comm’n v. Catastrophe Mgmt. Sols., No. 14-13482,

2016 WL 7210059, at *1 (11th Cir. Dec. 13, 2016) (finding that an employer’s decision to rescind

an offer of employment unless a Black female applicant cut her locs before beginning employment

was not an unlawful act of race discrimination under Title VII); Rogers v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 527 F.

Supp. 229, 231 (S.D.N.Y. 1981) (finding that American Airlines’ policy against braided hairstyles

did not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, or race and sex); Lasha, Opinion, Black Girls Shouldn’t

Have to Protest to Wear Their Natural Hair, E

BONY (Aug. 30, 2016), http://www.ebony.com/news-

views/pretoria-girls-high-protest#axzz4J4LNQq8H; Allison Ross, Attica Scott: Hair Policy ‘Stinks of

Racism,’ C

OURIER-J. (July 29, 2016, 3:01 PM), http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/

education/2016/07/28/attica-scott-hair-policy-institutional-racism/87656240 (describing a school’s

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comments about the hair of Black athletes and the children of

celebrities.

The problem was underscored recently in Bill

O’Reilly’s comment that he “didn’t hear a word [Congresswoman

Maxine Waters said while speaking on the floor of the House

because he] was looking at the James Brown wig.”

Social media postings and musings subjecting Michelle Obama’s

bare arms to more ridicule than Melania Trump’s nude body.

dress code that specifically prohibited dreadlocks, cornrows and twists, which are hairstyles favored

by Black girls with natural hair). For detailed discussion of the politics of Black hair, see generally

Caldwell, supra note 6; and Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Another Hair Piece: Exploring New Strands of

Analysis Under Title VII, 98 G

EO. L.J. 1079 (2010).

33. In both the 2012 Olympics and the 2016 Olympics, gymnast Gabby Douglas was attacked by

both Black and White women who asserted that her hair was too “nappy” and “unkempt,” among other

things. Adele Jackson-Gibson, Black Athletes and Hair: Gymnasts and the Controversy Caused by Gabby

Douglas’ Hairdo, E

XCELLE SPORTS (Feb. 1, 2017), http://www.excellesports.com/news/gymnasts-

gabby-douglas-hair; Kyra Kyles, From Blue Ivy to Alicia Keys: Stop Policing Black Women’s Looks, E

BONY (Sept.

2, 2016), http://www.ebony.com/life/alicia-keys-blue-ivy#axzz4J7bfcLTJ; see also Jia Wertz, Grown

Adults Are Calling Blue Ivy Ugly on the Internet, H

UFFINGTON POST (Sept. 14, 2016), http://www.

huffingtonpost.com/entry/grown-adults-are-calling-blue-ivy-ugly-on-the-internet_us_57c83f1ee4b06c

750dd8e510 (recording the comments of women, presumably of all races and ethnicities, who had

viciously attacked the appearance of Beyoncé’s five-year-old daughter on the internet).

34. Amy B. Wang, Maxine Waters Swings Back at Bill O’Reilly: ‘I’m a Strong Black Woman and I

Cannot be Intimidated,” W

ASH. POST (Mar. 29, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/

the-fix/wp/2017/03/28/bill-oreilly-compared-a-black-congresswomans-hair-to-a-james-brown-

wig/?utm_term=.3ce2a1b9dd4e. O’Reilly’s comment prompted Dr. Julianne Malveaux to

observe:

When men don’t get their way, their response is, all too often, to denigrate a

women’s looks, her hair, or her virtue. Thus Bill O’Reilly claims that he was “joking”

when he said he was too busy looking at Congresswoman Maxine Waters “James

Brown wig” to hear what she was saying. Of course, he apologized, but that was a

pretty low blow, and inaccurate, as well. But consistent with the way some R’s talked

about Michelle Obama’s body, and the way WH Press Secretary fussed at journalist

April D Ryan for shaking her head. I’ve not heard him deal with anyone else’s body

language, nor have I heard O’Reilly talk about anyone else’s hair. What is wrong with

these people? And where are our white “sisters” on this madness? I can already

imagine what they’d be saying if a white woman were so denigrated! I must admit,

with everything else in the world going on, this seems kind of small and petty. At the

same time it is just reflective of what too many Black women have to deal with each

and every day.

Julianne Malveau, F

ACEBOOK (Mar. 30, 2017, 12:29 P.M), https://www.facebook.com/julianne.

malveaux.

35. For a comparison of the treatment of Michelle Obama and Melania Trump, see Charles

Badger, What if Melania Trump Were Black? A Case Study in White Privilege by Charles Badger, B

ROTHA

ONLINE (Aug. 11, 2016), http://brothaonline.com/what-if-melania-trump-were-black-a-case-study-in-

white-privilege-by-charles-badger. Of course, the former First Lady has been called everything from ugly

to apelike since her first days in the White House. See Univision Host Sorry for Ape Remark About US First

Lady, BBC

NEWS (Mar. 13, 2015), http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31877927. She was

infamously mocked in emails discovered by the Department of Justice during their investigation of the

Ferguson, Missouri Police Department. D

EP’T OF JUSTICE, INVESTIGATION OF THE FERGUSON POLICE

DEPARTMENT 72 (2015), https://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/department-of-

justice-report-on-the-ferguson-mo-police-department/1435 (referencing an email that depicted the

former First Lady dancing topless with African women at a fictitious “High School Reunion”).

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2030 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

The disproportionate shaming of Black mothers who require

treatment for substance abuse, despite the fact that White and Black

women use drugs at roughly the same rates.

These examples underscore that a focus on Black women is necessary to

render visible the harms to which Black women are subject and to prevent

their continued marginalization. Not only is this focus required for Black

women’s survival, it is necessary to counter arguments that are used to

subordinate and exclude all women (as Sojourner’s experience at that

Women’s Rights Convention in 1851 so clearly demonstrates).

Again, by focusing on Black women, this Article does not seek to negate

the discrimination to which Black men and White women are subject; Black

men experience racism, and White women experience sexism. Moreover,

because there are important similarities in all forms of oppression,

oppressed individuals are necessary partners in liberation struggles. To focus

with particularity on Black women in order to call attention to and to describe

clearly Black women’s realities does not mean that only their experiences of

oppression matter. This is the important difference between focus (to draw

attention to a particular group) and exclusion (suggesting that only that

group matters) that many opponents of the Black Lives Matter Movement

miss.

Like #SayHerName, this Article contends that Black women’s

experiences matter and require careful examination.

III. A

GGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS: DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS

This Article turns now to describing aggressive encounters. Importantly,

the two encounters with which this Article opened are neither rare nor

isolated. Rather, they describe frequent occurrences in the lives of Black

women. Indeed, every Black woman with whom the authors discussed this

36. Black mothers with substance abuse problems are sometimes labeled “black addicted

mom[s].” Kassandra Frederique & Lisa K. Sangoi, Demonization of Simone Biles’ Birth Mother Shows

National Addiction to Shaming Black Women, R

OOT (Aug. 24, 2016, 6:11 AM), http://www.theroot.com/

demonization-of-simone-biles-birth-mother-shows-nationa-1790856493. Yet, as Kassandra Frederique

and Lisa K. Sangoi note:

[This] trope [is] reserved for black mothers, despite the fact that white and black

women use drugs at roughly the same rates . . . . This wholly inaccurate trope gave

rise to some of the most infamous policies of mass incarceration, such as sentencing

disparities in which penalties for crack were 100 times harsher than for cocaine.

Less discussed in the mainstream media is how politicians have offered this trope to

justify policies and practices that surveil and punish black women and parenthood—

for example, requiring parents to submit to unannounced inspections of their

homes by public assistance or child welfare caseworkers; or requiring parents to pass

drug tests to do anything from receiving food assistance to taking their child home

from the hospital.

Id.

37. See The Combahee River Collective, A Black Feminist Statement, in Hull, supra note 14, at

13 (asserting that “major systems of oppression are interlocking”).

38. Scott Jaschik, The Law Professor Who Answered Back, I

NSIDE HIGHER ED (July 12, 2016),

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/07/12/law-professor-responds-students-who-

complained-about-her-black-lives-matter-shirt.

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2017] AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS & WHITE FRAGILITY 2031

project soberly shared similar encounters. Black women are immediately

familiar with aggressive encounters because their daily lives are filled with

opportunities for emotionally draining interactions. Through illustrative

examples,

this Part highlights the prevalence of aggressive encounters.

These encounters occur in all facets of Black women’s lives—from retail

establishments, to professional settings, to interactions with the criminal

justice system—and in all stages of Black women’s lives, from childhood

through adulthood.

A. C

OMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS AND PRIVATE SPACES

It is widely known that staff in retail department stores often ignore or

dismiss Black women customers or surveil and follow Black women as if they

were potential shoplifters.

Professor Patricia Williams tells of one such

encounter in The Alchemy of Race and Rights.

Describing a holiday shopping

excursion after buzzers had become popular in boutiques in New York City,

she notes:

39. This Subpart relies on anecdotal data. Please note that this Article is the first part of an

on-going project in which the authors will be collecting more systemic data.

40. As Professor Norwood once shared in a CNN.com Opinion she wrote shortly after

Michael Brown’s killing in August of 2014:

When I shop, I’m often either ignored as a waste of time or scrutinized as a potential

shoplifter. In June, my daughter and I walked into the china and crystal department

at a Macy’s department store. I was about to speak to the salesperson directly in front

of me. She walked right past me to welcome the white woman behind us. My

daughter looked at me and said: “Really? Did she just ignore us?” My daughter is a

young teenager at the crossroads of “skin color doesn’t matter” and “oh yes, it does.”

She is in transition. I felt hurt, anger and embarrassment. But this kind of encounter

happens routinely.

Kimberly Norwood, Opinion, Why I Fear for My Sons, CNN (Aug. 25, 2014, 5:04 PM), http://www.cnn.

com/2014/08/25/opinion/norwood-ferguson-sons-brown-police/index.html. Professor Jones

similarly has lost count of the number of times she has been approached, while shopping in a retail

store, by women asking for another size or where a particular department or thing was located. When

greeted with a blank stare, a shrug, or “I don’t work here,” these women generally realize their mistake

and scurry away—usually without an apology. For more on “shopping while Black,” see Dean A. Dabney

et al., Who Actually Steals? A Study of Covertly Observed Shoplifters, 21 J

UST. Q. 693, 696–98, 715 (2004),

http://users.clas.ufl.edu/rhollin/Who_actually_steals.pdf (discussing surveillance bias by retail

personnel and concluding that “[t]he lack of a direct relationship between sex, race, and shoplifting

runs counter to the stereotypical assumptions underlying commonly held profiling strategies”); Darren

K. Carlson, Racial Profiling Seen as Pervasive, Unjust, G

ALLUP (July 20, 2004), http://www.gallup.com/

poll/12406/Racial-Profiling-Seen-Pervasive-Unjust.aspx (reporting that 49% of those surveyed think

that “racial profiling is used widely by those attempting to prevent theft in shopping malls and stores;”

that number increased to 67% for Blacks and 63% for Hispanics); and Nadra Kareem Nittle, How

Shopping While Black Hurts African Americans, T

HOUGHTCO. (Nov. 16, 2015), https://www.thoughtco.

com/racial-profiling-in-retail-2834831 (describing the ways in which Black shoppers are “follow[ed],

question[ed], ignore[d], or otherwise disrespect[ed]”). See also Chris Hoenig, New Claims of Racial

Profiling Against Major Retailers, D

IVERSITYINC (Oct. 28, 2013) http://www.diversityinc.com/news/new-

claims-racial-profiling-major-retailers (describing lawsuits filed against Barneys and Macy’s by Black

men alleging that they were racially profiled by these stores).

41. See generally

PATRICIA J. WILLIAMS, THE ALCHEMY OF RACE AND RIGHTS: DIARY OF A LAW

PROFESSOR (1991).

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2032 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

I was shopping in Soho and saw in a store window a sweater that I

wanted to buy for my mother. I pressed my round brown face to the

window and my finger to the buzzer, seeking admittance. A narrow-

eyed, white teenager wearing running shoes and feasting on bubble

gum glared out, evaluating me for signs that would pit me against

the limits of his social understanding. After about five seconds, he

mouthed “We’re closed,” and blew pink rubber at me. It was two

Saturdays before Christmas, at one o’clock in the afternoon; there

were several white people in the store who appeared to be shopping

for things for their mothers.

I was enraged. At that moment I literally wanted to break all the

windows of the store and take lots of sweaters for my mother. In the

flicker of his judgmental gray eyes, that sales child had transformed

my brightly sentimental, joy-to-the-world, pre-Christmas spree to a

shambles. He snuffed my sense of humanitarian catholicity, and

there was nothing I could do to snuff his, without making a spectacle

of myself.

I am still struck by the structure of power that drove me into such a

blizzard of rage.

In addition to being ignored, dismissed, or surveilled, Black women are

frequently assumed to be service personnel. Whether Black women are

shopping in a retail department store or in a supermarket with a cart,

customers, who are almost always White, believe that Black women are store

employees and are there to serve them. A recent encounter by Professor

Norwood demonstrates this phenomenon. She recalls:

Late one night, I was leaving doggy day care with my dog. As I exited

the facility, a White woman was coming in from the other side of the

door. She and I almost collided. She immediately said to me: “Oh,

thank you for bringing her to me.” I said “Excuse me?” And when

she looked down at my dog and realized it was not her dog she said,

“Oh, sorry, I thought they were bringing me my dog.” She had to

look at the dog to realize I was not who she thought I was.

42. Id. at 44–45.

43. Kimberly Jade Norwood, Encounter at Happy Tails in St. Louis, Mo. (Nov. 20, 2016).

Professor Jones recently experienced a similar encounter after boarding a plane. She notes:

As passengers entered the plane through the side door, I was standing slightly

behind the flight attendant in front of my seat organizing my things in preparation

for the long flight. An entering passenger (a White female) looked past the Asian

flight attendant, caught my eye, and asked for a seat belt extension. As I stared back

at her with a look of confusion on my face, she repeated her request, asking, “May I

have an extension, I’m not sure if I’ll need it, but just in case.” I could tell she was

perplexed and getting a little agitated as I continued to look blankly at her.

Thankfully for both me and the other passenger, the flight attendant spoke up and

said, “I’ll get you one as soon as possible.” This interaction left me wondering, what

was it about me that made this passenger assume that I was the flight attendant? I

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When contractors and workmen come to middle- and upper-class Black

women’s homes to work, Black women often encounter quizzical looks when

they open the door, as if the person is trying to figure out who they are

(because they certainly cannot be the homeowner).

Importantly, aggressive

encounters are not always in person. Even “Black-sounding” voices are not

given the same attention as “White-sounding” voices.

In telephone

conversations, women with Black-sounding voicing are sometimes given

misinformation by people or hurriedly dismissed so that they will go away.

did not have on a Delta uniform and certainly was not greeting folks as they entered

the cabin.

Trina Jones, Experienced on Delta Flight 1565 from Atlanta to S.F. (Jan. 3, 2017).

44. Although we have located no empirical studies of this phenomenon, it is unsurprising

given evidence to show that police are sometimes more inclined to believe that Blacks are thieves

rather than homeowners. See C

HARLES J. OGLETREE, THE PRESUMPTION OF GUILT: THE ARREST OF

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR. AND RACE, CLASS AND CRIME IN AMERICA 10, 18–40 (2012) (describing

the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts);

RYAN STEVENSON, JUST MERCY: A STORY OF JUSTICE AND REDEMPTION 39–42 (2014) (recounting

an encounter in which the police appeared not to believe Stephenson’s assertions that he was

outside of his home). Sometimes a mistaken identity can be used to one’s strategic advantage.

