Willow Smith is known for breaking the mold and refusing to fit into any box. The 22-year-old makes her voice heard alongside her mother and grandmother on Red Table Talk.
As part of Willow’s natural ability to be herself, she covers the November issue of SPIN magazine, where she shared her thoughts on the “angry Black woman” stereotype and why she embraces the term, Essence reports.
“If you look at history and you look at what the Black woman has had to endure, what other emotion are we going to have?” Smith said.
“We shouldn’t be afraid of that stereotype. We should be like, ‘Okay, yes, and, let me tell you why.’”
The “Whip My Hair” singer continued.
“There are 15 million reasons. I’m not just angry for nothing,” Smith explained. “I’m not just angry because nothing ever happens. I’m angry because there are hundreds and hundreds of years of really just unfair abuse and violation and violence.”
She then directed her rant to men she feels add to the rightful anger Black women possess.
“Even our own men turn on us,” Willow quipped. “That also hurts.”
“I think we need to come together and be more compassionate toward one another, Black women as well,” Smith added.
Willow also touched on breaking up with her girlfriend, who she opted to keep nameless, and processing the split on her new album by getting a little “messy.”
“The purge of who you were before,” she said of her new album COPINGMECHANISM. “You cocoon, then you come out as a butterfly.”
“That sounds very cliché, but there’s really no other way I could say it,” she continued.
“A caterpillar turning into a butterfly is primal… it’s natural…but it’s also magical. It can be both things at once. It can be messy. It can be uncomfortable. It can be scary.”
“But it can also be beautiful, fantastic, and magical. It can be very earthly and also very spiritual, also very cosmic. I like to accept those dualities,” Smith shared. “With my songwriting, it’s just an expression of who I am. When you’re learning to love who you are, it’s all spiritual.”