Racialized Ageism Against Black Women: It’s a real thing.
Recently, I was reading a back issue of the #AARPMagazine and was delighted to see that at age 77, actress #HelenMirren is getting roles in a series, just as #Merylstreep is also getting TV roles in popular series like “Only Murders in the Building” (https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/meryl-streep-only-murders-in-the-building-season-3-hulu-1235489810/) at age 73.
After my adulation, however, I had to pause and reflect as a young Black woman of 71 years old, and ask myself: “WHERE are the aging #blackwomen?” Where are women of a certain age who look like me? Where are they in the movies, the corporate offices, higher education, nonprofit organizations, and politics?
The Absence of Senior Black Women Everywhere
Where are we? Where are senior Black women? Of course, everyone will want to point to Angela Bassett as a counterpoint to what I am saying about Mirren and Streep.
And, it’s true, she was/is fabulous. Her portrayal of Ramonda, Queen of Wakanda is elegant, stirring, just good old-fashioned acting — and #badass! (see my “Black Women are still ‘badass’ in Wakanda Forever”, p.3). But she is just 67, younger than me, though I loved her white/silver hair. Also, Ramonda — Angela Bassett — dies in the film. That is a loss for any future sequels — too bad.
And, what of actress Cecily Tyson? Before she joined the Ancestors at age 96 on January 28, 2021, did she get her due? While she played in numerous films and TV shows, she did not reach the heights of Mirren and Streep, where people are making movies just to showcase their aging.
Props due to Tyler Perry who was quoted as saying he paid Tyson $1 Million dollars for one day of work because “…I wanted to make sure she knew there were people who valued her.” Enough respect also goes to Viola Davis who gave Tyson a reoccurring role as her mother — and a complicated woman — in her hit series of “How to Get Away with Murder.”
Seventy, Sexy and Single
I get hundreds of views on my #LinkedIn profile and people contact me for information! Yet not ONE job offer! What’s up with that??
Black women past age 60+ have disappeared from films, from #highereducation, from #corporateamerica — from the world! We have been made invisible through sheer neglect. Our talents are wasted unless we become consultants, and then folk (clients who shall remain nameless), want to use our expertise, but offer us only pennies on the dollars, while aging white women are racking up the thousands and millions of real dollars!
Despite our knowledge and talents, we are treated like what we have accomplished doesn’t matter. And it is great that #foundations & #corporations are hiring VERY YOUNG #BIPOCS — but part of that is because, despite being talented — they don’t know a lot — experience counts! They don’t have the deep knowledge of how white institutions — including foundations — have thrived on our work without recognizing us.
I cannot tell you how many #BIPOCprofessionals I have coached once they get over the honeymoon and are face-to-face with systemic and structural racism. They need to have seasoned — senior — Black women on their team as well.
No longer do I seek a day job. I am content to be a coach and share the knowledge I have acquired working in #whitepublicspaces since 1969! This is no joke or sour grapes — #racializedageism is real & it is keeping organizations, foundations, corporations, and academic institutions from benefitting from our talents!
We see you — we know what your blind spots are and may have suggestions for change and transformation, if you are open.
But admit it — that’s not what most want! They seek to maintain the status quo of exclusion, and escape detection by hiring a few young #BIPOCs for window dressing!
Well, I won’t hold my breath waiting for any job offers.
Social security, financial investments (for those who want to work on their own), and the occasional consulting and coaching gigs keep me financially afloat. I have rid myself of most debt, refinanced my house for a ridiciously low rate, so it will be paid off in no time.
Meanwhile, this senior Black woman dreams of spending more time on a beach in Bahia, where I just visited.
And, to keep living my life like it’s golden!
We still got it as #blackwomen; it’s just the world is so used to ignoring us historically, they can’t see our beauty and talent. Truly their loss.
This is what 71 looks like on a senior Black woman. Eat your hearts out! #seniorblackwomanmagic!
©2023 Irma McClaurin
Irma McClaurin (https://linktr.ee/dr.irma/ @mcclaurintweets) is the Culture and Education Editor for Insight News and founder of the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive at UMass. An activist Black Feminist anthropologist, she is a past president of Shaw University, founding Executive Director of the University of Minnesota’s UROC, and has held numerous other leadership positions. McClaurin completed the MFA in English and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and in 2023 was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Social Studies by her alma mater, Grinnell College. Her book Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis and Poetics was named an “Outstanding Academic Title” in 2002 and the Black Press of America selected her as “Best in the Nation Columnist” in 2015. She is a consultant and coach and is on the Advisory Board of the newly established Center for Diaspora and Migration Studies (CDMS) at the University of Liberia. A collection of her columns, Justspeak: Reflections on Race, Culture & Politics in America, is forthcoming in 2023.