One friend revealed the following:

A canvasser (I think Jehovah’s Witness or charity) came to the door of my condo

(rental prior to this house). My mother did not want to be bothered and so she

pretended to be the maid and said she didn’t “know nothing about those donations

or anything.” The woman instantly believed her and left even though my mother was

dressed to go out to dinner with me.

E-mail from Camille Gear Rich, Professor, to Trina Jones & Kimberly Norwood (Dec. 13, 2016)

(on file with authors). This friend added: “For me it’s about finding a way to laugh in the face of

stereotyping and using invisibility to strategic advantage.” Id.

45. For discussion of accent bias, see C

HERYL STAATS ET AL., KIRWAN INST., STATE OF THE SCIENCE:

IMPLICIT BIAS REVIEW 32–33 (2016), http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/

implicit-bias-2016.pdf

(discussing “accent bias” in the employment setting); John Baugh, Linguistic

Profiling, in B

LACK LINGUISTICS: LANGUAGE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS IN AFRICA AND THE AMERICAS 155,

155–66 (Sinfree Makoni et al. eds., 2003) (discussing preferential and discriminatory linguistic

profiling in the United States); Amanda Carlin, The Courtroom as White Space: Racial Performance as

Noncredibility, 63 UCLA

L. REV. 449, 472–74 (2016) (discussing language as a way to mark nonwhite

speakers as demonstrating “noncredibility”); and Patricia Rice, Linguistic Profiling: The Sound of Your

Voice May Determine if You Get that Apartment or Not, S

OURCE (Feb. 2, 2006), https://source.wustl.edu/

2006/02/linguistic-profiling-the-sound-of-your-voice-may-determine-if-you-get-that-apartment-or-not

(discussing the work of linguistics scholar John Baugh). The terms “Black-sounding” and “White

sounding” reference differences in timber and cadence that some people may associate with different

racial groups. To be sure, this terminology is problematic to the extent that Black-sounding is

understood to mean speaking in something other than “standard English” (e.g., with less than perfect

diction or grammar). Id. The ability to use “standard English” is not limited to Whites, just as deviations

from this supposed “ideal” are not limited to Blacks. The problem is that people tend to believe that

those using non-standard English are Black or of lower economic status. See generally J

OHN BAUGH, OUT

OF THE

MOUTHS OF SLAVES: AFRICAN AMERICAN LANGUAGE AND EDUCATIONAL MALPRACTICE (1999).

46. For example, in July 2016, Professor Norwood called a police department in Tennessee,

on behalf of a White client, to inquire about regaining custody of the client’s five-year-old

daughter, who had been kidnapped by a relative. The client did not have the relative’s home

address. The officer on the other line told Professor Norwood they could do nothing without an

address. Really? Despite the fact that the location of kidnapped children is usually not known, an

address was demanded. Professor Norwood later relayed her story to another Black female who

specializes in child custody cases. The lawyer told Norwood: “He could tell from your voice that

you were Black. He probably assumed the child was Black too. The police do not expend the

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2034 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

B. PROFESSIONAL SETTINGS

Aggressive encounters are not limited to retail establishments or private

spaces. Professional Black women are frequently assumed to be secretaries,

clerical assistants, or service personnel in professional settings.

There are

also stories of court clerks and security guards, who assume that the smartly

dressed Black woman standing in front of them could not possibly be a

lawyer,

and of flight attendants who refuse to believe that a Black female

responder to a call for medical assistance might actually be a doctor.

This

refusal to see Black women as professionals happens regardless of how they

are attired or the activities in which they are engaged. Race and gender seem

to trump all other indicators of professional status.

For example, Black

female doctors are often mistaken for nurses or nursing assistants and are

asked to clean rooms, get dinner trays, and help patients to the bathroom,

among other things.

These “mistakes” happen despite the doctor’s uniform

same effort trying to find Black girls.” Telephone Conversation between Kimberly Jade Norwood

and Kathyrn Banks, in St. Louis, Mo. (July 2016).

47. See Carolyn M. West, Mammy, Jezebel, Sapphire, and Their Homegirls: Developing an “Oppositional

Gaze” Toward the Images of Black Women, in L

ECTURES ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN 287, 287–90 (Joan

C. Chrisler et al. eds., 4th ed. 2008); Cate Matthews, Being Mistaken for Kitchen Help Just Made this Exec

More Outspoken, H

UFFINGTON POST (May 28, 2014), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/23/

mellody-hobson-color-blind-color-brave-ted-talk_n_5380095.html; Brigid Schulte, Black and Latina

Women Scientists Sometimes Mistaken for Janitors, W

ASH. POST (Feb. 6, 2015), https://www.washingtonpost.

com/news/local/wp/2015/02/06/black-and-latina-women-scientists-sometimes-mistaken-for-

janitors/?utm_term=.bec410582993.

48. Text exchange by Kimberly Jade Norwood with Attorney Micah Hall (St. Louis, Mo.)

(Dec. 12, 2016).

49. Carolyn Y. Johnson, The Disturbing Reason Why We Don’t Believe Young, Black Women Are Really

Doctors, W

ASH. POST: WONKBLOG (Oct. 14, 2016), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/

wp/2016/10/14/a-black-doctor-wanted-to-save-a-mans-life-first-she-had-to-convince-the-flight-

attendant-she-was-an-actual-physician/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.bd2243e7; see also Ashley Watkins, Why

Black Women’s Success Is so Shocking to White People, H

ELLO BEAUTIFUL, https://hellobeautiful.com/

2910189/black-women-success-white-people/#.WB54nYLixLI.facebook (last visited May 2, 2017). Dr.

Christine Bussey, a Black female cardiologist in the Washington, D.C. area, shared with Professor

Norwood a story of a woman who became unresponsive at an Ocean Breeze Water Park in Virginia

Beach, Va. in August of 2015. The woman needed a doctor. When Dr. Bussey responded, employees

at the Water Park would not let her assist. Dr. Bussey notes:

They would not let me help, saying that I could be pretending to be a doctor since I

had no credentials. . . . I was telling them that I am a BOARD CERTIFIED

CARDIOLOGIST! [Lifeguards] physically held me back. EMS arrived and also

ignored me. It was INFURIATING!!! . . . I was pissed and humiliated. I think she was

going to be ok though. And it was obvious that she was a cardiac patient as she had

a large chest scar like from open heart surgery. This is what I do!

Facebook Message from Dr. Christine Bussey to Kimberly Norwood (Oct. 14, 2016, 9:50 AM)

(on file with author).

50. Importantly, we are not suggesting that Black professional women are “better” than

women who work in clerical or blue-collar positions. All labor is valuable. It is the assumption that

all Black women are service workers to which we object.

51. Mandy Oaklander, 7 Female Doctors Speak Out About Racism and Sexism During Airplane

Emergencies, T

IME (Oct. 21, 2016), http://time.com/4538567/female-doctor-medical-emergency-

airline-racism-sexism; Pamela Wible, Her Story Went Viral. But She Is Not the Only Black Doctor Ignored in an

Airplane Emergency, W

ASH. POST (Oct. 20, 2016), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-

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2017] AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS & WHITE FRAGILITY 2035

(the name tag, the stethoscope, the white coat). Interestingly, patients and

their family members do not require uniforms for White men, who they

generally presume are doctors.

Even when their professional status is clear,

Black women’s credentials and intellect are often questioned. For example,

Black female law professors report being queried, questioned, and challenged

by White law students, usually males, in ways that their White male colleagues

are not.

The aforementioned examples involve relatively short encounters and

mostly with strangers. It is important to note, however, that aggressive

encounters can unfold over time, in familiar settings, and among colleagues.

For example, many Black female professionals, particularly those with

significant tenure in their positions, have experienced advocating for greater

diversity within their institutions. Not only is this work time consuming,

uncompensated, and emotionally draining, it can also wreak havoc on one’s

professional advancement.

This is in part because the norms in elite

institutions

are so strong, and unconscious bias runs so deeply, that one

often encounters resistance (even among co-activists) when one pushes

strongly against the status quo. For example, one of the co-authors of this

Article recently co-chaired a year-long, university-wide task force on diversity

on her campus. Like most efforts directed at institutional change, the

experience was contentious and draining as it required that task force

members grapple with their own biases, unacknowledged privileges, and the

ways in which various groups are differently situated in society on the basis of

race, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. Mindful of Bernice

Johnson Reagon’s insight that coalition building is not done in a womb,

the

co-author and the task force members plowed through, reached consensus,

and ultimately produced a strong final report, with useful recommendations.

The report was delivered to the faculty and University leaders and received

overwhelmingly positive feedback.

A serious problem, however, arose during the subsequent preparation of

materials that were to support the final report. An influential member of the

task force demanded the deletion of text that this person felt was too critical

of certain administrators and administrative offices on campus. Importantly,

this demand was not driven by a concern that the offered criticism was invalid

science/tamika-cross-is-not-the-only-black-doctor-ignored-in-an-airplane-emergency/2016/10/20/3f

59ac08-9544-11e6-bc79-af1cd3d2984b_story.html.

52. Message Exchange with Dr. Christine Bussey, supra note 49.

53. See generally P

RESUMED INCOMPETENT: THE INTERSECTIONS OF RACE AND CLASS FOR

WOMEN IN ACADEMIA (Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs et al. eds., 2012).

54. Cecil Canton, The “Cultural Taxation” of Faculty of Color in the Academy, C

AL. FAC. MAG. (Fall

2013), http://www.calfac.org/magazine-article/cultural-taxation-faculty-color-academy; Audrey

Williams June, The Invisible Labor of Minority Professors, C

HRON. HIGHER EDUC. (Nov. 8, 2015), http://

www.chronicle.com/article/The-Invisible-Labor-of/234098.

55. These norms relate to what constitutes “acceptable” scholarship, academic qualifications,

and life experiences.

56. See generally Bernice Johnson Reagon, Coalition Politics: Turning the Century, in H

OME

GIRLS: A BLACK FEMINIST ANTHOLOGY 343 (Barbara Smith ed., 1983).

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2036 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

or unsupported, but rather it was driven by this person’s expressed fear about

how certain high-level University officials might respond to the criticism. In

other words, this person wanted to remove factual material from a document

due to a fear that the University’s President and Provost (who incidentally

were in charge of the very structures the task force was asked to review) might

respond negatively to it. The co-author, however, strongly believed that if the

task force’s supporting materials were redacted and filtered in this way, then

the work of the task force would be seriously compromised. (One does not

tamper with research results because they are unfavorable). Viewing this as a

matter of professional ethics and integrity, the co-author was unwilling to sign

off on a document that did not reflect fully what the task force had learned,

including insights (though critical) that could have been useful to the

University.

The task force leaders were thus at an impasse, with neither side willing

to budge. After a year of political wrangling and compromise, after enduring

months of micro-aggressive behavior at the hands of the person in question,

after weeks of responding to countless emails fueled by what appeared to be

behind-the-scenes-maneuvering by this same individual, and with a month-

long professional trip mere days away (which would prevent the co-author

from protecting the work product of the task force), the co-author resigned

as co-chair of the task force.

The co-author’s position was eventually vindicated by the executive

committee of the group that had commissioned the task force.

The co-

author, however, felt that irreparable harm had been done to her reputation.

By refusing to concede to her colleague’s demands and by resigning, she was

transformed into “the angry black woman.” Mercurial. Contentious.

Unsteady. Someone to be feared. Not to be trusted. Someone of insight and

principle, but someone too intimidating and unstable to exercise leadership

and judgment on matters of diversity. Importantly, instead of focusing on the

colleague’s acts, which led to the co-author’s resignation, attention shifted to

the author’s response, which many understood yet viewed disapprovingly.

None of these consequences were surprising. After sacrificing a research

leave, after foregoing bed rest following major surgery (against doctor’s

orders), the exhausted act of resignation—which the co-author viewed as an

act of principled resistance—ultimately came to define the co-author’s

contribution and reputation. What makes this an aggressive encounter is that

views about the co-author’s resignation and her subsequent competence were

likely shaped by the co-author’s race and gender. Would the resignation have

been read with greater legitimacy and support had the actor been a White

man, or a White woman?

While the above encounter unfolded over the course of a year and

culminated in a fairly dramatic fashion, Black women experience occurrences

57. Another member, having viewed the “goings on,” also resigned in protest. These

resignations were not coordinated, though many people erroneously believed that they were

given that both persons to resign were Black.

58. The co-author and the other resigning member eventually rejoined the task force.

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2017] AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS & WHITE FRAGILITY 2037

like these with regularity—occurrences in which the very act of speaking

becomes the focus and the problem, rather than the issue to which Black

women’s commentary is directed. For example, when statements about

diversity are made in meetings, Black women must decide whether to ask

questions, knowing that if they do so many people in the room will exchange

knowing glances, as if to say “here she goes again.” In other words, Black

women know that by speaking up, they risk reinforcing their marginal status

within their institutions.

Similarly, they know that if they push for diversity

too hard, too passionately, or in too animated a fashion, then they will likely

encounter backlash. They will be viewed as a squeaky wheel, a troublemaker,

a discontent, as not being a team player. Even if a Black woman is saying the

very things that others are saying, her voice on certain topics (particularly

those involving discrimination and inequality) is viewed with skepticism, as if

her Blackness and womanness disqualify her from speaking.

In these

moments and encounters, others end up criticizing Black women who push

against exclusionary hierarchies instead of the root causes of the problem

(i.e., the exclusionary hierarchies). In short, the raced and gendered voices

of Black women become the problem, rather than the underlying issue to

which they seek to bring attention.

59. This marginalization is why some people of color may elect to remain silent. This of

course creates an interesting dynamic among people of color. Those who speak are likely to be

penalized. Those who silently go along, or who speak more sparingly, are likely to be rewarded

(e.g., with promotions, favorable views by colleagues). One colleague has termed this the “good

news v. bad news negro phenomena.” Conversation between Trina Jones & Kerry L. Haynie,

Professor, in Durham, N.C. (Fall 2015). Ironically, due in part to the efforts of “bad news

negroes,” “good news negroes” are often promoted and held out as evidence of the institution’s

progress on diversity. See also D

EVON W. CARBADO & MITU GULATI, ACTING WHITE? RETHINKING

RACE IN “POST-RACIAL” AMERICA 2, 26, 74–79 (discussing the differential treatment of “good

Blacks,” “but for” Blacks (“‘but for’ the fact that they look black, they are otherwise

indistinguishable from whites”), and those who are perceived as “too Black”).

60. Another experience of Professor Norwood is relevant here. She notes:

During the summer of 2016, while offering implicit bias training to a mostly White

male group of prosecutors, a group of White male prosecutors (and only White male

prosecutors I was told) complained the next morning that they felt that I was

attacking them. They did not feel comfortable; they believed I had an “agenda;” and

they were outraged. Outraged was the exact term used. Similar comments were

expressed by a group of judges, again almost exclusively White males, to whom I

presented earlier that year. This caused me to question, was I doing something in

my presentations to cause these reactions, or was their response race related? I got

my answer several weeks later when a White male judge admitted to me that my

presentation was outstanding, accurate and quite well done. Only problem? I am

black and female. This judge told me that while he was ashamed to admit it, my

presentation would have been better received had I been a White male. This judge

said that he did not subscribe to this opinion but was sharing with me what he heard

from his colleagues. Interestingly, many of these same colleagues purport to be

colorblind.

Kimberly Jade Norwood, St. Louis, Mo. (Summer 2016).

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2038 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

C. INTERACTIONS WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT

Aggressive encounters at the hands of the police are especially troubling

due to the presence of state power and the dangerous, indeed life-

threatening, consequences that might ensue. Consider the experience of a

recent law graduate:

August, 2013. In-keeping with a bourgeoning tradition, I planned to

attend Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park with my [fellow] law

school grads. We were celebrating! We survived law school! And the

BAR! We were on our way!

