With the help of online social networks, women like Issa Rae are promoting better representations of black women.

by Kristina Bustos

(Top photo from L to R: Aisha Tyler, Jamie Broadnax, Issa Rae, Chaka Cumberbatch, Zeba Blay)

What began as an online social network hashtag, “Carefree Black Girls” (#CFBG) turned into a movement amongst young black women. Pop culture and film writer Zeba Blay explains to me that the “Carefree Black Girls” concept was an answer to the #carefreewhitegirl trend on Tumblr. The term “Carefree White Girl” was coined by Collier Meyerson, who launched a Tumblr blog of the same name in 2011 that critiques “the ways in which popular imagery reinforces the deification of white womanhood.” The blog calls attention to images of white women looking ethereal, pretty, and well, carefree. Think, Sienna Miller, Kate Bosworth or Zooey Deschanel (who has been called the poster girl for the term). Thus, #carefreeblackgirls emerged on the same platform and eventually made its way to other social networks like Twitter, where Blay was the first person to be recorded using the hashtag, according to Topsy search result. By 2014, “Carefree Black Girls” entered into the conscience of the mainstream media with strong celebrity representations from the likes of Willow Smith, Solange, Lupita Nyong’o and Janelle Monáe, while coverage from Refinery29, Jezebel, The Root and Buzzfeed added to the movement’s discourse.

As far as how it is a response to the popularity of #carefreewhitegirls: “It was an assertion that black women also get to be unabashedly themselves in the world that’s constantly putting them into concrete boxes,” Blay elaborates.

For many black girls, the CFBG movement is about owning their individualities, from their eclectic personal styles to their fearless attitudes and their creative ambitions. It’s a black female image that challenges the dehumanizing archetypes already in place, especially as seen in the entertainment world. Even ratings-juggernaut “Empire” features a black actress (Taraji P. Henson) in a lead role that conforms to a common black female stereotype – the “Sassy Black Woman.” The “Sassy Black Woman” is also referred to in different ways — the “Angry Black Woman” and its original name the “Sapphire” based on Ernestine Wade’s character in the 1943 TV show “Amos ‘n’ Andy”. Along with the “Sapphire”, the other two stereotypes black actresses have been relegated to throughout Hollywood’s history are the “Mammy” (from the obedient black nanny played by Hattie McDaniel in 1939’s Gone with the Wind to Viola Davis in 2011’s The Help) and the “Jezebel” (from the sexual, promiscuous black character in 1954’s Carmen starring Dorothy Dandridge to Halle Berry in 2001 Monster’s Ball ). The pattern with these labels is that black women are not given the chance to freely move along the personality spectrum like their white female counterparts. These are roles that also service others — mostly white people — in manual labor ( the “Mammy”) or sex (the “Jezebel”), and they automatically heighten the reputations of other women in their midst.

But with the current success of Issa Rae, known for her YouTube series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl,” “Black Girl Nerds” (also referred to as BGN or Blerds) can become the next positive black female image to combat the stereotypes in the mainstream. In 2011, Rae launched her show after seeing a Clutch magazine article asking why there wasn’t a Liz Lemon (Tina Fey’s character on “30 Rock”) for black girls, and so Rae sought to be that person herself. Rae has inspired many nerdy black girls as she continues to build her career. Just last month, Rae released the memoir version of “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl,” which has become a New York Times bestseller,  and her comedy, “Insecure,” was given a pilot order by HBO.

“Issa Rae is a big inspiration, and her latest book reads like my biography,” says the creator of Black Girl Nerds blog, Jamie Broadnax. “[She] and I are definitely cut from the same cloth.”

Nerdy black girls are underrepresented in the media, but the world of nerdom isn’t. Given all the nerdy characters seen in entertainment, many have their own ideas of what defines a nerd. But Broadnax says that people should understand that the term “nerd” now has an elusive definition as nerdiness encompasses many things.

“The old tropes associated with nerdiness [were] at a time when it was heavily dominated by white men,” Broadnax continues. “Now that it’s not, the term has shifted to fit within other cultures. What people should understand about BGN is that we represent all kinds of fandoms and we engage and participate in several different cultures. Our worldview is three-dimensional and we’re not a part of any monolith.”

Which is why Rae makes a great role model for many “Black Girl Nerds” because she is bringing depth to the archetype. When I met Rae at a toasting book launch last month, she was charming and not so “awkward.” Instead, she was social to people she knew and didn’t know (like myself), and she was more than happy to take photos with fans. So Rae isn’t exactly that typical “introverted nerd”, and she continues to demonstrate that by being vocal about her blackness and the racial issues that come with her skin color.   

“Issa Rae, to me, is one of the precious few nerdy Black women who has managed to command the spotlight without having to downplay, talk around or apologize for the fact that she is black,” freelance writer Chaka Cumberbatch, a proud self-proclaimed black girl nerd says, adding: “They want you to be safe, funny [and] black and she’s not here for it, which I love. The fact that she is one of the exceptions, and not the rule, is part of the problem to begin with.”

