Why Stacey Dash’s Apology For Being an ‘Angry Conservative Black Woman’ Is More Harmful Than Genuine

via the daily mail

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Stacey Dash, best known for her 1995 role in Clueless as Dionne, wants to make amends. Telling the newspaper: “I've lived my life being angry, which is what I was on Fox News. I was the angry, conservative, Black woman. And at that time in my life it was who I was.”

What is most interesting, is Stacey's choice of words. The ‘angry Black woman’ trope is a phrase that is detrimental to Black women professionally, societally, mentally and emotionally. This is a phrase that did not originate from Black women, but from those with the ideology that Black women are emotionally stunted, and one-dimensional. It can and has continued to negatively affect our professional advancement, undermines our well-being and dismisses our voices.

Throwing the word ‘conservative’ in the middle of the ‘angry Black woman’ stereotype does not make her statement any less harmful. In fact, as a Black woman confirming this stereotype— it legitimizes and endangers other Black conservative women, belittling their political opinion. This phrase is strategically designed to restrict the emotional range Black women are publicly allowed to express; a range that white women (like Tomi Lahren and Kellyanne Conway) are freely granted.

via the grio

One must also note Dash’s timing. Telling the Daily Mail, “'I realized in 2016 that anger is unsustainable and it will destroy you. I made a lot of mistakes because of that anger.” In 2016, Dash was let go as a Fox News pundit— an event that could have been that epiphanic moment for her. However her comments about the Charlottesville “Unite the Right’ mob two years later contradict this enlightened shift. In 2018, she publicly sided with Trump’s ‘both sides’ comment regarding the motive of the white supremacist mob.

In reference to Trump today, Dash tells the Daily Mail, “He is not the president. So I’m going to give the President a chance.” Here, and throughout the remainder of the interview— Dash never fully condemns the irreversible harm Trump has inflicted both directly and indirectly against Black Americans, especially Black women like herself. Which raises questions as to if she is genuine in her epiphany, or just jumping ship due to Trump’s failure at a second term.

While Dash’s apology (although the words ‘I’m sorry’ are not heard in this interview), is finally here, what four years under the Trump administration has taught this country is that forgiveness and accountability are not the same. What are Dash’s actions now that she no longer has Trump’s political power to support and protect her? How is she helping Black women like herself? Is she helping Black women? Time will tell.