Partner in tow, I hopped on a train from New York to Chicago. The

first two days in Chicago were just as fun-filled as we had imagined.

On the second day of the festival, my partner asked that we stop by

the Nas performance. By the time we arrived [at] the stage, Nas’

performance had already begun. So I stayed on the ground while my

partner hopped into a tree to get a better view. About five minutes

into the show I was approached by a man asking for a lighter. I did

not have one in my pocket so I decided to search through my bag to

try to give him some matches I thought I had on hand. As I was

searching through my backpack, he must have spotted my

medication [2 pills] in a clear bag. I carried my medication in a

plastic bag and I left the bottle at the hotel. Upon spotting the clear

bag containing my medication he asked me what was in that bag,

and asked if I was here to “have fun.” I explained that it was my

Adderall. Then, for 5 minutes, he tried every which way to convince

me to sell my Adderall to him. “[C]ome on, [he said,] it’s just for my

girlfriend,” “my girlfriend just wants to have a good time.” I had no

interest in selling my medication, but in an effort to end the

conversation I said that my Adderall was already spoken for. He left.

Ten seconds later I was surrounded by 5 uniformed officers, with at

least 2 of them screaming “don’t move!” and “drop the bag!”

Confusing instructions. Before I knew what was happening, my heart

was racing. I thought I was going to die. They grabbed me, tore my

bag from my shoulders, and handcuffed me. I felt as if they were

trying to break my arms. The handcuffs cut into my wrists. One of

the male officers violently rummaged through my backpack. All of

this in front of scores of people. I was humiliated, embarrassed. My

heart was racing. My knees were weak. Why? My partner jumped

from the tree, terrified, and asked what was going on. The officers

screamed at her to back up and step away from them.

Eventually, the officer pulled out the bag my pills were in and

triumphantly yelled, “Got it!” He also pulled out the ten or so dollars

in cash I had in my bag. At this point, I calmly tried to explain the

two pills in the bag but the officer screamed at me: SHUT UP!

They asked for my identification and I directed them to my pockets.

They scanned my identification and asked where I was from. I calmly

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stated that I was visiting from New York to which an officer

responded, “Oh you’re visiting all the way from New York? You came

here just for this?” I was a bit baffled. Lollapalooza is a 3-day music

festival that attracted over 300,000 people in 2013. It is a national

and international music destination that not only draws attendees

from all across the United States, but the world. Yes. I came there

just for that.

The handcuffs. OMG! I turned to the white male officer who put the

handcuffs on me and asked if they could be loosened just a bit. I told

him I had never had handcuffs on before. The pain was excruciating.

His response? “I find it hard to believe that you are visiting from New

York and you’ve never been in handcuffs before.”

I tried to ask what was happening and whether I was in trouble and

being arrested. I was not screaming. I was not loud. I was not

hysterical. In fact, I tried to do everything I could to remain as calm

as possible. That’s when the black female officer got close to my face

and screamed “do you want to be arrested? You could be. Do you want

to fucking be arrested?” I responded that I didn’t and that I just wanted

to know what was going on. My partner explained that we were both

soon-to-be lawyers and we just wanted to know what was happening.

One of the officers scoffed at this possibility and told my partner to

get away from the officers. “If you were really a lawyer you’d

understand that I could arrest you right now for coming this close.”

My partner tried to ask for a name or badge number so she could

follow up if anything happened, but was again threatened with

detainment. At every turn, I and my partner were treated rudely,

disrespectfully and despite all efforts to have a respectful, human

conversation, the police were bent on escalation. Eventually,

something happened and they decided to let me go. They escorted

me through Grant Park (through most of the festival) in handcuffs,

surrounded by 3 officers and past scores and scores of people at the

concert. I was on the verge of tears. My God. How humiliating and

embarrassing this was. At the gate, the officers told me to leave and

to not come back for any other performances that day. I explained

that I had wanted to see a particular act that was performing that

evening, but they said that if I re-entered the park I would be

arrested on sight. I asked why that was the case, and was effectively

told that it was because they said so. Why? I had done nothing wrong.

I was effectively robbed of my $300+ ticket as I could not reenter to

see the rest of the acts. And, as a parting shot, the officer “advised”

me to not come back into the park with a backpack [the next day]

because it made me look suspicious.

…. My God. I am a black woman with dark skin and I wear my hair

in locs. Is that all it takes? I now understand over-exertion of police

authority as an integral part of what it means to be black in America.

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2040 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

I am scared of police now. And I will certainly never go to that park

again. I want to live.

This former student acknowledged that no one in her party was killed;

she was not raped or beaten. Her story reflects a brief moment in time;

approximately 15 minutes of her life that were filled with cuts, stabs, jabs, and

slices at her humanity. She recognizes that her story is not unique and that

others have faced similar and even greater trauma. Consider Sandra Bland,

who was found dead in a jail cell after talking back to a White police officer.

Consider the Black woman who was straddled and beaten like an animal on a

public street in broad daylight,

and the Black women who were raped by an

on-duty police officer.

Consider the Black woman who accidentally locked

herself out of her apartment, called a locksmith to have the locks changed,

and was later confronted by not one, not two, not three, but nineteen police

officers who burst into her apartment, with their guns drawn, accusing her of

burglary.

No apology was forthcoming, neither from the police nor from the

White male neighbor who called law enforcement.

Consider also what might have happened to Professor Michele Goodwin

on a cold dark night in Chicago.

Professor Goodwin was driving down the

street with her four-year-old daughter in the backseat when an unmarked car

pulled behind her, flashed a white light, and motioned her to pull over.

After Professor Goodwin complied, a White man, dressed in civilian attire,

came to the side of her car representing that he was a police officer. When

Professor Goodwin asked for identification, the officer yelled “NIGGER, I’M

61. Interview with anonymous by Kimberly Jade Norwood, Wash. Univ. Sch. of Law, in S.F.,

Cal. (Aug. 6, 2016).

62. David Montgomery, New Details Released in Sandra Bland’s Death in Texas Jail, N.Y.

TIMES (July

20, 2015), https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/us/new-details-released-in-sandra-blands-death-

in-texas-jail.html.

63. Ed Mazza, Marlene Pinnock, Woman in California Highway Patrol Beating Case, Reaches

Settlement, H

UFFINGTON POST (Sept. 25, 2014, 1:41 AM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/

25/marlene-pinnock-california-highway-patrol-beating-settlement_n_5879514.html (describing

how Marlene Pinnock, a 51-year-old grandmother, was straddled by a California state trooper on the

side of a major state highway and punched, full force, repeatedly, in the face, during daylight).

64. Bart Jansen, ‘It’s a Problem for the Nation’: Former Okla. Cop Preyed on Minority Women, USA

TODAY

(Dec. 11, 2015, 8:34 PM), http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/12/11/former-

oklahoma-police-officer-found-guilty-serial-rape/77138186 (discussing an Oklahoma cop’s sexual

assault of women in the low-income neighborhood that he paroled); Michael Martinez & Jethro

Mullen, Victims Describe Assaults by Convicted Ex-Oklahoma City Cop Daniel Holtzclaw, CNN (Dec. 11,

2015, 8:17 PM), http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/11/us/oklahoma-daniel-holtzclaw-verdict/

index.html (same).

65. Fay Wells, My White Neighbor Thought I Was Breaking into My Own Apartment. Nineteen Cops

Showed Up., W

ASH. POST: POSTEVERYTHING (Nov. 18, 2015), https://www.washingtonpost.com/

posteverything/wp/2015/11/18/my-white-neighbor-thought-i-was-breaking-into-my-own-apartment-

nineteen-cops-showed-up/?utm_term=.7b35acd0c180.

66. Id.

67. Michele Goodwin, An Open Letter to Diamond Reynolds, H

UFFINGTON POST (July 13, 2016,

9:24 PM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-goodwin/an-open-letter-to-diamond_b_10

936382.html.

68. Id.

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A POLICE OFFICER!”

At this point, Professor Goodwin’s daughter began

to cry, Professor Goodwin’s friend (a White woman who was sleeping in a fully

reclined passenger seat) woke up and sat forward.

Upon seeing this White

face, the officer backed off.

An investigating officer later told Professor

Goodwin that this police officer had followed her for over 30 miles.

Why stop

her on a dark and deserted street?

“The investigator explained that the case

was so chilling to him that he admonished his wife if such a thing every [sic]

happened to her,” she should “just drive off.”

“Just drive off.” Therein lies

the rub: running, flight, “just driving off” are not options for Black Americans

in police encounters

—neither, it seems, is the exercise of voice.

D. C

ROSS-GENERATIONAL EXPERIENCES

The above examples underscore the ubiquitous nature of aggressive

encounters. Importantly, these encounters do not begin when Black women

reach adulthood.

They commence long before that point, as the following

excerpt from Leah Thomas demonstrates. Ms. Thomas attended an exclusive

69. Id.

70. Id.

71. Id.

72. Id.

73. Id.

74. Id. It should go without saying, but we err on the side of saying it anyway, that many police

officers are honorable, noble, and perform their jobs well. There are, however, some bad apples in the

barrel, and there are officers who have taken sexual advantage of Black women. The latest, most

egregious case at the time of this writing can be found in the DOJ report on the Baltimore Police

Department. See Victoria M. Massie, Department of Justice: Baltimore Cops “Coerced Sex in Exchange for

Immunity From Arrest,” V

OX (Aug. 11, 2016, 6:08 PM), http://www.vox.com/2016/8/10/12429214/

baltimore-police-investigation-justice-department-sexual-misconduct (describing a report of how

Baltimore police officers coerced people “involved in sex work” for immunity); see also Jansen, supra

note 64 (discussing an Oklahoma police officer’s rape of Black women).

75. See Thomas Frank, Black People Are Three Times Likelier To Be Killed in Police Chases, USA

TODAY (Dec. 1, 2016), http://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/blacks-killed-police-chases-

higher-rate (“Deadly pursuits of black drivers were twice as likely to start over minor offenses or

non-violent crimes.”).

76. Recall the horrible treatment of Black girls in McKinney, Texas and at Spring Hill High

School in South Carolina. See Carol Cole-Frowe & Richard Fausset, Jarring Image of Police’s Use of Force at

Texas Pool Party, N.Y.

TIMES (June 8, 2015), https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/us/mckinney-tex-

pool-party-dispute-leads-to-police-officer-suspension.html (“Now a video of a police officer pointing a

gun at teenagers in bathing suits and shoving a young black girl’s face into the ground has become the

latest flash point in relations between the police and minorities.”); Richard Fausset et al., Race and

Discipline in Spotlight After South Carolina Officer Drags Student, N.Y.

TIMES (Oct. 27, 2015), https://www.

nytimes.com/2015/10/28/us/spring-valley-high-school-sc-officer-arrest.html (“Videos of a white

sheriff’s deputy throwing a black high school girl to the floor of a classroom thrust this community into

an unsettling national discussion . . . .”); see also A

FR. AM. POLICY FORUM, CTR. FOR INTERSECTIONALITY

& SOC. POLICY STUDIES, BLACK GIRLS MATTER: PUSHED OUT, OVERPOLICED, AND UNDERPROTECTED 10

(2015), http://schottfoundation.org/resources/black-girls-matter-pushed-out-overpoliced-and-

underprotected (discussing the effects of punitive school disciplinary policies on Black girls). See

generally Let Her Learn: Join the Fight to Stop School Pushout, N

AT’L WOMEN’S L. CTR., http://nwlc.org/

resources/let-her-learn (last visited May 3, 2017) (providing resources for schools regarding how to

treat Black girls).

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2042 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

private school in the St. Louis metropolitan area from fifth grade through

high school and was one of only five Black girls in her class.

She recounts:

[My school was] the kind of place with incredible faculty, advanced

classes, and college level course material—with a side of racism

sprinkled in every now and again in social settings.

. . . .

Here are just a handful of experiences I can remember being a

black, liberal girl, in good ol’ Missouri.

5th grade:

My only black female friend was called “burnt bacon” by another

male student.

A gorilla was drawn on the whiteboard in a 7th grade room. A few

students joked that the picture depicted a black student in the class.

6th grade:

My mom picked us up from school because someone wrote “Kill all

*gay slur* n*ggers/b*tches” in the bathroom and the school was

locked down temporarily. An email was sent out, but I remember a

student telling me “it’s just a joke” when I felt scared.

A guy told me he liked me and I had a crush on him too. I was over

the moon! The next day I overheard him tell his friend about me,

which his friend replied “Man, you can do better than that. How

could you date it?”

This was the first time I’d heard the n-word. I was told “It’s in rap

music Leah”[]and to not be offended.

7th grade:

This was the first time someone told me “Leah you’re not really

black” and proceeded to explain [that my eloquence made me]

closer to being white.

A boy told me he liked me, but he couldn’t tell his parents because

“you know” and pointed to his arm and skin color.

8th grade (First Obama Election):

A student told me this while sitting at the lunch table[:] [“]My dad

said he can’t vote for Obama because Obama is a muslim and he’d

swear on the Q’ran and ruin America[”]

. . . .

77. Leah Thomas, Casual Racism and Political Discussion in St. Louis Private School, LINKEDIN (Dec.

13, 2016), https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/casual-racism-political-discussion-st-louis-private-school-

thomas?published=t.

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2017] AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS & WHITE FRAGILITY 2043

Because of Obama being the first black president, his inauguration

was live-streamed at [the school]. I overheard “Why do we have to

watch this, black people have rights now.”

. . . .

12th grade (Second Obama Election):

I started The Young Democrats Club on campus because at the time,

only The Young Republicans existed.

In my Italian class, a student whispered “Obama is a n*gger from

Kenya.”

In this same class students laughed and accused Obama of not being

a true citizen, they called him a Muslim as though that were an insult,

and said their parents wanted to leave the country.

. . . .

During Ferguson I had to remove a lot of peers from Facebook who

called black people “Animals” and when I questioned them about it

replied “well not you Leah”. “Not you.”

. . . .

I shared maybe two of these experiences on Facebook and was met

with these responses by some:

“damn Leah you know you should have left that school and given

your spot to someone who wanted it and was put on a wait list you

ungrateful spoiled brat”

“Leah you should be silenced because you are full of shit. and you

know it”

“your dad can have a nice little discussion with the board members

at micds. Spreading Lies so they can sue you!”

Leah decided to share her story after conservative students at the school

publicly asserted that the school had been unwelcoming to Trump

supporters, to which the head of the school responded with a letter of

apology.

Leah notes that she did not “expect an apology” for what she

experienced, nor did she “want one.”

She sought only to “point out very real

experiences that [she] had as a black student [in the school and how she] was

told to deal with [those experiences] and [to] be thankful [that she] was even

allowed in that space.”

78. Id.

79. Kristen Taketa, Conservative Students at MICDS Suffer Discomfort, Not Bias, Alumni Say, S

T. LOUIS

POST-DISPATCH (Dec. 13, 2016), http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/conservative-

students-at-micds-suffer-discomfort-not-bias-alumni-say/article_076a7b5e-2896-508e-aad6-67faa5567

8c6.html.

80. Thomas, supra note 77.

81. Id.

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2044 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

E. A BRIEF SUMMARY

The aggressive encounters discussed in this Part reveal three things. First,

aggressors often act based upon preexisting assumptions about Black

women’s status and moral proclivities. Among other things, Black women are

assumed to be thieves, service workers, criminals, drug users, poor, biased,

and irrational. For example, the law graduate in Chicago could not possibly

be visiting from New York, and could not possibly be a lawyer. Within the

minds of those officers, she could only be a drug abuser and up to no good.

Second, these assumptions cause harm. Sometimes the cuts are

immediate and deep, like the student’s humiliation and fear in Grant Park.

