Not Your Superwoman: The Archetype of the Strong Black Woman

“I’m not your Superwoman I’m not the kind of girl that you can let down And think that everything’s okay” It’s a sad moment when a Karyn White song even vaguely resonates, but as I sip a beer and write this, those three lines from the late 80s R&B hit definitely do. On this site, we talk a lot about superheroes, of course–they are virtually our raison d’être–and when a Black woman fits the bill, it’s impossible for us to not get excited about her and what she represents. Whether it’s Riri Williams as Iron Man or the post-zombie apocalyptic presence that is Michonne from The Walking Dead, we live for the powerful Black women who carve out a unique role in the fantastical imagination.

The truth is, however, that Black women have always been perceived as strong, if not superhuman, and that has been as much a burden as anything else we’ve faced in Western society. Our strength has been used as justification for our base mistreatment, in fact, both historically and in contemporary times. While enslaved in the New World, Black women were subjected to the same back-breaking physical labor and corporal punishment that Black men faced. Children were torn away from them as though Black mothers didn’t share the same intense, visceral, maternal instincts of white women. The epidemic rape of women of African descent wasn’t considered real since we were not considered real women–we were, and to some, still are, unrape-able. Even the recent unearthing of Sally Hemings’ living quarte…