Nearly 200 students, staff, and faculty filled Great Hall on Feb. 28 to hear Dr. Patrice N. Douglas close out Bryn Mawr's Black History month programming with a talk titled "Why I Am Not Allowed to See The Color Red."
In her talk, Douglas proudly told the crowd, "As a Black woman, anger is my right."
"Anger creates change in various settings and systems," Douglas said. "A lot of the laws, a lot of the policies, a lot of the changes in the world, come from anger. Someone saw that something in the world was wrong and they fought day and night to make a change."
Later in her talk, Douglas further explored the idea of not just embracing anger but also trying to understand it.
"We're not going to ignore our anger. Instead we're going to ask, 'What is my anger telling me?' A lot of the time we just have to take a breather. You know that you're upset, but why are you upset?...What is your anger telling you? Does there need to be a policy change? Does there need to be a friendship change? Does there need to be a communication change?"
For friends and allies of the Black community, Douglas says, "Join us as we express our anger and don't silence us because of uncomfortability. The world is uncomfortable, and we all need to talk about it...anger is our gateway to advocacy"
