This is a great forum. I appreciate the feedback I have been receiving through comments here, my email and face-to-face conversations. As I seek to pick your brains regarding your thoughts on who the strong black woman is I want to make sure that you clearly understand what my ponderings are based on. To that end, please take note of my definitions (below) and check out the newly added “About Blog” page.

One of my friends said she has two definitions of a strong black woman, a BC (Before Christ) one and an AC (After Christ) one. So far in this blog I have been discussing what I have termed “misguided notions” about who a strong black woman is. To use my friend’s classification, this would be a before Christ view. I have also expressed my desire to walk in the strength of God and to be called by a new name, one other than strong black woman, so there is little confusion about who I now am. There is no shame in being strong, black or woman. As a Christian there should be shame in walking in your own power and prioritizing race and gender over your faith heritage. This is a BC attitude. This is who I once was.

But because my memory is so strong, the BC keeps coming back and interfering with my AC walk. This blog talks about the BC strong black woman and aims to more fully focus on the AC strong black woman who I want to simply call God’s Woman.

Definitions
My perspective will reflect the following definitions:

(BC) A strong black woman is one who has a keen racial and gender identity and her thoughts, speech and acts primarily reflect an emphasis on these attributes.

(AC) God’s Woman is one who has a Christ-centered identity and prioritizes her thoughts, speech and acts from this perspective.

Copyright 2009 By Rhonda J. Smith