Dear Journal,

I now have a new addition to my household! Monday I adopted a lovely cat from the humane society. This large house has been so empty since my mother died. And though I know that a pet can never replace her, it can fill part of the void she left. I named my cat “Beauty.” She’s jet black with large yellow eyes. I did not set out to adopt a black cat. I don’t consider myself superstitious but there were times when I would turn around and walk the other way to avoid crossing paths with a black cat just in case. But after looking at dozens of cats in the past few weeks, Beauty was the one that I bonded with, and she just happened to be black. Why let a silly superstition deprive me of a great pet? Besides, I’m black too.

Why is it that anything black is bad? A lot of people, without even knowing me, would assume that I am a “bad” woman because I’m black according to an age-old myth that all black women are promiscuous. This myth is perpetuated by the modern media (particularly rap lyrics and music videos) that portrays black women as “whores.” Yes, there are a lot of black women that are promiscuous but not all are. I certainly am not. It only takes one person to prove that a stereotype is not true, and that you can’t paint a whole group of people with a broad brush. And I know for a fact that I am not the only Chaste Virgin/Celibate black woman around. You wouldn’t know that by looking at the media, though. White women get portrayed as “whores” too by the male oriented media, but there are enough positive images of white women to counteract it. Black women on the other hand are portrayed negativity 9 times out of 10. Do you know how difficult it is for me to find an avatar that depicts a virginal image of a black woman? Google “black woman” and “virgin” and see what you come up with. 

I know from personal experience that anyone who believes that black women are over-sexed just because they’re black is sadly misguided. So why should I be so misguided as to believe that this sweet little kitty that I adopted will bring bad luck just because she’s black? I prefer to believe that black can be beautiful… that’s why I named my cat “Beauty.”