WILLIAMS: Right to Be Angry

Let’s get this straight. There was a time when Black women were depended upon to take care of other people’s children, cook their food, clean their homes, and do other unmentionable things. So from where does all this hatefulness come? Why are we now known as “angry Black women?” Fulton County DA Fani Willis was determined to be this smart Black woman who was doing so well that she was certain to be able to rightly convict “The Donald” and his crew that participated in helping to cover things up for him as it’s clear he just wanted the top election official in Georgia to find 11,700 ballots to help him win the state! It’s recorded. What more proof is needed to find “The Donald” guilty of trying to steal an election? That’s the crime!

DA Fani Willis — a smart, well-qualified Black woman — was the person with the charge to tell the man, “You can’t do that, Donald. People have to vote and be legally counted to add to the number of people voting for you.” He didn’t like that because he thinks even though he’d lost the election, he should be able to do anything he wanted to do to get enough votes. The truth was too much for the man!

He’d been accustomed to doing whatever he wanted to do, like lie, cheat, steal and rape women, to get what he wanted. One woman by the name of E. Jean Carroll had just taught him that is not the way things work. New York Attorney General Tish James — another smart Black woman — was in the process of showing him you don’t sit around and blame your friends, let them go to jail for you, and bully judges to have your way. Now, “The Donald” found out that all women are not crazy, dumb or incompetent. He’s paying a heavy price finally.

DA Willis finally said enough is enough. She said, “I have the right to defend myself,” and under oath, she made it clear she takes care of herself and no matter how salacious prosecutors tried to make her, they will never be able to prove she somehow needed to have a man she was seeing take care of her. She paid her way with money she earned apart from the man she was dating at the time. Attorney Nathan Wade confirms that.

Several elderly white men and a white woman tried to project what they would have done onto DA Willis. They haven’t proved she did anything illegal. She did what most Black women were taught. Even when you go on a date, you take your dollar. As for keeping cash around the house, most of us were taught to do that. Her dad taught her to do that, and so did my mom. Those of us who’ve gone to school, highly educated ourselves and earned a great job don’t ask for men to pay our bills. We pay them ourselves.

Some have said Fani shouldn’t have been angry, but you need to put yourself in her shoes as so much irrelevant information from Trump’s friends was being thrown against her, without proof, to destroy a smart Black woman to save a well-known bad actor. As a Black woman, I stand with DA Willis, and I pray she will spend the rest of her life without fear fighting for justice and winning.

When a Black woman is angry, you can bet there’s good reason. What we feel for the meanness against us just because we are successful Black women hurts. Still, it doesn’t stop the great work we so often do for our people, and it often even benefits those who try to destroy us!

Williams is president of The Dick Gregory Society (www.thedickgregorysociety.org).