Elizabeth Warren is not the Woman Trope
Published in
4 min readFeb 9, 2017
To all the human beings that are blinded by the tropes of this world
I faded away as a human being and became just an Asian trope — a meek, timid, obedient, quiet little girl who was all but an easy object to those who judged my relationship with my Black partner.Tropes are but quiet monsters silencing those it inhabits and those who it is acting against.
In the case of George Zimmerman, writer Vorris L. Nunley describes the powerful White trope that becomes the essence of Zimmerman when emanating his fear, fragility, and innocence . The White trope makes him a force to be reckoned with as he basks in his white privilege, building his case on the word “self-defense.” George Zimmerman, the person who is responsible for the death of Trayvon Martin, is no longer a person. He loses his individuality to the White trope that sways the hearts and minds of the ruling class: the Whites.
The monster hunts. Blackness and darkness are one in the same as the Black trope engulfs all those who satisfy its ceaseless hunger.
“The Black trope erased Trayvon’s individuality. Transformed his Blackness into spectacle,” Nunley said.
The White trope on the other hand feeds its “children of light.” It has become a manipulative, demanding monster instilling pride and authoritative command into those who are White. This monster calls himself a savior and rises itself up on the platforms of freedom and democracy. But the story goes even deeper as the Black trope monster was created by this very “savior” of the children of light. The same way this very nation was founded upon Black enslavement, the Black trope keeps the White monster alive.
In the story of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, two identities were lost and they instead took a role in the very old story of the White driven to “domesticate, control, put in place, and even so, murder the Black (Nunley).”
My existence posed the same threat to the Black women on campus. They looked at me and saw a danger to their own people. As it went on, it was brought to my attention that there was a general belief that if a Black man chose to date a non-Black woman it was because he did not want to be with someone “loud” or dominant in the relationship. Though I can not speak on nor do I identify with the Black community, I, an accomplice to their movement, saw that the women felt they were underappreciated by their male counterparts and that the men who chose to date outside of their community were feeding the same stereotypes, denoting Black women as loud and dominant.
There is an understanding to the inexcusable action of being labeled by a man. Woman to woman, I feel that is all too relatable. We are all silenced in one shape or form. In that way, we are always the minority to men in any room just as Senator Elizabeth Warren was when the republicans on the Senate floor tried to stop her from reading a letter written by Coretta Scott King. Even as professional equals, men saw no issue nor took much care of her concern with nominating Senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general.
Despite Coretta Scott King’s statement and her allegations, all Senate saw was a woman speaking on behalf of another woman. Just as other woman have most certainly felt in other professions, being cut off, talked over, or quite literally ignored is a continual enraging action men do unto women. What was done to Senator Warren was arguably justified through Rule XIX of the Senate.
Warren’s words were deemed unbecoming of a Senator and to other male senators, quite unnecessary. She fell victim to the Woman trope — an overtly aggressive nagging woman who has no true place among men.
Some say that it is when the world sees no color or distinction between man and woman that we will all be saved. This is such a false statement. Color and womanhood is all I see and it is the paint that all others use to shade me as they see fit. There was no exception when it came down to the women who discriminated against me because I was dating someone from their community.
“It was a very wrong decision for him to date a Asian woman.”
They looked at my partner as though he was hypocritical.
“I am surprised at you dating outside of the community knowing how strongly you advocate for Black Lives.”
But all tropes should be challenged and individuals should not be silenced. Trayvon Martin had every right to speak before he was taken away by a White trope in the same light Coretta Scott King and Senator Elizabeth Warren fell to the application of the Women trope. I, myself, was discriminated against by other fellow women of color. But I am not meek nor quiet. I am quite the opposite. In that light, we all fall victim to the false notion that we are what our trope makes us out to be.