Sometimes the initial cut is small, but festers over time. For example, the

woman who is surveilled in a department store or who is assumed to be a

worker at her home, instead of the homeowner, may be simply irritated, until

the same thing happens repeatedly and the realization sinks in that Black

women are at all times assumed to be criminal, economically poor, or

subservient.

Third, these encounters all carry the risk that if a Black woman were to

challenge embedded assumptions, the focus would shift from the aggressor’s

act to the appropriateness of the Black woman’s response. Indeed,

responding to any of the affronts summarized in this Part risks the all too

familiar conclusion: there she goes—that Angry Black Woman! Why is she so

angry? So bent out of shape? So sen-si-tive? In an instant, a Black woman who

pushes back against her marginalization gets transformed by society into the

“Angry Black Woman.” Loud. Erratic. Uncontrollable. Full of attitude. The

problem becomes the Black woman as opposed to the conditions to which she

is responding. In short, the exercise of voice leads to further stereotyping,

backlash, and death by a thousand cuts.

Some would maintain that much of what this Article describes are

temporary inconveniences, that Black women are overreacting, and that they

should “just move on.” This Article pushes back against this tendency to

dismiss or to minimize the micro- and macro-aggressions that are a recurring

theme in Black women’s lives. Not only is each aggressive encounter

emotionally and spiritually draining, but like irritating grains of sand, they can

build and fester until they explode, like Langston Hughes’s raisin in the sun,

or Professor Williams’s blizzard of rage.

The insidiousness of modern

discrimination is that it can be so subtle, yet so constantly present, that many

deny its existence and its effects. Indeed, that is the nature of micro-

aggressions.

82. THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LANGSTON HUGHES 426 (Arnold Rampersad & David Roessel

eds.,

1994).

83. W

ILLIAMS, supra note 41, at 45. For discussion of the potential health consequences of

aggressive encounters, see Freddie Allen, Racism and Stress Killing Black Women, P

ITT. COURIER,

http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2015/04/22/racism-and-stress-killing-black-women (last

visited May 3, 2017); and Monnica T. Williams, The Link Between Racism and PTSD, P

SYCHOL. TODAY

(Sept. 6, 2015), https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culturally-speaking/201509/the-link-

between-racism-and-ptsd.

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2017] AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS & WHITE FRAGILITY 2045

This Article also rejects the notion that these so-called minor infractions

are no more consequential than an isolated inconvenience. Perceptions

formed (or more likely revealed) in one setting often influence behavior (or

reflect behavior) in other spheres. The businessman Professor Jones

encountered on the plane was likely an employer or a supervisor of others.

Does he treat Black females under his supervision the way in which he treated

Professor Jones? How does he interact with Black females in other settings

(e.g., service workers in eateries, janitorial staff in his place of employment,

the occasional Black female teacher in his child’s school)? And what about

that man who launched his verbal abuse at Professor Norwood in Home

Depot? How does he treat the Black females that Home Depot actually

employs? His Black female colleagues at work? The cashier at Starbucks? The

sales clerk in a convenience store? In short, aggressive acts are unlikely to be

limited to one encounter or to one woman. To the extent that these acts are

driven by stereotypes and biases about Black women in general, they are likely

to occur repeatedly in different settings.

IV. (D

E)CONSTRUCTING THE TROPE OF THE ANGRY BLACK WOMAN

As noted in Part II, Black women’s histories and contemporary

experiences differ from those of White women and Black men. These

differing histories, shaped by the intersection of race and gender, inform the

biases and stereotypes to which Black women are subject. This Part examines

these stereotypes more closely and considers the ways in which they play out

in aggressive encounters and constructions of the “Angry Black Woman.”

Consider below, some common stereotypes of White women, Black men,

and Black Women.

84. In addition to minimizing the effects of aggressive encounters, some would deny that

these encounters are about race or gender. To the latter, this Article notes that the aggressors in

aggressive encounters are almost always White, indicating that an underlying racial component

exists, and are frequently male, indicating an underlying gender component. In addition, the

stereotypes and biases to which Black women are subject in these encounters reflect assumptions

which, argued in Part IV infra, flow from a combination of Black women’s race and gender.

85. These stereotypes were drawn from the following materials. See generally M

ELISSA V.

HARRIS-PERRY, SISTER CITIZEN: SHAME, STEREOTYPES, AND BLACK WOMEN IN AMERICA (2011);

OROTHY ROBERTS, KILLING THE BLACK BODY: RACE, REPRODUCTION, AND THE MEANING OF

LIBERTY (1997); Catherine R. Albiston & Laura Beth Nielsen, Welfare Queens and Other Fairy Tales:

Welfare Reform and Unconstitutional Reproductive Controls, 38 H

OW. L.J. 473, 484–87 (1995)

(examining stereotypes of poor Black women); Nathalie A. Augustin, Learnfare and Black

Motherhood: The Social Construction of Deviance, in C

RITICAL RACE FEMINISM: A READER 144, 144–50

(Adrien Katherine Wing ed., 1997) (detailing the image of people on welfare to be

predominately black females); Laura Green, Stereotypes: Negative Racial Stereotypes and Their Effect

on Attitudes Toward African-Americans, 11 P

ERSP. ON MULTICULTURALISM & CULTURAL DIVERSITY,

Winter 1998–99, http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/links/VCU.htm; Linda L. Ammons, Mules,

Madonnas, Babies, Bathwater, Racial Imagery and Stereotypes: The African-American Woman and the

Battered Woman Syndrome, 1995 W

IS. L. REV. 1003; Caldwell, supra note 6 (discussing the use of

stereotypes in employment cases); West, supra note 47.

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2046 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

POSITIVE

NEGATIVE

WHITE

WOMEN

Beautiful

Intelligent

Fun Loving

Warm and Friendly

Morally Upstanding

Nurturing (Good Wives

and Mothers)

Sexually Adventurous

Middle Class

Delicate/Fragile

Flighty

Overly Emotional/Hysterical

Emotionally Cold (Ice Maidens)

Stuck Up

Prone to Prioritize Family Over Work

Promiscuous/Loose

Pampered/Entitled

Bland/Fake

BLACK MEN

Athletic

Physically Strong

Sexually Attractive

Rhythmic

Artistically Talented

Overly Aggressive

Threatening

Sexual Predators

Hip-Hop Gangsters/Thugs

Uneducated

Morally Questionable

Prone to Criminality

Bad Fathers

Lazy

Poor

BLACK

WOMEN

Exotically Beautiful

Warm and Spiritual

Sexually Erotic

Athletic

Physically Strong

Intelligent

Resilient

Wise

Ugly

Mammy

Sexually Permissive

Built like a Man

(Bestial/Animalistic)

Domineering/Emasculating

Overly Aggressive and Assertive

Threatening

Not Smart

Black Welfare Queens

Uppity

Loud

Disagreeable/Unpleasant

Morally Deficient

*The above representation roughly pairs positive stereotypes with their

negative counterparts.

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2017] AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS & WHITE FRAGILITY 2047

The above lists are not merely the theoretical musings of two law

professors.

Numerous contemporary events support the continued

widespread invocation of these stereotypes. Consider the following:

Black women and girls make up 13% of the female population, yet

they constitute 33% of the females killed in police encounters.

(Stereotype: Threatening)

The wife of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Black woman, was

recently called a “former crack addict” by a New York City police

officer.

(Stereotype: Criminal, Morally Deficient)

Horrific online postings about Sasha Obama, President and First

Lady Obama’s youngest daughter, included comments such as:

“Hope u get raped.”

(Stereotype: Uppity - Needs to be put in her place)

Leslie Jones, a comedian on Saturday Night Live and an actor in the

remake of Ghostbusters, was called an ape and other names on

Twitter.

(Stereotype: Animalistic)

A DC police officer manhandled a Black female school teacher after

assuming she was a prostitute.

(Stereotype: Criminal, Sexually

permissive, Morally deficient)

A Black woman, incarcerated for failure to complete classes

following a traffic violation, was left in jail for multiple days without

needed feminine products, toothpaste, deodorant or the ability to

shower, and was paraded into court before a judge, seemingly

without pants.

(Stereotype: Animalistic)

Serena Williams, the greatest female tennis player in the open era,

has been called n*gger, a man, and an ape, among other things.

Some expressed outrage that she was selected by Sports Illustrated as

86. See supra note 85 and accompanying text.

87. #SayHerName, A

FR. AM. POL’Y F., http://www.aapf.org/sayhername (last visited May 3,

2017). The #SayHerName website tracks the experiences of Black women and girls who have

been killed by police or as a result of encounters with the police. Id.

88. See Erin Durkin & Larry McShane, Mayor de Blasio Hits Back at Racist, Facebook-Ranting NYPD

Cop Who Called his Wife a ‘Former Crack Addict,’ N.Y.

DAILY NEWS (Aug. 10, 2016, 2:27 PM),

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/de-blasio-hits-back-called-wife-crack-addict-article-1.2746047

?utm_content=bufferd9df1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=

buffer.

89. John Prager, Racist Conservatives Wish Sasha Obama a Happy 15th Birthday: ‘Hope U Get Raped’

(SCREENSHOTS), A

DDICTING INFO (Jun 10, 2016, 10:07 PM) http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/

06/10/racist-conservatives-wish-sasha-obama-a-happy-15th-birthday-hope-u-get-raped-screenshots.

90. Leslie Jones Quits Twitter After Spending a Day Battling Racist Twitter, C

ULTURE (July 19, 2016),

http://theculture.forharriet.com/2016/07/leslie-jones-quits-twitter-after.html.

91. Rachaell Davis, DC Cop Manhandles Black Female School Teacher After Allegedly Assuming She Was

a Prostitute, E

SSENCE (Aug. 17, 2016), http://www.essence.com/2016/08/17/dc-cop-manhandles-

black-female-school-teacher?xid=essence_socialflow_facebook.

92. Matt Naham, Judge Outraged After Jailers Send Woman to Court With No Pants, AJC.

COM

(Aug. 1, 2016, 8:14 AM), http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/judge-outraged-after-jailers-

send-woman-court-no-p/nr7yS.

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2048 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

its 2015 Person of the Year over a horse.

One newspaper went so far

as to compare Ms. Williams to the horse in question.

Few people,

however, seem upset over the fact that until recently Maria

Sharapova, a fellow White female tennis player, with significantly

fewer professional achievements than Williams, was the highest paid

female athlete for eleven years.

(Stereotype: Ugly, Animalistic)

Black female teenagers have been dragged with ropes around their

necks, thrown to the floor by safety officers in schools, or treated like

garbage and tossed around parking lots like rag dolls by security

personnel.

(Stereotype: Not human)

Society at large, including employers, school districts, and even

Black men, rejects Black women, particularly those with dark skin

and natural hair.

(Stereotype: Unattractive)

93. Brittney Cooper, The Truth About Serena & American Pharaoh: Here’s the Real Reason Why the

Comparison Is So Insulting, S

ALON (Dec. 16, 2015, 4:58 AM), http://www.salon.com/2015/12/16/

the_truth_about_serena_american_pharaoh_heres_the_real_reason_why_the_comparison_is_so_

insulting; Jenée Desmond-Harris, Serena Williams is Constantly the Target of Disgusting Racist and Sexist

Attacks, V

OX (Sept. 7, 2016, 8:50 AM), http://www.vox.com/2015/3/11/8189679/serena-williams-

indian-wells-racism; Chris Murphy, Serena Williams vs. American Pharoah: The Sports Illustrated Fallout, CNN

(Dec. 16, 2015, 6:40 PM), http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/16/sport/winning-post-serena-williams-

sports-illustrated/index.html.

94. Chuck Schilken, Are Fans Right to be Upset that Serena Williams Beat American Pharoah for SI

Sportsperson of the Year?, L.A.

TIMES (Dec. 14, 2015, 10:25 AM), http://www.latimes.com/sports/

sportsnow/la-sp-sn-serena-williams-american-pharoah-sports-illustrated-20151214-htmlstory.html.

95. SI Wire, Serena Williams is World’s Highest-Paid Female Athlete, S

PORTS ILLUSTRATED (June

7, 2016), https://www.si.com/tennis/2016/06/06/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete-

maria-sharapova.

96. Andy Campbell, Rope Burns on a Black Schoolgirl’s Neck Weren’t Criminal, Police Say, H

UFFINGTON

POST: BLACK VOICES (July 26, 2016, 2:07 PM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-

schoolgirl-rope-burns-texas_us_57979124e4b0d3568f8499be; CNN Wire, Video Shows South Carolina

School Officer Slam Female Student to Floor; Throw Her Across Classroom, KTLA

(Oct. 26, 2015, 11:44 PM),

http://ktla.com/2015/10/26/parents-outraged-over-video-of-confrontation-between-high-school-

student-and-school-resource-officer; Nick Visser, Teen Sues Mall, Cop After Being Thrown Like A “Doll”

During Arrest, H

UFFINGTON POST: BLACK VOICES (May 16, 2016, 8:55 AM), http://www.huffingtonpost.

com/entry/monique-tillman-lawsuit_us_5739143ee4b08f96c1837864.

97. For a recent anecdotal example of bias against dark-skinned Black women, see Gilbert Arenas

Says Lupita Nyong’o ‘Ain’t Cute’ in Tirade about Dark-Skinned Women, G

RIO (Apr. 14, 2017, 3:32 PM),

http://thegrio.com/2017/04/14/gilbert-arenas-dark-skinned-women (discussing former NBA star

Gilbert Arenas’s statement that Nyong’o was “cute when the lights are off”). For analysis of skin color

preferences, see generally C

OLOR MATTERS: SKIN TONE BIAS AND THE MYTH OF A POST-RACIAL AMERICA

(Kimberly Jade Norwood ed., 2014); KATHY RUSSELL-COLE ET. AL., THE COLOR COMPLEX: THE POLITICS

SKIN COLOR IN A NEW MILLENNIUM (2d ed. 2013); SHADES OF DIFFERENCE: WHY SKIN COLOR

MATTERS (Evelyn Nakano Glenn ed., 2009); Trina Jones, Shades of Brown: The Law of Skin Color, 49 DUKE

L.J. 1487 (2000); Kimberly Jade Norwood, “If You Is White, You’s Alright. . . .” Stories About Colorism in

America, 14 W

ASH. U. GLOBAL STUD. L. REV. 585 (2015); I Don’t Want No Black B*tch: Florida Rapper

Sparks Colorism Debate, G

RIO (Aug. 13, 2016, 12:45 PM), http://thegrio.com/2016/08/13/i-dont-

want-no-black-btch-florida-rapper-sparks-colorism-debate; and Ross, supra note 32. For analysis of the

racialized dating preferences of men, see Ralph Richard Banks, Opinion, Why Black Women are Justifiably

Bitter: The Bleak Relationship Picture for African-American Females, D

AILY NEWS (Sept. 2, 2011, 4:00 AM),

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/black-women-justifiably-bitter-bleak-relationship-picture-

african-american-females-article-1.953496; and Christian Rudder, Race and Attraction, 2009-2014,

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2017] AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS & WHITE FRAGILITY 2049

The above charts and examples are not offered to suggest that these

stereotypes are accurate, despite their prevalence. Nor does this Article seek

to reify societal constructs of White women, Black Men, and Black women,

or to dismiss the oppression of Black men and White women. Rather, these

lists are set forth to show that in aggressive encounters, aggressors are not

responding to Black women as women, or as Black—but rather as Black

women. As previous scholars and persons have noted, Black women are raced

and gendered beings who at times are viewed differently from White men,

Black men, and White women. Importantly, the fact that society has

juxtaposed Black women and these other groups means that the aggressors in

aggressive encounters are not only White men, but also Black men as well as

White women.

