The Underestimated Worth of the Black Woman
Author: D.R. Boatwright

The black community has many traditions that are apart of the make-up of who we are as a people. Among the most important and often the least prioritized is the black woman. As men, my generation in particular, we do not have the fundamental understanding or appreciation that we should towards our black women. We insist upon what we call “realistic expectations” from our women, but the majority of the time we do not properly set up the situation correctly to have those expectations realized. As a result, we have conflict with one another which deteriorates one of our greatest strengths…the family. Our predecessors positioned the woman as the cornerstone of the community…and with good reason. She represents faithfulness, inspiration and meekness which are the virtues of the foundation of our community. Somehow, my generation turned that into what we have today which views faithfulness as an unexpected luxury in a relationship, a people inspired only to appease personal agendas and values recognition over humbleness.

To solve this problem we need to remember that worth is defined as the quality that renders something desirable, valuable or useful. The desire of a black woman should be deeper than the physical beauty that she possesses. It should be rooted in the decency, intelligence and goodness that make up the essence of who she is. Her value is immeasurable when compared to the contributions that she has made to our community and the roles that she has assumed as a result of us as men falling short of mark to adhere to our responsibilities. As the nurturer of our children, maintainer of our households and the help-mate to us, her usefulness to our lives is displayed and executed on a daily basis.

As men, we need to stop this practice of what we assume black woman are because our mindset is only limiting their contribution to us, our community and our country. They have the ability to be more than video girls, strippers and gold-diggers. History depicts black women can be world re-known authors like Dr. Maya Angelou, media icons like Oprah Winfrey or Secretary of State like Dr. Condoleezza Rice. All black women have the ability to evoke the strength, dignity and grace that are embedded in their character, but the current images used to display our women in a derogatory manner, which are prompted mainly by us, have made these qualities difficult to see. Thus, when we see a black woman displaying these qualities on a regular basis it seems foreign to us and we do not know how to respect her, thereby ultimately underestimating her worth.

We must empower ourselves to have an accurate depiction of who black women are and more importantly acknowledge the ability of what they can become. We cannot continually suppress their potential by irresponsibly handling our relationships with them. By doing so we are only stifling their growth and the progression of our community. Again, there and many issues that plague our community that we need to address, but understanding the worth of the black woman is a good place to start to begin solving our problems.

D.R. Boatwright is a Senior Curriculum Analyst and Writer for Empowered Young Men, an organization designed to reprogram and develop young black men into leaders. Our slogan “Cultivating Dreams by Reconstructing Reality” gets at the essence of what we do. By surrounding young black men with older more successful black men and helping them build a positive network of people from all walks of life to support their dreams, we know that we can get them excited about life, education and the great resources America has to offer.

D.R. Boatwright can be contacted at drboatwright@empoweredyoungmen.org