![\"ordinary-heroes\"](\"http:\/\/theangryblackwoman.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/icons\/nojojojo.jpg\")
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Heard about this<\/a> through the Carl Brandon<\/a> mailing list:<\/p>\n While the facts surrounding the kidnapping and rescue of the Maersk Alabama Captain Richard Phillips have been widely reported, less well-known is that ship which saved him was commanded by a black woman, Rear Admiral Michelle Howard.<\/p>\n Howard received the assignment of leading the U.S. Navy’s counter-piracy task force just three days before the Maersk Alabama was attacked by Somalia pirates.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably one of the most exciting missions the Navy has been on in for a long while,\u201d Howard told the Navy Times. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Did you know the Maersk captain was rescued by a black woman? I didn’t either.<\/p>\n On the one hand, I’m almost glad this wasn’t publicized; I could almost believe this means Howard wasn’t regarded as special or unusual by the media covering the Maersk incident. That’s what we want, after all — not to be depicted as a race of thugs and hoochiemamas that occasionally spawns a Morgan Freeman-like Messiah figure that will save all us from But fortunately, there is the blogosphere. <\/p>\n So. Admiral Howard’s a hero. Pass it on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
tsunamis<\/a><\/strike> terrorists<\/a><\/strike> the recession. We are ordinary people, with the same range of characters and behaviors as anybody else — good and bad. But I highly doubt Howard was overlooked by the mainstream media because she was “too ordinary”. I think Captain Phillips fit the image in the producers’\/reporters’\/editors’ heads of what heroism should look like: white, male, one brave man surrounded by black savages. And I think Admiral Howard defied that image, being black and female and in charge of a diverse team of competent people, so they discarded her. I think we still exist as nothing more than a collection of stereotypes and inaccurate assumptions in the eyes of most Americans — unfortunately including ourselves. We’re not ordinary enough to have ordinary heroes, not yet. Not according to them.<\/p>\n
\nHeard about this through the Carl Brandon mailing list:
\nWhile the facts surrounding the kidnapping and rescue of the Maersk Alabama Captain Richard Phillips have been widely reported, less well-known is that ship which saved him was commanded by a black woman, Rear Admiral Michelle Howard.
\nHoward received the assignment of leading the U.S. Navy’s counter-piracy task […] Continue reading