To the extent that Black women have internalized these

societal norms, they also may be aggressors (as, for example, was the case with

the Black female officer and the former student in Grant Park).

100

The lists are useful because they also reveal that the trope of the “Angry

Black Woman” is innately intersectional. This so-called “Angry Black Woman”

is the physical embodiment of some of the worst negative stereotypes of Black

women—she is out of control, disagreeable, overly aggressive, physically

threatening, loud (even when she speaks softly), and to be feared. She will not

stay in her “place.” She is not human. Importantly, the “Angry . . . Woman”

label is assigned almost exclusively to Black women. The salience of this trope

comes from the combination of blackness and non-conforming femininity.

OKCUPID (Sept. 9, 2014), https://theblog.okcupid.com/race-and-attraction-2009-2014-107dcbb4

f060 (finding that men on OkCupid rated Black women less attractive than all other women). See also

I don’t Want No Black B*tch, supra (discussing a studio session by Dieuson Octave, “which has many

people up in arms for its derogatory lyrics about black women”). The low status of Black women as

romantic partners appears to be a world-wide phenomenon. See also Brazilian Actress Polly Marinho

Explains Why Wealthy Black Men Don’t Marry Black Women “Black is a Slave,” B

OSSIP (Mar. 8, 2016),

http://bossip.com/1290251/brazilian-actress-polly-marinho-explains-why-wealthy-black-men-dont-

marry-black-women-black-is-a-slave (Marinho explains that “Black men often desire white women

because it’s a sign of prosperity to be able to marry a non-Black woman”).

98. There is nothing “real” or “innate” about race or gender that produces certain

behavioral characteristics. That is, race and gender are not biologically determined. Rather, they

are social constructions, meaning that society has taken certain physical attributes (e.g., skin

color, hair texture, the possession of breasts and ovaries) and assigned social meaning to them.

See Ian F. Haney López, The Social Construction of Race: Some Observations on Illusion, Fabrication, and

Choice, 29 H

ARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 1, 7 (1994) (“[D]efin[ing] . . . ‘race’ as a vast group of people

loosely bound together by historically contingent, socially significant elements of their

morphology and/or ancestry. . . . Race is neither an essence nor an illusion, but rather an

ongoing, contradictory, self-reinforcing process subject to the macro forces of social and political

struggle and the micro effects of daily decisions.”). See generally T

HE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF

GENDER (Judith Lorber & Susan A. Farrell eds., 1990).

99. For example, when one considers some of the aggressive encounters described in Part

II, it is important to note that White women also assume that Black women operate in a service

capacity. In addition, White female clerks in department stores surveil or ignore Black women.

And, White women cut in line in front of Black women as if they were invisible or do not exist. It

is hard to know the frequency with which these events occur. But, what is important is that Black

women notice and it is part of their discourse. The sense is that these occurrences are not just

“rude behavior,” but rather it is behavior driven by conscious and unconscious stereotyping and

bias.

100. See supra note 61 and accompanying text.

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2050 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

How many times has the reader heard of the Angry White woman? The Angry

Asian Woman? The Angry Latina Woman?

The above lists are set forth for an additional purpose. Earlier this Article

referenced the decisional moment in aggressive encounters—that split

second in which Black women must decide whether to remain silent or to

speak. This moment is fraught because Black women know that to push

back—to exercise voice—inevitably means that any positive stereotypes to

which they may be subject (however slim they may be) will immediately elide

into the negative. This elision underscores the fragility of the line between the

positive and the negative and how easily that line can be crossed. Indeed, this

Article argues that this line is so easily traversed because with marginalized

groups (including White women and Black men), negative stereotypes are the

default norm against which group members are always pushing. Anyone who

does not fit the norm is viewed as an exception. This exceptional status,

however, can be tenuous, and it does not fundamentally change underlying

views about the group. Thus, one or two noncomplying group members do

not change the default norm. But, negative action by one or two individuals

seems to confirm or reinforce negative stereotypes about the group. Thus,

when Micah Johnson murdered five police offers in Dallas, Texas, his horrific

act reinforced negative stereotypes about all Black men.

101

Or when Hillary

Clinton pursued her political ambitions, her actions reinforced negative

stereotypes of women and raised fears about women’s qualifications

102

and

about women “stepping out of place.”

103

Yet, when Dylann Roof entered an

African-American church and killed Black worshippers,

104

when James Homes

101. See Richard Fausett et al., Micah Johnson, Gunman in Dallas, Honed Military Skills to a Deadly

Conclusion, N.Y.

TIMES (July 9, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/us/dallas-quiet-

after-police-shooting-but-protests-flare-elsewhere.html. A similar observation might be made

about the effects of Omar Mateen’s deadly massacre on the perceptions of Muslim men. See

Lizette Alvarez & Richard Pérez-Peña, Orlando Gunman Attacks Gay Nightclub, Leaving 50 Dead, N.Y.

TIMES (June 12, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/13/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting.

html. Note Michelle and Barack Obama’s accomplishments and exemplary acts do not have a

similar effect; their actions do not transform the default negative characterization of Black

people. Instead, the Obamas are viewed as exceptions. See Charles R. Lawrence III, The Id, the Ego,

and Equal Protection: Reckoning with Unconscious Racism, 39 S

TAN. L. REV. 317, 318 (1987)

(explaining how Blacks who do not fit the standard profile are viewed as exceptions to the rule,

rather than as evidence that default assumptions should be changed).

102. Peter Beinart, Fear of a Female President, A

TLANTIC (Oct. 2016), http://www.theatlantic.

com/magazine/archive/2016/10/fear-of-a-female-president/497564 (discussing the misogyny

surrounding Hillary Clinton’s candidacy); Jacqueline Howard, How Gender Bias Plays a Role in

Elections, H

UFFINGTON POST (Nov. 12, 2015, 9:59 AM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/

gender-bias-role-in-elections_us_564357b4e4b045bf3ded2245.

103. See, e.g., Michelle Goldberg, The Hillary Haters, S

LATE (July 24, 2016, 8:01 PM), http://www.

slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/07/the_people_who_hate_hillary_clinton_

the_most.html; Jay Parini, Opinion, ‘Why Do They Hate Hillary Clinton So Much?’, CNN

(Mar. 21, 2016,

6:27 AM), http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/20/opinions/why-the-hate-for-hillary-clinton-opinion-

parini/index.html; Amy Walter, Working Moms, First Ladies and Recalling Hillary Clinton’s ‘Baking Cookies’

Comment, ABC

NEWS (Apr. 12, 2012), http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/working-

moms-first-ladies-and-recalling-hillary-clintons-cookies.

104. Indeed, the police actually stopped at a fast food restaurant to feed the hungry murderer

after his rampage. Simon McCormack, Cops Bought Dylann Roof Burger King Hours After Charleston

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2017] AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTERS & WHITE FRAGILITY 2051

walked into a theater and killed 12 people and injured over 70,

105

when Jared

Loughner killed 6 people (and injured 13) in the parking lot of a

supermarket,

106

when Timothy McVeigh set off a bomb in Oklahoma City

killing 168 people,

107

when Ted Kaczynski killed people through letter bombs

over a 20-year period,

108

or when Adam Lanza walked into an elementary

school and killed 20 children and 6 employees,

109

these acts did not appear

to indict all White men or even to disrupt positive stereotypes of White men.

110

Again, the point here is that Black women in aggressive encounters are aware

of the ingrained and pervasive nature of negative stereotypes and of how

quickly these stereotypes can completely eclipse any positive views to which

they may be subject. One roll of the eye. One hand on the hip. One

oppositional word, spoken loudly or softly, and a Black women who is quietly

going about her business gets transformed into the “Angry Black Woman.”

V. W

HITE FRAGILITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROJECTION: THE BLAME GAME

Thus far, this Article has focused on the ways in which conscious or

unconscious stereotypes and biases lead to aggressive encounters. It has yet to

offer a theory for why the exercise of voice or any form of pushback may cause

aggressors to blame these encounters on the very women they are attacking.

Shooting, HUFFINGTON POST (June 23, 2015, 11:11 AM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/

06/23/dylann-roof-burger-king_n_7645216.html (“Shelby Police Chief Jeff Ledford told the

Charlotte Observer that when Roof complained he was hungry, cops went to a nearby Burger King and

bought the accused mass murderer a meal while he was in custody.”). And lest we forget, images of

Dylann Roof burning the flag, clearly less patriotic than not putting a hand over one’s heart during

the National Anthem, invoked no national outcry, no protests, and no venom against Roof. See

Frances Robles, Dylann Roof Photos and a Manifesto Are Posted on Website, N.Y.

TIMES (June 20, 2015),

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/us/dylann-storm-roof-photos-website-charleston-church-

shooting.html.

105. See Steve Almasy et al., James Holmes Sentenced to Life in Prison for Colorado Movie Theater

Murders, CNN (Aug. 8, 2015, 8:37 AM), http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/07/us/james-holmes-

movie-theater-shooting-jury.

106. See Tucson Gunman Before Rampage: “I’ll See You on National T.V.,” CBS N

EWS (Apr. 11,

2014, 12:18 PM), http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jared-loughner-who-shot-gabrielle-giffords-in-

tucson-ranted-online.

107. See Ryan Gorman, 20 Years After the Oklahoma City Bombing, Timothy McVeigh Remains the Only

Terrorist Executed by US, B

US. INSIDER (Apr. 19, 2015, 8:00 AM), http://www.businessinsider.com/20-

years-after-the-oklahoma-city-bombing-timothy-mcveigh-remains-the-only-terrorist-executed-by-us-

2015-4. Although Timothy McVeigh was actually called a terrorist, this label rarely gets attached to

White men. See David A. Love, Opinion, What Does it Take to Call White Men Terrorists?, G

RIO (Oct. 17,

2016, 2:10 PM), http://thegrio.com/2016/10/17/white-men-terrorists-kansas-bomb-plot.

108. Charlie Savage, F.B.I. Is Looking at Unabomber in ‘82 Tylenol Case, N.Y.

TIMES (May 19,

2011), http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us/20tylenol.html.

109. Doug Stanglin & Marisol Bello, Sandy Hook Killer Carefully Planned Attack, Study Says, USA

TODAY (Nov. 21, 2014, 1:53 PM), http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/21/sandy-

hook-massacre-newtown-connecticut-adam-lanza/19343223.

110. This demographic also is responsible for the majority of rapes and serial killings in the

United States. And yet the predominant stereotype of White men is not that of rapist or murderer.

It seems that when White men commit bad acts, they are treated as individuals. In contrast, when

members of marginalized groups commit bad acts, their actions are read as confirmation of

negative stereotypes about their group.

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2052 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

To augment understanding of this blame shifting, this Part examines White

transparency, White fragility, and psychological projection.

A. WHITE TRANSPARENCY, WHITE FRAGILITY, AND AGGRESSIVE ACTS

On November 4, 2008, the night Barack Obama was first elected

President, some people proclaimed that the United States was post-racial.

111

Ubiquitous evidence of racial discrimination since that time has proven them

wrong.

112

Yet, while there is a seemingly heightened awareness, particularly

after the 2016 Presidential campaign and election, of the continuing

significance of racism on a macro level, many Whites still reject its influence

on a micro level (i.e., with regard to their personal decision making and in

their individual lives). That is, many Whites deny, or are oblivious to, their

own racial bias and privilege.

113

This denial and oblivion are likely affected by what Barbara Flagg has

termed White transparency,

114

or the tendency of Whites to be unaware of

their whiteness.

115

Per Flagg, White transparency allows Whites to see the

world from a particular vantage, with their own experiences as the unstated,

uncontested norm.

116

White transparency means that Whites rarely have to

think about embedded racial hierarchies and the ways in which they are

111. See David R. Sands & Andrea Billups, Obama Term Expected to be Post-Racial, WASH. TIMES (Nov.

9, 2008), http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/09/obama-presidency-expected-to-be-

post-racial (discussing how some believed President Obama’s 2008 victory meant the United States was

a post-racial society); Daniel Schorr, A New, ‘Post-Racial’ Political Era in America, NPR (Jan. 28, 2008, 4:00

PM), http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18489466 (questioning whether

President Obama’s 2008 presidential victory meant the United States was post-racial).

112. See generally Breanna M. Bacon, The Myth of Obama’s Post-Racial Presidency: Why Barack Obama’s

Election Didn’t End Racial Inequality in America, 7 I

NQUIRIES J. (2015), http://www.inquiriesjournal.

com/articles/988/the-myth-of-obamas-post-racial-presidency-why-barack-obamas-election-didnt-end-

racial-inequality-in-america; Mario L. Barnes et al., A Post-Race Equal Protection?, 98 G

EO. L.J. 967 (2010);

Angela Onwuachi-Willig & Mario L. Barnes, The Obama Effect: Understanding Emerging Meanings of

“Obama” in Anti-Discrimination Law, 87 I

ND. L.J. 325 (2012); Sheryl Estrada, President Obama: Talk of a

Post-Racial America Not Realistic, D

IVERSITYINC (Jan. 11, 2017), http://www.diversityinc.com/news/

president-obama-talk-post-racial-america-not-realistic. Racially motivated crimes and other acts of racial

hatred since November 8, 2016, seem to have buried for good the myth that the United States is post-

racial. See Hate Groups/State Totals,

SOUTHERN POVERTY L. CTR., https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map

(last visited Apr. 19, 2017) (showing the location, number, and types of hate crimes committed in the

United States by state); see also Maureen B. Costello, The Trump Effect: The Impact of the 2016 Presidential

Election on Our Nation’s Schools, S.

POVERTY L. CTR. (Nov. 28, 2016), https://www.splcenter.

org/20161128/trump-effect-impact-2016-presidential-election-our-nations-schools (discussing how

K–12 educators found the results of the 2016 presidential election negatively impacted their schools

and students).

113. See generally M

AHZARIN R. BANAJI & ANTHONY G. GREENWALD, BLINDSPOT: HIDDEN BIASES

GOOD PEOPLE (2013).

114. Technically, Flagg labeled this the transparency phenomenon, but over time it has been

referred to as White transparency.

115. Barbara J. Flagg, “Was Blind, But Now I See”: White Race Consciousness and the Requirement

of Discriminatory Intent, 91 M

ICH. L. REV. 953, 969–73 (1993). Flagg notes that “in this society, . . .

the white person has an everyday option not to think of herself in racial terms at all.” Id. at 969.

116. Id. at 971.

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racially privileged.

117

The world just is, and for people who experience racial

privilege—where whiteness is the background norm—it is a comfortable place

to be.

To be sure, with increasing economic inequality and changing racial

demographics, a form of White-identity politics seems to have emerged in

recent years. Some Whites are no longer feeling economically privileged, and

their expectations about a “better life” for themselves and their children are

being disappointed. The decline of White privilege (at least for this subgroup)

has created a hyper-awareness of whiteness and has seemingly led some

Whites to rally behind slogans like “Make America Great Again,” which some

have read as “Make America White Again.”

118

Thus, the United States may be

experiencing a moment of White visibility. However, the goal of those who

are most alarmed in this moment appears to be to get back to a state where

whiteness is again hegemonic.

Not only does racial transparency exist, but so too does gender

transparency.

119

Although men may think of themselves as male and women

as female, it seems that until recently relatively few men challenged maleness

as the preferred gender norm or acknowledged the privilege that maleness

bestows. This is reflected quite readily in the views of those who voted for

Donald Trump simply because he is male,

120

or those who stated that if Hillary

Clinton had selected Elizabeth Warren as a running mate, they definitely

would not have voted for her because they could not vote for “two women.”

121

Clearly, these individuals have not contemplated that for centuries U.S.

citizens have chosen between two male candidates for the Presidency, and

between two men on each ticket,

122

without ever seeing that “choice” as

problematic.

