So what if it's true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the
right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney
Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can
give us the strength to keep on fighting.
Far too often, Black
women's anger has been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force
that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy.
But Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that. Black
women's eloquent rage is what makes Serena Williams such a powerful
tennis player. It's what makes Beyoncé's girl power anthems resonate
so hard. It's what makes Michelle Obama an icon.
Eloquent rage keeps
us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don't have
to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother's eloquent
rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious
front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. And it took another
intervention, this time staged by one of her homegirls, to turn
Brittney into the fierce feminist she is today. In Brittney Cooper's
world, neither mean girls nor fuckboys ever win. But homegirls emerge
as heroes. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and
faith in one's own superpowers are all we really need to turn things
right side up again.