I was watching a clip of Wendy William's day time talk show and her guest was Omarosa, best known for filling the role of the "angry black woman" or "B*tch" on Donald Trump's "Apprentice" reality show. Omarosa was on Wendy to promote her new book "The B*tch Switch: A How To Guide For Women." Omarosa started chatting with Wendy and made some good points including: "77% of women do not negotiate their salary." Most women take the first offer which is always the company's low end and run with it. I was very intrigued by this statement as I have been a victim of being low balled on several jobs because I was scared to speak up and negotiate my worth in fear of losing out on a position that I wanted badly. We've all been there...
Next, Wendy called Omarosa the stereotypical "Angry Black Woman" to which Omarosa responded: "I'd rather be an ABW than a buffoon." Ooooh. Omarosa continued: "When black women in the work place tend to speak up, we are labeled as angry." It was at this point of the show that I started to cringe. I couldn't believe I was watching two educated African American women on stage in front of a diverse audience blaming each other for how society views African American women. I was disappointed and disheartened because I feel that our culture is the only culture that blames and points fingers at each other. Black men put the blame on black women for them "dating outside of their race." Submissive and less independent women put the blame on the stronger independent black women for the stereotypes that black women in positions of power are hard to work for and are known as "b*tches." A person with a darker skin tone will always blame a person of a lighter skin tone for better treatment. We deal with colorism, we deal with racism, we deal with sexism….when will it all stop? As we continue to feed into these stereotypes and point the fingers at each other, we will never climb from the bottom of that barrel that society has placed us in.
Anyway, my first impression was this Omarosa chick was the epitome of how society views and places labels on strong African American women, who are educated, independent and know exactly what they want. Interesting enough, I googled "Omorosa" (note the improper spelling of her name) and found that the Urban Dictionary had a definition for what they call "The Omorosa Factor."
Definition: A slang term for the degree of risk white employers take when hiring black employees. It was coined in honor of a black female contestant on a reality show called "The Apprentice" who had very little value as an employee and an infamous ability to irritate all those around her. Companies fear hiring people like Omorosa[sp]. People who sell themselves very strongly, display up-front confidence and have a suitable resume, yet in the end offer no value to the company as an employee, create an environment of conflict and hatred among other employees, and is a walking time bomb waiting to scream "racism" or "sexism" the moment something doesn't go their way (e.g. denied a raise, promotion, or is fired).
Unreal! So my question is have I been fooled into thinking that Omarosa is just a strong, educated, independent and confident African American woman that everyone will automatically label as "confrontational" and a "b*tch" OR is she really that "Angry Black Woman" that no one would want to hire?
-Necole Bitchie