117. Id. at 970–73.

118. See, e.g., Lola Adesioye, “Make America White Again”: How US Racial Politics Led to the Election of

Donald Trump, N

EW STATESMAN (Nov. 21, 2016), http://www.newstatesman.com/world/north-

america/2016/11/make-america-white-again-how-us-racial-politics-led-election-donald (discussing

how some White Americans felt that they “were losing out under this black president [Obama], and

that white identity and culture . . . were being threatened by this move towards a more open, inclusive

and diverse society”); Toni Morrison, Making American White, N

EW YORKER (Nov. 21, 2016),

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/21/making-america-white-again (discussing how

some Americans sacrifice themselves to “restore whiteness to its former status as a marker of national

identity”).

119. See Peggy McIntosh, White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See

Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies 1 (Wellesley Coll. Ctr. for Research on Women,

Working Paper No. 189, 1988), http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/diversity/white-privilege-and-

male-privilege.pdf (“I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males

are taught not to recognize male privilege.”).

120. See Rebecca Morin, Giuliani: Trump ‘Better for the United States than a Woman,’ P

OLITICO

(Oct. 2, 2016, 5:26 PM), http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-

woman-229026.

121. Hadley Freeman, Hillary Clinton in Charge Is OK, but Elizabeth Warren, Too? That’s Pushing It,

UARDIAN (June 18, 2016, 4:00 AM), https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/18/

hadley-freeman-hillary-clinton-elizabeth-warren-two-women-in-charge.

122. A number of women have run for the U.S. Presidency, but only one (Hillary Clinton,

2016) became the nominee of one of the two major parties, and only two were vice-presidential

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2054 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

When White racial hegemony is challenged, as it is by the changing

demographics of the United States and movements like #SayHerName and

#BlackLivesMatter, backlash often results.

123

Recently, sociologists have

attributed some of the backlash to what Dr. Robin DiAngelo, PhD, has termed

“White Fragility.”

124

Dr. DiAngelo argues that: “White people in North

America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from

race-based stress. . . . This insulated environment of racial protection builds

white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the

ability to tolerate racial stress.”

125

Dr. DiAngelo argues that this leads to White

fragility, defined as “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress

becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves[,] . . . includ[ing]

the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors

such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation.”

126

Both White fragility and White transparency likely play a role in

aggressive encounters. White male aggressors enter these encounters with

conscious or unconscious notions of White male superiority and

accompanying notions of Black female inferiority. They may also enter these

encounters with a degree of racial anxiety and hostility based upon their

perceived loss of social power. When Black women exercise voice by asserting

their humanity and challenging assumptions about their second-class status,

they disrupt the racial and gender comfort in which these aggressors exist and

upset embedded notions of racial and gender superiority. As Dr. DiAngelo

points out, this exercise of voice can provoke a range of emotions in White

men, including anger and argumentation (as Professor Norwood witnessed in

Home Depot).

127

It can also lead to a defensive projection of blame, or what

nominees (Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Sarah Palin in 2008). Women Presidential and Vice Presidential

Candidates: A Selected List, C

TR. FOR AM. WOMEN & POL., http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/levels_

of_office/women-presidential-and-vice-presidential-candidates-selected-list (last visited May 3, 2017).

123. See David French, Black Lives Matter: Radicals Using Moderates to Help Tear America Apart, N

AT’L

REV. (July 11, 2016, 3:23 PM), http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437677/black-lives-matter-

radical-divisive (distinguishing between a reasonable Black Lives Matter and a radical Black Lives

Matter); Erin Aubry Kaplan, Black Lives Matter Fights Brutality and Backlash, H

UFFINGTON POST (July 15,

2016, 11:39 AM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-lives-matter-fights-brutality-and-

backlash_us_57890183e4b03fc3ee508b18 (discussing the backlash the Black Lives Matter movement

has suffered); see also Janet Adamy & Paul Overberg, Places Most Unsettled by Rapid Demographic Change

are Drawn to Donald Trump, W

ALL STREET J. (Nov. 1, 2016, 10:35 AM), https://www.wsj.com/articles/

places-most-unsettled-by-rapid-demographic-change-go-for-donald-trump-1478010940; Cornell

Belcher, Trump is the Inevitable Backlash to an Obama Presidency, G

UARDIAN (Nov. 10, 2016, 12:27 PM),

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/10/donald-trump-election-backlash-

obama-presidency-white-voters (asserting that the Trump campaign capitalized on racial backlash to

the Obama Presidency); Brian Resnick, White Fear of Demographic Change is a Powerful Psychological Force,

OX (Jan. 28, 2017, 12:30 PM), http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/1/26/14340542/

white-fear-trump-psychology-minority-majority (arguing that “[i]ncreasing diversity could make

America a more hostile place”).

124. Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility, 3 I

NT’L J. CRITICAL PEDAGOGY 54, 54 (2011).

125. Id. at 55 (footnote omitted).

126. Id. at 57; see also supra note 60 (recounting the angry reactions of a predominantly White

male group of prosecutors and judges following a presentation by Professor Norwood).

127. See DiAngelo, supra note 124, at 57. Professor Norwood witnessed this behavior in Home

Depot. See supra note 1 and accompanying text. Another widely known example would be the case

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this Article terms “displaced blame.” Displaced blame allows aggressors in

aggressive encounters to deflect attention from their aggressive acts and to

place blame for these encounters on Black women.

128

B. P

SYCHOLOGICAL PROJECTION

Displaced blame draws upon psychological projection, which

psychologists define as:

The tendency for people to see in others characteristics that they are

motivated to deny in themselves. For example, a woman tempted to

cheat on a test might accuse others of dishonesty, a man with

unwanted sexual fantasies and desires might become obsessed with

the immorality of his neighbors, and another with an urge to commit

violence against someone might come to believe that the other

person is the potential aggressor.

129

Importantly, research shows that projection operates as a defense mechanism.

People “feel better about themselves and experience less anxiety as a result of

projecting unwanted traits onto others.”

130

Projection also allows the projector to escape responsibility for his actions

and instead to blame others for them, which then reinforces the projector’s

sense of superiority. For example, in his work on racism and projection,

Kenneth Reeves notes:

African Americans are sometimes seen as lazy. All human beings

have some laziness, but when White people see African Americans

as lazy, White people can then deny their own laziness. This

projection of laziness contributes to racism, because seeing African

Americans as lazy and therefore less deserving justifies denying them

access to societal benefits.

131

Thus, projection operates in at least two ways. First, an individual who

fears having certain traits may attempt to suppress thoughts about that trait.

Yet, research shows that such suppression may “increase the likelihood that

people will come to believe that others can be labeled with that very trait.”

132

Thus, projection increases the likelihood of stereotyping. Second, because

of Sandra Bland, the Black woman who was found dead in her jail cell after being pulled over for a

traffic violation. The video of this incident shows Bland asserting her rights to an increasingly irate

police officer who ultimately arrested her. Some who viewed this video questioned whether Bland

(merely by invoking her civil rights) led to the escalation of the situation. Debbie Nathan, What

Happened to Sandra Bland?, N

ATION (Apr. 21, 2016), https://www.thenation.com/article/what-

happened-to-sandra-bland.

128. Projection, E

NCYCLOPEDIA OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 708 (Roy F. Baumeister & Kathleen D.

Vohs eds., 2007).

129. Id.

130. Id.

131. Kenneth M. Reeves, Racism and Projection of the Shadow, 37 P

SYCHOTHERAPY 80, 83 (2000).

132. Projection, supra note 128, at 709.

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2056 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

some individuals desire to avoid the consequences of their own bad acts,

projection may also increase the likelihood of deflecting blame.

In many aggressive encounters, aggressors display anger, irritation, and a

sense of entitlement or superiority (either when initiating the encounter or

after a Black woman responds). Yet, instead of the aggressors taking

ownership for their actions and emotions, they label the Black woman the

wrongdoer. When a Black woman pushes back, she is transformed into the

“Angry Black Woman.” Angry. Out of control. Unreasonable.

Temperamental. Threatening. Note that in projecting these emotions onto

the Black woman, aggressors are able to deflect attention from their actions

(and the fact that they may very well possess these traits) and are able instead

to blame the encounter on the Black woman’s response. The aggressor then

uses the Black woman’s response as confirmation of her inferiority and all of

the other stereotypes that likely led to the encounter in the first place.

Displaced blame through defensive projection is neither new nor unique

to Black women. It also occurs when society, through the criminal justice

system, perpetuates violence against Black men (through unlawful detentions,

disproportionate arrests, disparate sentences, disproportionate killings of

unarmed black men, etc.). Instead of examining this state-sponsored violence,

society characterizes Black men as gangsters and thugs. In this projection,

Black men become the primary focus of attention and are blamed for the

violence to which they are subject while the state apparatus escapes serious

critique and transformation.

133

Displaced blame may also occur without the projection of traits the

aggressor seeks to deny in himself. Sometimes the aggressor will merely blame

the harmed individual. For example, displaced blame occurred in the United

States when White communities killed or maimed African Americans who

were in geographical areas that Whites deemed off limits. Instead of

examining the racism and the racial exclusion at the heart of sundowner laws,

Black people were blamed for the unspeakable horrors perpetuated against

them.

134

Not staying in one’s assigned “place” became the focus of attention

instead of the propriety of society assigning a place based on “race.” Displaced

blame also occurs when men perpetuate physical violence against women, and

instead of accepting responsibility for this violence, society blames women for

drinking “too” much, for being out “too” late, for wearing the “wrong”

133. See the commentary surrounding a New York Times article in which the reporter wrote that

“Michael Brown . . . was no angel.” John Eligon, Michael Brown Spent Last Weeks Grappling with Problems

and Promise, N.Y.

TIMES (Aug. 24, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/us/michael-brown-

spent-last-weeks-grappling-with-lifes-mysteries.html; Margaret Sullivan, Opinion, An Ill-Chosen Phrase,

‘No Angel,’ Brings a Storm of Protest, N.Y.

TIMES (Aug. 25, 2014, 3:55 PM), http://publiceditor.blogs.

nytimes.com/2014/08/25/an-ill-chosen-phrase-no-angel-brings-a-storm-of-protest (“That choice of

words was a regrettable mistake.”); see also Ta-Nehisi Coates, Nonviolence as Compliance, A

TLANTIC (Apr.

27, 2015), https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/nonviolence-as-compliance/

391640 (“When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out

heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con.”).

134. See generally J

AMES W. LOEWEN, SUNDOWN TOWNS: A HIDDEN DIMENSION OF AMERICAN

RACISM (2005) (discussing the history of racial exclusion of Black people from sundown towns).

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clothing, etc. In other words, women get blamed for “not acting like a good

lady should.”

135

Male violence and societal restrictions that limit women’s

freedom elude interrogation.

136

C. T

HE DECISIONAL MOMENT AND CONSEQUENCES

Even without advanced training in psychology, Black women are aware

of the racial bias and stereotyping (sometimes nuanced, sometimes in your

face) that occur in aggressive encounters. They also know that if they were to

push back against these stereotypes, then they risk backlash from the

aggressor (and possibly others)

137

and that they may ultimately be blamed for

the encounter. Saying nothing, however, allows the aggressor’s stereotypes

and embedded assumptions to go unchecked. In other words, not speaking

may cause a Black woman to feel as if she is complicit in her own oppression.

Thus, Black women are constantly faced with decisional moments, those

fleeting instants in which they must decide whether to speak or to be silent.

Both “choices” have immediate and long-term consequences. The stress and

psychic violence of the moment is obvious, whether one stakes one’s ground

(as Professor Norwood did in Home Depot) or complies (as Professor Jones

did on the plane). As discussed below, there are longer-term costs as well.

Aggressive encounters play mind games on Black women. Recall the

befuddlement, shock, anxiety, and anger that Professor Norwood

experienced in Home Depot and how she silently wondered how the

aggressive encounter was affecting others’ perceptions of her. Consider the

constant stress that countless other Black women face knowing that they risk

being labeled an “Angry Black Woman” and blamed if they speak forcefully

or strongly—or if they speak at all. Black women are constantly kept

wondering: Should I check myself? Am I coming on too strongly? Am I out of

line? (This of course begs the question of who drew the lines.)

This kind of uncertainty and the stress that it breeds has the potential not

only to erode one’s confidence over time, but it can also lead to negative

135. Even in 2016, women continue to be blamed, even by judges, for being raped. See AJ

Willingham & Carma Hassan, Judge to Woman in Rape Case: ‘Why Couldn’t You Just Keep Your Knees

Together?,’ CNN (Sept. 13, 2016, 1:25 PM), http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/12/world/robin-

camp-rape-comments-trnd.

136. While the Article focuses on individual aggressive encounters, this Part shows that these

encounters occur on a systemic level as well. In other words, societal structures exclude groups

from participation in certain social, economic, and political activities. When these groups protest,

the focus centers on the illegitimacy of the protest and the protestors. In this way, attention and

blame are deflected from the structural inequalities that are crying out for attention. Getting at

this larger dysfunction requires that one brings attention back to it. This Article seeks to

contribute to this redirection.

137. Black women know that they often cannot count on the support of other witnesses to

the encounter. Some people may be influenced by their own implicit biases and will conclude

that the Black woman is overreacting, out of line, difficult, or rude. Others, while sympathetic

and supportive of the Black woman, may want to avoid being in the line of fire, or the subject of

ire. (A version of this happens in meetings on a controversial topic, when one person speaks up

and others elect to remain silent. These individuals may subsequently come to the speaker’s office

to privately offer support for the speaker’s views.). See supra notes 126–28 and accompanying text.

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2058 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

health effects. Indeed, numerous studies have established that discrimination

can lead to emotional distress, depression, anxiety, nightmares, post-

traumatic stress disorder, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, heart disease,

and stroke.

138

Speaking back can also adversely affect opportunities for romantic

relationships. Data show exogamy rates are stronger among Black men than

Black women.

139

Although the authors do not know the exact reasons for

these disparities,

140

anecdotally, many Black men have reported that they find

Black women too strong, too assertive, too domineering, too independent,

and too emasculating.

141

In other words, the trope of the Angry Black Woman

seems to have affected the dating choices of some Black men.

Exercising voice can also affect one’s career,

142

or lead to incarceration

and death. Again the reader should recall Sandra Bland and the treatment of

countless other Black women who were incarcerated or died when they dared

138. See JOY DEGRUY, POST TRAUMATIC SLAVE SYNDROME: AMERICA’S LEGACY OF ENDURING

INJURY AND HEALING 114–44 (2011); Vetta L. Sanders Thompson & Anjanette Wells, The

Intersection of Poverty and Health: Are Race and Class Far Behind? A Case Study, in U

RBAN ILLS: TWENTY-

IRST-CENTURY COMPLEXITIES OF URBAN LIVING IN GLOBAL CONTEXTS 109 (Carol Camp Yeakey

et al. eds.,

2013); Maxine S. Thompson & Verna M. Keith, Copper Brown and Blue Black: Colorism

and Self Evaluation, in S

KIN DEEP: HOW RACE AND COMPLEXION MATTER IN THE “COLOR-BLIND”

ERA 45, 47 (Cedric Herring et al. eds., 2004). See generally Elizabeth A. Klonoff & Hope Landrine,

Is Skin Color a Marker for Racial Discrimination? Explaining the Skin Color-Hypertension Relationship, 23

BEHAV. MED. 329 (2000); Camille A. Nelson, Of Eggshells and Thin-skulls: A Consideration of

Racism-Related Mental Illness Impacting Black Women, 29 I

NT’L J.L. & PSYCHIATRY 112 (2006); Vetta

L. Sanders Thompson, Perceived Experiences of Racism as Stressful Life Events, 32 C

OMMUNITY MENTAL

HEALTH J. 223 (1996).

