You can feel it coming up and boiling inside you. Sometimes, my eyes twitch like something within me is about to blow. That feeling scares me. I’ve been trained to suppress it, we all have, as Black women, especially in America.

The Black woman's rage was cultivated by everyone but us. White men started the initial objective, while white women personally pushed it. Unfortunately, what Black women were not expecting was for Black men to also attempt to put their foot on our necks, too, but in private, at home with our children. Then collectively, the three groups pushed the narrative further by labeling us as the “Angry Black Woman”, as if we didn’t have a reason to be from the start.

The history of the Black woman’s rage in America dates back to slavery, because the objective has been to dismantle the Black household unit. Dividing our unity as a community is one thing, but as a family, taking my spouse and my children, I will become outraged. But should I be “respectable” and contain my anger, I can organize a plan to either free myself or get my family back.

The child support crackdown, or “child support compliance” as the system named it, really lights a fire to my rage flame. See, white women experienced something different in court than Black mothers. They got their money, and the fathers walked out of the courtroom, but Black mothers left with no money, and the father didn’t walk out of the courtroom free, but in handcuffs. It had nothing to do with protecting children and everything to do with preserving white comfort. What pisses me off is that these white mothers claimed to be our allies, but only their race received the benefit of our support.

It’s this allyship that lights my fire, burning down everything in my path. My rage is information; my rage gives me insight into what my mind tries to suppress when my heart aches. I will not say that I do not like white women and men, but I will say that the hatred that spews from them towards Black women triggers my rage. As Audre Lorde stated, the hatred that is spread in this country towards Black people is the exact projection placed on Black women’s rage.

When you see Black women enraged because the government that made her choose their support over the father is left with nothing because SNAPS and WIC are cut, don’t say a word. Don’t ask her to suppress her rage; hold space for her fury because this is the only way to bring about change.

“Anger is a grief of distortions between peers, and its object is change.” Audre Lorde followed that sentence by saying our time is getting shorter, and today the time is here. I believe it’s time to be outraged, furious, angry, MAD AS HELL if you will.

This essay is not to go down the rabbit hole of the many systems that have been created to oppress my race, but this essay is my safe space to express how these systems in place are utter bullshit and trigger my rage.

I do not fear a Black woman expressing her fury, but I do fantasize pistol-whipping anyone who dares say or do anything racist to me and mine. White America does not fear the Black woman’s rage; they fear our “vengeance”. Kali Nicole Gross writes, “Vengeance feminism is defined by Black women defending themselves against dishonor, violence, and lawlessness, and taking control of [our] bodies with respect to reproduction by whatever means necessary.”

Rage is self-respect activating within the Black woman’s body, and we know the body remembers. The body knows what Black women have endured year after year in this country. Our bodies have been used like lab rats through forced sterilizations and the eugenics movement. Doctors called it “science,” but it was actually the fear of our extended lineage. Y’all do understand this “war” against us is because white supremacy fears being the minority, as if they aren’t already. Fannie Lou Hamer called it the “Mississippi Appendectomy,” Black women going to hospitals for care and coming out without wombs. Therefore, our rage is not destructive; it is prophecy and liberation, whether America is ready to accept that or not.

Hatred in this country will lead to destruction, but the Black woman’s rage is the creative power that births transformation. When we allow our rage to spew in the same way hatred does, we will begin to see the change in America that we deserve. I create change in my anger, my fury fuels my creativity, my rage is alchemized.

They call our rage dangerous, but what do you call a government that attacks a community’s womb, wallet, and warriors at the same time? I would name them what they name our community when we decide to organize, a terrorist.

Ready to alchemize your 'Black woman rage' for change?

As Black women, we are shamed for our righteous outrage because it makes people uncomfortable. However, usually, the only people uncomfortable are the ones who provoked the rage to begin with.

So I am imploring all Black women to stop suppressing your rage to be “respectable”, stop ignoring the emotions boiling to the surface, the silence is submission, and that silence is literally killing us through disease. Get mad, express your anger, let these motherfuckers know Black women are fed up and we’ve had enough!

It’s time to let America feel our wrath.

And once we get our foot on their necks, DON’T LET UP!

xoxo,

Chronicles of Change is a reader-supported publication. This space is built on community, creativity, and truth-telling. If you want to support the work, you can join as a paid subscriber; it’s $30/year. Your support helps me write, build, and grow in real time.

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* and now Miguel just dropped one of the best EPs of the year, listen here: https://www.andnowmiguel.com/agohfs

* Zine Studio Membership as a creative outlet for Black women rage, next workshop Saturday, November 15th, 12-2 pm PT, register here: https://www.jacquieverbal.com/product/zine-studio/AUPZSE762YKVUUF7WJKEAKWC?cs=true&cst=custom

* Lakeisha | Temple Priestess is the Novel November Ambassador for ProWritingAid’s challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days, aka finish that manuscript challenge, more details here: