[2][3] Carolyn West categorizes the Angry Black Woman (ABW) as a variation on the "Sapphire" stereotype or, colloquially, "Sistas with Attitude".
The Sapphire archetype painted enslaved women as impure, strong, masculine, dominant, and aggressive who drove their children and partners away.
It was utilized as a means to prove oppression was not as imminent of an issue, if Whites accepted Black women who acted according to this caricature.
The Jezebel is a stereotype used to refer to fair-skinned, slimmer, and lighter-eyed Black women, becoming hyper-sexualized by America and its media soon after the Mammy trope began its decline.
The exposure to social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and more have created an environment where children learn their behaviors from people online.
This is demonstrated within Rick James' 1981 song "Super Freak," where he speaks of a "very kinky girl...the kind you don't take home to mother".
This amoral depiction is also symbolized in Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's "Bitches Ain't Shit" anthem (1992), which is an explicit telling of a few occurrences of women they have experienced being both the prowling Jezebel and the aforementioned Gold Digger.
With the creation and establishment of Hip Hop and Rap as a culture, Black youth found themselves in a position of creating and defining what was cool and trendy but still trapped by neocolonialism.
[10][11] The sexual narratives perpetuated to the public through media about black women have created stigmas and biases within the educational and juvenile justice system and made them more prone to exploitation, such as sex trafficking.
[12] This, accompanied by the fact that those who enforce and uphold the law also carry these biases, places young black girls in vulnerable positions where they are forced to take responsibility for their victimization.
We see this replicated as well in film, through portraying African American women as far older in order to remove sympathy garnering characteristics from Black characters.
The narrative of anger, assertiveness, and frequent emasculation was echoed with characters such as Aunt Esther from Sanford and Son and Pam from Martin.
Towards the early 1970s, Blaxploitation became a prominent film genre, capitalizing off of a new trope which emerged from the combination of two previous caricatures- Jezebel and Sapphire.
This combination birthed a separate caricatures that took the overly sexual and aggressive perception of Black women and use it to fight crime.
This may be a conscious or subconscious action on behalf of the individual(s) labeling a Black woman as angry in order to shift blame or responsibility.
Gender studies professor Deborah Gray White writes, "slave women understood the value of silence and secrecy... like all who are dependent upon the caprices of a master, they hide their real sentiments and turn toward him changeless smile or enigmatic passivity".
In other words, slavery poses a direct correlation to the Black women's emotional response, being taught that a domineering personality could be viewed as threatening.
[citation needed] A number of Black women provide insight on how the stereotype is reinforced in the media, social spaces, and interpersonal interactions.
[17] The aftermath of slavery not only resulted in many social, economic and political effects but also led to the delineation of negative racial stereotypes in the portrayal of black women in media.
The tropes used to label black women and exposure to institutionalized racism over an extensive period can have lasting effects in the form of chronic physical and mental afflictions; the stress accompanying racial and gender-based discrimination can manifest into health issues such as anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and cardiovascular disease.
Black women often face this in workplaces while being victims of this negative stereotype that increases their risk of performance pressure and stress.
The fear of stereotype threat and becoming unemployed from their workplace not only leads them to pushing themselves to tokenized by the white-dominant work force in order to be treated fairly, but it also increases their risk of mental health issues like anxiety.
[28] In predominately White workplaces, Black women are often viewed as many racial stereotypes along which they are being undervalued, preventing them from expressing their authentic personality and skills.