139. U.S.

CENSUS BUREAU, STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE UNITED STATES: 2011, TABLE 56.

MARITAL STATUS OF THE POPULATION BY SEX, RACE, AND HISPANIC ORIGIN: 1990 TO 2009,

https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2010/compendia/statab/130ed/tables/11s0056.pdf;

U.S.

CENSUS BUREAU, STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE UNITED STATES: 2012, TABLE 60. INTERRACIALLY

MARRIED COUPLES BY RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN OF SPOUSES, http://www2.census.gov/library/

publications/2011/compendia/statab/131ed/tables/12s0060.pdf; see also R

ALPH RICHARD BANKS, IS

MARRIAGE FOR WHITE PEOPLE: HOW THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MARRIAGE DECLINE AFFECTS EVERYONE 33-

38 (2011); Wendy Wang, Interracial Marriage: Who Is “Marrying Out”?, P

EW RES. CTR.: FACT TANK

(June 12, 2015), http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/12/interracial-marriage-who-is-

marrying-out; Ritchie King, The Uncomfortable Racial Preferences Revealed by Online Dating, Q

UARTZ (Nov.

20, 2013), http://qz.com/149342/the-uncomfortable-racial-preferences-revealed-by-online-dating.

140. See supra note 97 and accompanying text; see also B

ANKS, supra note 139, at 2, 29–44

(“Black women of all socioeconomic classes remain single in part because the ranks of black men

have been decimated by incarceration, educational failure, [] economic disadvantage,” and

interracial marriage.).

141. See B

ANKS, supra note 139, at 116, 121–22 (discussing the possible effects of stereotypes

of Black women on their dating prospects). Other explanations are that Black women are not

physically attractive and Black women are limiting their options by not considering nonblack

men. See id. at 119–30; Rudder, supra note 97.

142. See Liane Jackson, Minority Women Are Disappearing from BigLaw—and Here’s Why, ABA

(Mar. 1, 2016, 12:15 AM), http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/minority_women_

are_disappearing_from_biglaw_and_heres_why (discussing how women, especially women of color,

learn to be quiet or else people will say they are “too sensitive. . . . [They] learn not to say anything

because [they] know that could be a complete career killer. [They] make it as well as [they] can until

[they] decide to leave.”).

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to speak back to law enforcement.

143

Instead of examining the systemic flaws

revealed in these incidents, some pointed to the Black woman’s resistance as

the cause, asking, “Why didn’t she just keep her mouth shut?”

VI. S

EARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS: IS THERE RELIEF IN SIGHT?

Deeply-rooted problems defy fast and simple solutions. Sometimes the

best that can be done is to continue using existing means to whittle away at

entrenched barriers. This Part considers three mechanisms to reduce the

incidence and ameliorate the harm of aggressive encounters: (1) coalition

building; (2) legal interventions; and (3) individual action.

A. C

OALITION BUILDING IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

I feel as if I’m gonna keel over any minute and die. That is often

what it feels like if you’re really doing coalition work. Most of the time

you feel threatened to the core and if you don’t, you’re not really

doing no coalescing. . . . You don’t go into coalition because you just

like it. The only reason you would consider trying to team up with

somebody who could possibly kill you, is because that’s the only way

you can figure you can stay alive.

144

As they have done in the past (with varying degrees of success), Black

women, White women, and Black men must continue to support each other

and to forge coalitions. Yet, as this section underscores, this task will not be

easy. Indeed, more than 35 years after Bernice Johnson Reagon delivered the

above-quoted words, coalition building, particularly among women, remains

extremely difficult as recent discussions around the January 2017 Women’s

March on Washington illustrate.

The March was designed to show women’s solidarity and opposition to a

Trump presidency. Yet in a New York Times’ article, published just days before

the March, some White women expressed discomfort and reluctance to

attend the event upon learning that race and class would be on the agenda.

145

For example, a 50-year-old White minister from South Carolina told the Times

that she decided not to participate after being put off by the tone of a Black

woman’s Facebook post.

146

According to the Times, the post “advised ‘white

143. See AFR. AM. POL’Y F., supra note 87.

144. Reagon, supra note 56, at 356–57. These words come from a chapter that was “[b]ased

upon a presentation at the West Coast Women’s Music Festival” at Yosemite National Forest in

1981. Id. at 356.

145. See Farah Stockman, Women’s March on Washington Opens Contentious Dialogues About Race, N.Y.

TIMES (Jan. 9, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/09/us/womens-march-on-washington-

opens-contentious-dialogues-about-race.html; see also Emma-Kate Symons, Agenda for Women’s March

Has Been Hijacked by Organizers Bent on Highlighting Women’s Differences, N.Y.

TIMES: WOMEN WORLD (Jan.

19, 2017), http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2017/01/19/agenda-for-womens-march-

on-washington-has-been-hijacked-by-organizers-bent-on-highlighting-womens-differences; WITW Staff,

Women’s March on Washington Provokes Heated Debate on Class and Privilege, N.Y.

TIMES: WOMEN WORLD

(Jan. 10, 2017), http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2017/01/10/womens-march-on-

washington-provokes-heated-debate-on-class-and-privilege.

146. Stockman, supra note 145.

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2060 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

allies’ to listen more and talk less. It also chided those who, it said, were only

now waking up to racism because of the election.”

147

The minister told the

Times, “This is a women’s march, . . . [w]e’re supposed to be allies in equal

pay, marriage, adoption. Why is it now about, ‘White women don’t

understand black women’?”

148

The Times’ article also recorded the reaction of a New Jersey woman to a

quote posted on the march’s Facebook page. The quote, taken from Bell

Hooks, a famous Black author and feminist, encouraged women to create “a

stronger sisterhood by ‘confronting the ways women—through sex, class and

race—dominate[] and exploit[] other women.’”

149

The New Jersey woman

responded “I’m starting to feel not very welcome in this endeavor.”

150

It seems that both the South Carolina minister and the New Jersey woman

were expressing a willingness to engage in coalition building only if they could

do it on their terms—i.e., from a safe (“comfortable”) space and with a focus

squarely on issues of concern to White women (e.g., pay equity, marriage,

adoption, but not the ways in which pay equity, marriage, and adoption are

affected by race or class).

151

This struck some Black women, who feel

marginalized and uncomfortable every day of their lives, as another instance

of White women’s blindness and unwillingness to interrogate their racial and

class privilege—or at least to understand the multiplicity of their identities.

152

This tension, which is not new, was aggravated by the fact that 53% of White

women voted for Donald Trump, while 94% of Black women voted for Hillary

Clinton.

153

This startling disparity had already caused some women of color

to wonder whether a deep, intersectional sisterhood was possible.

What the above interactions reveal is that some, though certainly not all,

White women are missing a key insight of intersectionality theory. Race is

always mediated by class and gender. And gender is always mediated by race

and class. One cannot overcome sexism without simultaneously addressing

racism and classism. Similarly, one cannot overcome racism without

simultaneously addressing sexism and classism. Black women are keenly aware

of these facts as they advocate for the abolishment of gender barriers only to

see White women benefit in greater percentages without apparent concern

147. Id.

148. Id.

149. Id.

150. Id.

151. To be sure, some of the White women interviewed by the Times also suggested that the

tone of the interactions were off putting, with use of phrases like “check your privilege.” Id. A

demand that discourse be refined, polite, and carefully phrased so as not to offend is another way

of controlling the terms under which coalition building occurs––terms which render White

women comfortable and mute Black women’s frustration and anger. In other words, it should be

understood that dictating the terms of engagement can itself be a form of control.

152. See Candice Norwood, Can Women’s Marchers Find a Way to Reconcile Their Differences,

TLANTIC (Jan. 27, 2017), https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/womens-

marchers-differences/514652 (reporting that some women of color saw a lack of interest among

White marchers on issues of race and class).

153. See Ellison, supra note 27.

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for the fact that Black and poor women do not fare as well—or advocate for

racial justice only to experience continuing violence at the hands of Black

men.

The above tensions, however, may reflect more than a lack of

understanding of the multiplicity of identities. They may also point to another

phenomenon identified by Professors Trina Grillo and Stephanie Wildman in

their work on analogies.

154

Grillo and Wildman note:

Because whiteness is the norm, it is easy to forget that it is not the

only perspective. Thus, members of dominant groups assume that

their perceptions are the pertinent perceptions, that their problems

are the problems that need to be addressed, and that in discourse

they should be the speaker rather than the listener. Part of being a

member of a privileged group is being the center and the subject of

all inquiry in which people of color or other non-privileged groups

are the objects.

155

What seems to happen in discussions of sexism is that White women

implicitly believe that their concerns should be center stage. When

challenged on this belief, well-meaning White women feel offended. And

Black women feel frustrated.

There are no easy ways to bridge this divide. And many will certainly

argue that in the Trump era, progressive women should focus on what unites

them rather than what divides them. Yet, even in times of crisis and unsettling

upheaval, taking the long-view is preferable. As Anne Valk noted in the Times’

article referenced earlier,

[i]f your short-term goal is to get as many people as possible

[protesting in the streets], maybe you don’t want to alienate people

. . . [b]ut if your longer-term goal is to use [protest] as a catalyst for

progressive social and political change, then that has to include

thinking about race and class privilege.

156

Thus, White women must be willing to listen more and to learn. They must

understand that in so many ways, from trying to survive with a criminal

154. See generally Trina Grillo & Stephanie M. Wildman, Obscuring the Importance of Race: The

Implication of Making Comparisons Between Racism and Sexism (Or Other -Isms), 1991 D

UKE L.J. 397.

155. Id. at 402 (footnote omitted).

156. Stockman, supra note 145.

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2062 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

record,

157

to the gender pay gap,

158

to even rising in corporate America,

159

the

differences, experiences, and outcomes between Black and White women are

profound. White women must also prepare to be uncomfortable. As Reagon

reminds us:

Coalition work is not work done in your home. Coalition work has

to be done in the streets. And it is some of the most dangerous work

you can do. And you shouldn’t look for comfort. Some people will

come to a coalition and they rate the success of the coalition on

whether or not they feel good when they get there. They’re not

looking for a coalition; they’re looking for a home! They’re looking

for a bottle with some milk in it and a nipple, which does not happen

in a coalition. You don’t get a lot of food in a coalition. You don’t

get fed a lot in a coalition. In a coalition, you have to give, and it is

different from your home.

160

For their part, Black women will have to do what they have done for

centuries—continue to point out the multiplicity of all women’s existences

and stay the course even when some seek to render their lives and their

existences invisible. None of this will be easy. Yet in these perilous times,

progressives cannot afford to do anything else—they need each other to

survive.

161

157. Julia Craven, Black Women with Criminal Records Have a Harder Time Than Their White Peers

Finding Housing in D.C., H

UFFINGTON POST (Oct. 19, 2016), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/

black-white-women-housing-dc_us_5806958fe4b0dd54ce361ad3?section=&section=us_black-

voices&.

158. Adia Harvey Wingfield, About Those 79 Cents, A

TLANTIC (Oct. 17, 2016), http://www.

theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/10/79-cents/504386. Specifically, the article discusses the

gender pay gap difference between White women and women of color. The 79-cent figure represents

the average of all women, yet that 79-cent figure is closer to 65 cents for Black women and 54 cents for

Latina women. Id.

159. Emily Peck, Black Women Are Leaning In And Getting Nowhere, H

UFFINGTON POST (Sept. 29,

2016), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-women-are-leaning-in-and-getting-nowhere_us_

57e98908e4b024a52d29b0e8 (discussing a recent study that “makes clear that while all women

remain underrepresented in the corporate pipeline, women of color face the steepest drop-offs”); Jo

Piazza, Women of Color Hit a ‘Concrete Ceiling’ in Business, W

ALL STREET J. (Sept. 27, 2016, 4:04 AM),

http://www.wsj.com/articles/women-of-color-hit-a-concrete-ceiling-in-business-1474963440 (noting

that women of color face a concrete, as opposed to a glass, ceiling). According to the Women in the

Workplace: 2016 study, produced by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, “[w]omen of color are

the most underrepresented group in the corporate pipeline, lagging behind white men, men of color,

and white women. Even though they make up 20 percent of the U.S. population, women of color hold

a mere 3 percent of C-suite positions, despite having higher aspirations for becoming a top executive

than white women.” L

AREINA YEE ET AL., WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE: 2016, at 8 (2016) (footnote

omitted), https://womenintheworkplace.com.

160. Reagon, supra note 56, at 346.

161. Although the above analysis focuses on coalition building between White and Black

women, the analysis also applies to coalition building among Black women and Black men. The

latter may be somewhat easier to achieve as Black men and women often share the same domestic

spaces. Because Black men and women are family members (brothers, sisters, fathers, daughters,

aunts, uncles, etc.) their interconnected fates appear obvious, and the need to overcome internal

divisions is seemingly more urgent. Therefore, coalitions generally form more naturally between

Black men and women—although usually these coalitions form around racial as opposed to

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B. LEGAL INTERVENTIONS

While law has been a mechanism for social change, the sad truth is that

law cannot solve all problems. As this Subpart reveals, legal claims are likely

to be of limited utility in addressing aggressive encounters. Two areas of the

law are relevant to the present analysis: (1) civil rights claims under

constitutional and statutory law; and (2) tort claims.

1. Constitutional and Statutory Claims

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides, “[n]o

State shall . . . deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due

process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal

protection of the laws.”

162

At least two problems arise with constitutional

claims arising under this Amendment. First, they require state action, which

may be possible to satisfy with governmental entities like the police.

163

But

many aggressive encounters are perpetuated by private entities, which are

beyond the Fourteenth Amendment’s reach.

164

Second, constitutional claims

require a showing of intent.

165

Proof of intent, however, is difficult because

aggressors rarely articulate their racial and gender bias (and indeed they may

be unaware that this bias even exists).

166

Claims under federal statutory law face similar challenges. One of the

most important civil rights statutes is 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which prohibits

interference with rights, privileges and immunities secured by federal law.

167

Like constitutional claims, claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 are limited in scope

as they also require proof of state action. To be sure, other federal statutes

gender discrimination and violence. Coalition building among Black and White women is more

challenging in part because many Black and White women occupy different social and economic

spheres. Their fates do not appear to be as inextricably interwoven. Of course, there are

exceptions with interracial relationships and interracial families. But those families are still a

minority in the United States today. Wang, supra note 139.

162. U.S.

CONST. amend. XIV, § 1.

163. Qualified immunity provides another formidable barrier to constitutional and statutory

claims. See Ashcroft v. Al-Kidd, 563 U.S. 731, 735 (2011).

164. Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 239 (1976).

165. Id. at 240–41.

166. See Lawrence, supra note 101, at 328–44 (explaining the difficulty of proving intent); see

also Linda Hamilton Krieger & Susan T. Fiske, Behavioral Realism in Employment Discrimination Law:

Implicit Bias and Disparate Treatment, 94 C

ALIF. L. REV. 997, 1027–52 (2006) (analyzing empirical

research studies on implicit bias in antidiscrimination law).

167. Section 1983 states that:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or

usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be

subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction

thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the

Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in

equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.

42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2012).

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2064 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

prohibit discrimination by private entities on the basis of race or gender.

168

These statutes, however, cover only specifically delineated areas (e.g., voting

rights, education, employment, housing, public accommodations). Because

aggressive encounters involve daily micro-aggressions that generally do not

result in the denial of a tangible right like voting, employment, or housing,

these laws will provide little redress. In addition, even if one were to proceed

under one of these statutes, the barriers to establishing an intersectional claim

are tremendously high.

169

Basically, Black women would need to prove that

they are subject to discrimination due to their race and gender. Though

cognizable,

170

such intersectional claims have not achieved a high degree of

success in the courts.