In a 2013 xoJane thinkpiece, Cumberbatch demanded better representation for black girl nerds in “geek culture,” by which she means characters in comics, anime, science fiction, video games, and pop culture, but also in real life. When she wrote the article, Cumberbatch could only name a handful of black female characters in the geek world, the most obvious being X-Men’s Storm, “The Walking Dead’s” Michonne and “True Blood’s” Tara. But in real life, it only seemed to be Rae and the multi-hyphenated Aisha Tyler, known as “The Talk” co-host and Agent Lana Kane’s voice in FX’s “Archer.”

“Every Aisha Tyler and every Issa Rae feels like a small victory for me, and for girls who look like me” Cumberbatch wrote in her article. She lamented that oftentimes she just had to accept what was represented to her due to the lack of black women in geek culture.

Since then, as her fellow black girl nerds have started to speak up, Cumberbatch thinks there has been progress in improving the lack of black female representation in the geek world. And it’s not just the fans who are trying to shake things up. She names Image Comics as one of the comic book publishers taking a step forward in diversifying their characters.

“It’s slow-going, and it’s met with backlash almost every time (for example, the Captain America and Thor announcements from last year), but we’re getting there,” Cumberbatch says.

Last year, Marvel Comics announced two huge character changes. Sam Wilson, a.k.a. the Falcon, will assume the role as the first black Captain America.  In the film version Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Falcon is played by black actor Anthony Mackie. Marvel isn’t just putting characters of color in major roles but also increasing female representation, as the new Thor hero will be a woman. Both the Captain America and Thor movies are huge hits so there’s a possibility that these two character changes may be incorporated in the film versions as ensembles or stand-alone features.

Even if it’s slow, the progress might trickle down to other aspects of entertainment. Maybe we’ll see more women like Rae and Tyler in our multiplexes, small screens or book covers so that aspiring black writers, actresses, and comedians and won’t need to look up to only a few nerdy black women. And when a black woman accomplishes something, she won’t have to be compared to her white counterparts, like when Rae is called the new Tina Fey. Sure, Rae sought out to create a character similar to Fey’s Liz Lemon, so in a sense she brought the comparison upon herself. But the comparison still speaks volumes to the lack of diverse roles, calling attention to the fact that the predecessor of Rae in real life isn’t another black woman. You would never see a white woman be considered the next Issa Rae, Beyoncé, Naomi Campbell or other black woman trailblazing in her career.

“I mean, there’s definitely something to be said for the fact that we constantly must look toward white models to describe black women doing things that are seemingly out of the norm,” Blay says. “I look at a show like ‘Girls’ or ‘Broad City’ and I find myself thinking, ‘Man, I wish there was a black version of this, or a Latina version of this.’ I don’t think it’s inherently a bad thing to call Issa the next Tina, if all that means is that she has the potential to be another funny, smart, and successful fixture in TV. But I look forward to the moment when Issa’s show premieres and it’s more generally acknowledged that she isn’t just a ‘black version’ of someone else, but a talent and creative in her own right. This is what happens all the time, though. Even barring race, the ‘Broad City’ girls were initially compared heavily to Lena Dunham and ‘Girls’ when the shows are nothing alike. We need to curb our urge to compare women to one another, across the board.” 

In recent years, there has been a huge push to show that women are more complex than how they are portrayed in the media, especially when it comes to women of color. And the use of online social networks has helped promote black women’s agendas with hashtags that capitalize on their “otherness” like #carefreeblackgirls, #quirkyblackgirls, #blackgirlnerds and #awkwardblackgirls. But as Blay explains, it’s important to understand that these hashtags or labels weren’t created to put any women identifying as such on a pedestal. It is simply to celebrate and recognize the varying layers of women. While a “Carefree Black Girl” is often described as having a flower crown around her head, ankh tattoos on her body and cool yarn braids, that’s a misconception, according to Blay. A “Carefree Black Girl” can mold her personality and aesthetic as she pleases, and that is the beauty of these hashtags or labels. It gives the power back to women of color to create their personal brands.

“The idea is that the labels are not as important as the ability for us to accept and celebrate black women in all their forms – nerdy, bohemian, ratchet, whatever,” Blay adds. “The labels may help break down certain stereotypes about who black women are, but at the same time I hope that, as they gain traction, we remember that the real issue here is that an Issa Rae doesn’t become the only example that we have of different forms of black womanhood.”

As black women continue to break down the stereotypes, the next step is seeing women of other ethnic backgrounds forge their own discussions and movements. It’s encouraging that there are already several hashtags and social media networks that bring all women of color together. Instagram’s @brownbeautyprofile is “a site for smart, talented and aware women of color,” posting images not just of black women but of Native Americans, Indians, Middle Easterners, Hispanics and Asians. And #carefreebrowngirls opens up the “carefree” label to other minority ethnicities and brings them into the movement, too. When other women of color join in the fight to promote well-rounded images of themselves, that’s significant progress. The rest of us should pay attention.

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Kristina Bustos is a contributing writer for The Riveter and Digital Spy. She was an editor at fashion blog The Blay Report as well as a contributor for Honey, Essence, and Audrey magazines.You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @krisbustos.