171

This may in part be due to a reluctance of factfinders

to infer intentional discrimination when a decision maker has favorably

treated other individuals with some, but not all, of the plaintiff’s demographic

characteristics. For example, factfinders may be loath to infer intentional

discrimination against a Black woman if her employer has hired Black men

(presumably negating racial animus) and White women (presumably

negating gender animus).

172

Absent a clear understanding of the ways in

168. See, e.g., Fair Housing Act of 1968, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601–31 (2012) (prohibiting

discrimination in the sale, rental, or financing of housing); Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C.

§ 2000a (2012) (prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin

in public accommodations); Id. § 2000d (prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color

or national origin by programs receiving federal financial assistance); Id. § 2000e (prohibiting

discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin); Voting

Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973aa–6 (2012) (barring racially discriminatory voting

practices).

169. It is important to note that it is already difficult for plaintiffs to win discrimination cases

based on one protected marker. See Trina Jones, Intra-Group Preferencing: Proving Skin Color and

Identity Performance Discrimination, 34 N.Y.U.

REV. L. & SOC. CHANGE 657, 661–62 (2010)

(discussing the high bar that plaintiffs face in discrimination cases).

170. See, e.g., Lam v. Univ. of Haw., 40 F.3d 1551, 1561–62 (9th Cir. 1994) (recognizing an

intersectional race and gender claim in a Title VII discrimination case); Jefferies v. Harris Cty.

Cmty. Action Ass’n, 615 F.2d 1025, 1032–35 (5th Cir. 1980) (similarly recognizing the validity

of such a claim); Graham v. Bendix Corp., 585 F. Supp. 1036, 1039 (N.D. Ind. 1984) (same).

171. See, e.g., Bradley Allan Areheart, Intersectionality and Identity: Revisiting a Wrinkle in Title

VII, 17 G

EO. MASON U. C.R. L.J. 199, 234–35 (2006) (proposing to amend Title VII because

intersectional plaintiffs “lack[] full recourse”); Rachel Kahn Best et al., Multiple Disadvantages: An

Empirical Test of Intersectionality Theory in EEO Litigation, 45 L

AW & SOC’Y REV. 991, 992 (2011)

(“[P]laintiffs who make intersectional claims, alleging that they were discriminated against based

on more than one ascriptive characteristic, are only half as likely to win their cases as are other

plaintiffs.”); Minna J. Kotkin, Diversity and Discrimination: A Look at Complex Bias, 50 W

M. & MARY

L. REV. 1439, 1459 (2009) (finding based on a sample of summary judgment decisions that

employers prevail at a rate of 73% on claims for employment discrimination in general, and at a

rate of 96% in cases involving multiple claims).

172. See generally Lam v. Univ. of Haw., No. 89-00378 HMF, 1991 WL 490015 (D. Haw. Aug.

13, 1991) (deciding in favor of defendants where plaintiff, a woman born in Vietnam of French

and Vietnamese parentage, alleged discrimination based on national origin, race, and sex), rev’d

in part and aff’d in part, 40 F.3d 1551 (9th Cir. 1994); Jefferies v. Harris Cty. Cmty. Action Ass’n,

425 F. Supp. 1208 (S.D. Tex. 1977) (deciding for the defendants where plaintiff, a Black, female

employee, alleged employment discrimination on the basis of sex and race), aff’d in part and

vacated in part, 615 F.2d 1025 (5th Cir. 1980). For additional discussion of this point, see Jones,

supra note 169, at 689–95.

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which Black women are differently situated from these groups, plaintiffs will

lose these cases.

2. Tort Claims

Resort to common law tort theory may be equally unavailing for Black

women who are subject to aggressive encounters. To be sure, in any case

where a person is physically harmed, assaulted, or falsely imprisoned,

traditional tort remedies are available.

173

But what about the smaller daily

affronts—the thousand cuts caused by aggressive encounters. Are they

compensable under current tort theories of recovery?

Claims for intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress merit

analysis.

174

Indeed, aggressive encounters can fall within both categories.

Some harms are intentionally inflicted; others are unintentional, even

unconscious. The problem is that stand-alone claims for emotional harm, i.e.,

claims unaccompanied by any physical injury, are difficult to win. Plaintiffs in

these cases are typically required to prove that their emotional injury is severe

or serious, i.e., distress beyond that which a reasonable person would be

expected to endure.

175

In addition, expert medical or scientific proof is often

required to sustain the claim.

176

Standing alone, the encounters set forth in

173. General tort remedies include nominal, compensatory, and punitive damages, and

occasionally injunctive relief. D

AN B. DOBBS, THE LAW OF TORTS 1047–52 (2000); see also DONALD

H. BESKIND & DORIANE LAMBELET COLEMAN, TORTS: DOCTRINE AND PROCESS 404–05 (2016)

(describing general tort damages). Damages fall into three general categories: (1) time losses

(e.g., lost wages); (2) expenses incurred due to the injury (e.g., medical expenses); and (3) pain

and suffering, including harm for emotional distress. Id.

174. Intentional (or reckless) infliction of emotional harm is found when “[a]n actor who by

extreme and outrageous conduct intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional harm to

another . . . .” R

ESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF TORTS: LIABILITY FOR PHYSICAL & EMOTIONAL HARM

§ 46 (A

M. LAW INST. 2012). Negligent infliction of emotional harm is found when:

[N]egligent conduct causes serious emotional harm to another . . . [and] the

conduct: (a) places the other in danger of immediate bodily harm and the emotional

harm results from the danger; or (b) occurs in the course of specified categories of

activities, undertakings, or relationships in which negligent conduct is especially

likely to cause serious emotional harm.

Id. § 47; see also generally Deana Pollard Sacks, Torts: Implicit Bias–Inspired Torts, in

IMPLICIT RACIAL

BIAS ACROSS THE LAW 61 (Justin D. Levinson & Robert J. Smith eds., 2012) (arguing that implicit

bias-inspired torts should be actionable).

175. “‘Emotional harm’ means impairment or injury to a person’s emotional tranquility.”

ESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF TORTS, supra note 174, § 45. The Restatement notes:

Courts have played an especially critical role in cabining this tort by requiring

“extreme and outrageous” conduct and “severe” emotional harm. A great deal of

conduct may cause emotional harm, but the requisite conduct for this claim—

extreme and outrageous—describes a very small slice of human behavior. The

requirement that the resulting harm be severe further limits claims.

Id. § 46 cmt. A.

176. See Camille A. Nelson, Considering Tortious Racism, 9 D

EPAUL J. HEALTH CARE L. 905,

942–44 (2005); see also Camper v. Minor, 915 S.W.2d 437, 446 (Tenn. 1996) (concluding that

“in order to guard against trivial or fraudulent actions, the law ought to provide a recovery only

for ‘serious’ or ‘severe’ emotional injury. . . . [and that] the claimed injury or impairment must

be supported by expert medical or scientific proof” (first quoting Burgess v. Superior Court, 831

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this Article would fall outside tort law’s protective umbrella as most do not

involve physical assault, battery, or false imprisonment. Individual cuts, even

those that accumulate over time, from different sources, would not be

actionable unless severe or serious emotional distress results. Thus, the

majority of indignities shared in this Article (e.g., ignoring a Black woman in

a store, following her because you think she is going to steal, assuming she is

not a professional, calling her an animal) would not provide a basis for

redress. In effect, the law’s response to Black women is “Suck it up! Everyone

has to deal with ‘minor’ insults.”

C. C

HANGING THE NARRATIVE AND A CALL FOR INDIVIDUAL ACTION

After a presentation where a White man accused me of being angry

and defensive, I called a friend, who is Black. I told her about the

presentation and wondered aloud why I had been perceived as an

Angry Black Woman? Her response was “Unless we are smiling,

speaking quietly, and not doing anything remotely considered as a

challenge, we are labeled Angry Black Women. But, think of it this

way: You are black. You are a woman. Sometimes you get angry. And

God knows, sometimes you have a right to be angry.”

177

This Article has sought to raise awareness of aggressive encounters and

to encourage readers to think more critically about the bias, prejudice, and

stereotypes that attach to Black women (and more broadly to all marginalized

peoples). It has invited readers to reconsider the trope of the Angry Black

Woman and to recognize that anger is an emotion; a state of mind; a state of

being. Anger can be triggered when, for example, a person is disrespected,

ignored, preyed upon, erroneously suspected of wrongdoing, or otherwise

discriminated against. Consider the following statement from Dominique

Matti, a Black woman, who explains why she is angry:

Because when I was five, my kindergarten classmate told me I

couldn’t be the princess in the game we were playing because black

P.2d 1197, 1200 (Cal. 1992) (en banc); then quoting Rodrigues v. State, 472 P.2d 509, 520

(Haw. 1970))); John C. P. Goldberg & Benjamin C. Zipursky, The Restatement (Third) and the

Place of Duty in Negligence Law, 54 V

AND. L. REV. 657, 748 (2001) (stating how “a majority of courts

require plaintiffs alleging negligent infliction of emotional distress to demonstrate that their

distress was particularly acute in that it extended beyond passing upset. Some courts convey this

requirement by asking the plaintiff to prove, often with expert testimony, that they suffered

‘severe’ emotional distress.”).

177. Telephone Interview by Kimberly Jade Norwood with CeLillianne Green, Attorney, in

Wash. D.C. (Spring 2016). Professor Norwood describes the presentation as follows:

A few years ago I gave a presentation on implicit bias to a largely white audience.

During a break, several audience members came up to speak to me. I answered

questions, successfully I thought. The last questioner was a young white male. He

wanted to know why I was so defensive. He and I discussed his perception of my

demeanor. Eventually, we finished our conversation and I proceeded with my

presentation. During the remainder of my presentation, though, I found myself

constantly trying to monitor my voice, pitch, tone. Do I sound angry? Threatening?

Defensive? Am I coming off as angry?

Kimberly Jade Norwood, (Creve Coeur, Mo.) (2016).

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girls couldn’t be princesses. Because I was in third grade the first

time a teacher seemed shocked at how “well-spoken” I was. Because

in fourth grade I was told my crush didn’t like black girls. Because

in sixth grade a different crush told me I was pretty — for a black girl.

Because in 7th grade my predominantly black suburban

neighborhood was nicknamed “Spring Ghettos” instead of calling it

its name (Spring Meadows). Because I was in 8th grade the first time

I was called an Oreo and told that I “wasn’t really black” like it was a

compliment.

Because in 9th grade when I switched schools a boy told me he knew

I had to be mixed with something to be so pretty. Because in 10th

grade my group of friends and I were called into an office and asked

if we were a gang, or if we had father figures. Because in 11th grade

my AP English teacher told me that I didn’t write like a college-

bound student (though I later scored perfectly on the exam). . . .

Because my college boyfriend called me a “fiery negress” as a joke

when he ordered for me at a restaurant. Because the boyfriend after

that cut me off for saying he was privileged. Because I can’t return

to my hometown without getting pulled over. . . .

Because when I got married people assumed I was pregnant.

Because people who know I’m married call my husband my “baby

daddy. . . .” Because when I was 7 months pregnant my neighbor

asked me to help him move a dresser up a flight of stairs. Because I

am not seen as a woman. Because I am not allowed to be fragile. . . .

Because people don’t think we are people.

Because I can’t protect my son. Because I can’t protect myself.

Because my stomach sinks whenever I see a police car. Because when

my husband leaves the house at night I am afraid he’ll be killed for

looking like somebody. Because I worry that if I went missing like the

64,000 other black women in this nation, the authorities wouldn’t

try hard to find me. Because I am disposable. Because I am hated.

Because we keep dying. Because they justify our deaths. Because no

one is held accountable. . . . Because I don’t know what it means to

let loose. Because doing the things that my white peers do with ease

could cost me my life — trespassing in abandoned buildings,

smoking joints, wearing a hoodie, looking an officer in the eye,

playing music loudly, existing. Because I am afraid to relax. Because

I am traumatized.

Because there isn’t a place in the world white supremacy hasn’t

touched. . . .

Because not hating myself is considered radical.

178

178.

Dominique Matti, Why I’m Absolutely an Angry Black Woman, HUFFINGTON POST: BLOG

(Oct. 27, 2016, 9:43 AM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dominique-matti/why-im-absolutely-

an-angry-black-woman_b_8398228.html.

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2068 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 102:2017

As the above excerpt and this Article have demonstrated, Black women have

much about which to be angry. Stand in Dominique’s shoes. Feel the

countless cuts and scores, each leaving some mark of pain and confusion.

Would not you be angry too?

Changing the narrative about Black women and anger requires

information (which this Article has sought to provide) as well as empathy.

179

It requires that readers understand that expressing anger does not make

Black women “innately” angry or angrier than any other person responding

to and trying to cope with disrespect, bigotry, discrimination, macro- and

micro-aggressions and biased treatment. It does not make Black women any

less human. Indeed, Black women’s responses to pervasive inequality and

hierarchy should be understood as an affirmation of their humanity and as a

demand for the equality, dignity, and respect to which all humans are

entitled.

180

But empathy and understanding in the abstract are not enough. Tangible

action is also required. While stronger coalitions and more creative legal

interventions are necessary to counter aggressive encounters, change also

happens at the individual level. Individual acts may appear small and

incremental, but tiny ripples can create large effects. As a first step toward

empowering individuals in their daily lives, this Article encourages readers to

ask three questions when engaging with Black women (or when witnessing an

aggressive encounter): (1) What is causing me to respond in a particular way

to this person (i.e., what stereotypes, biases, or assumptions are reflected in

my reactions to or actions toward her); (2) What factors are likely influencing

her response to me; and (3) What might I do now to produce a better

outcome? While asking these three questions will not prevent all aggressive

encounters, they should reduce their incidence—or at least provide space for

greater reflection and conversation. Moreover, when aggressive encounters

occur, asking these questions has the potential to de-escalate the situation.

More importantly, pondering these questions may lead to a realization that

Black women are not walking around inherently angry. That is a trope.

Rather, Black women, like all humans, are responding to societal stimuli.

When the stimuli change, so too will Black women’s responses.

VII. C

ONCLUSION

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.

181

This Article has sought to bring attention to aggressive encounters

experienced by Black women. Aggressive encounters have two distinguishing

features. First, an aggressor acts based upon negative stereotypes or biases

179. Alex Dixon, Can Empathy Reduce Racism?, GREATER GOOD (July 21, 2011), http://

greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/empathy_reduces_racism.

180. Black women have survived a history of degradation, rape, torture, and ridicule.

Justifiable outrage and anger over the assaults to their humanity arguably fueled their resistance.

The refusal to back down and the will to survive, turned and continues to turn, anger into power.

181. M

AYA ANGELOU, AND STILL I RISE, Still I Rise (1978).

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about Black women. Second, when a Black woman pushes back against this

treatment, she is viewed as being “out of line” and becomes the source of

blame for the encounter, rather than the negative stereotypes and biases that

initially fueled it. This Article has described the many locations and the

various ways in which aggressive encounters occur. It has also demonstrated

how Black women, who are justifiably angry in these encounters, become

readily transformed into the trope of the “Angry Black Woman.”

Dismantling this trope requires overcoming barriers of race (within the

community of women) and gender (within the Black community); it requires

the sort of intersectional analysis set forth in this Article. Listening to the

voices of Black women not only renders the experiences of Black women

visible, it also has the potential to transform understandings of racism and

sexism. Ultimately, the trope of the Angry Black Woman is simultaneously

about race and gender. It is about a woman “acting against form” and about

a person of color “acting true to form.” Eliminating this trope would mean

that all women would be more empowered to challenge the reins of sexism

and all people of color would enjoy greater power to challenge the reins of

racism.