Black Boss Lady

There appears to be a growing trend for making the Da Chief the polar opposite of the old, white man he always was in the past. There's a new boss in town, okay? And the Cowboy Cop, or whatever smart-alec subordinate would need to watch out, because she ain't putting up with any of his crap.

The Black Boss Lady is characterized by being a Twofer Token Minority, both a woman and Black, in charge of probably mostly men in a stereotypically male profession. Right there, you know she's a badass because she must be so good at her job, that even any discrimination which might have been in her way due to either her gender or race was bulldozed flat in two-point-five seconds by her incredible competence.

Because the Black Boss Lady is good, or she wouldn't be where she is today. She's not afraid to take some risk if there is a decent chance of a worthwhile pay off. She presides over her organization with an iron fist, but she's also a Reasonable Authority Figure and will give the Cowboy Cop (or lawyer, or reporter, etc.) credit where it's due. At first she might seem like a hardass by-the-book type but inevitably they get used to each other, she reveals hidden depths, and the two give each other room to work and come to appreciate the other's strength.

When it comes to drama, her blackness is hardly ever mentioned, her femaleness being the main source of plot. This being so she won't have much of an Urban Accent or have many tropes stereotypically associated with blackness. She almost never slips into Sassy Black Woman, for instance. She's also usually very well-dressed, in a business skirt-suit or slacks (nothing even remotely risque), and it's not uncommon for her clothes to be somewhat masculine. Often she has managed to have her cake and eat it too (mostly) in that she has both a shining career and a family.

Closely related to Da Chief, though this trope isn't restricted to situations where she actually is Da Chief, she just needs to be the boss of whatever organization she's running, e.g. being a Stern Old Judge.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• Amanda Waller, in DC Comics' ARGUS, Cadmus, Suicide Squad, and related organizations, is widely recognized as one of the few people who can make Batman think twice about messing with her. Heck, she's taken on Granny Goodness (Apokolips goddess of abduction and right-hand woman to Darkseid) and walked away.
• Misty Knight when she was the leader of the Heroes for Hire and Fearless Defenders.
• Skyrocket was the field leader of the short-lived DC Comics team Power Company.
• Dominique, the only black character in Scott Pilgrim, is the boss at Steven Stills, and later Scott's, day job.
• Clark's editor on The New Yorker in Superman: Secret Identity.
• In the comic book version of Wanted Wesley's emasculating boss is a black woman.
• Psiren, the leader of Psi-Cops from Marvel Comics's Warlock (1999).
• Wonder Woman: Philippus is the captain of the Amazon guard, their most accomplished martial artist, and a stern but reasonable leader. After the abolition of the monarchy in Wonder Woman (1987) she was elected co-ruler of the new Amazon government alongside Artemis.

Films — Animated

• Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) is given a Race Lift in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and acts as Number Two to Spider-Man 2099 in his Alliance of Alternates and a stern, cynical Mentor in Sour Armor to Spider-Gwen.

Films — Live-Action

• In Barbie (2023), President Barbie of Barbieland is portrayed by Issa Rae.
• In the 1997 Contact, Angela Bassett plays the no-nonsense chief of staff to the president who is responsible for partially coordinating the roles of the scientists for contact with both the aliens, the press, and the president. She is always well-coifed and in a business suit, she plans the cover-up of how long Jodie Foster's scientist was actually out of contact and hence actually in space, and she is as firm and direct as she is competent and in control.
• The Chief Judge in Dredd, whose meetings with the title character bookend the movie.
• Carmen Ejogo as President Seraphina Picquery of the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them..
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Aisha Hinds plays Colonel Diane Foster, the Frontline General of Monarch's military task force.
• In Green Lantern (2011), Angela Bassett again plays the doctor in charge of research around the alien objects, technology, and biomatter. Despite tragedy in her background, she is competent and in control.
• In HOUBA! On the Trail of the Marsupilami, Clarisse Iris is (not-so-)Intrepid Reporter Dan Geraldo's Mean Boss. All of her scene sets her up as a ruthless businesswoman.
• Knight and Day: Isabel George, the CIA's Director of Counter-Intelligence fits this trope as she is DaChief, is impeccably dressed, and is a bit of a hardass. At the end of the movie, she explains to Miller (Tom Cruise), who is restrained in a hospital bed, that the agency will "transfer you to a secure facility tomorrow... for your safety". He stated earlier in the film that when agents say this to you it means that they plan to kill you.
• Valkyrie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is made the black queen of New Asgard by Thor himself, and is shown in Thor: Love and Thunder to be a capable leader who enables them to prosper.
• In the Mission: Impossible Film Series, Angela Bassett plays Erica Sloane, the head of the CIA.
• In Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005): Angela Bassett plays the boss of Brad Pitt's spy for hire.
• In the Musicofthe Heart, Angela Bassett once again takes the lead, acting as the head principal of the school where Meryl Streep's music teacher gets a job.
• Carla in My Super Ex-Girlfriend, who seems to have a quota of sexual harassment complaints to fulfill.
• Appears in the Paul Verhoeven Starship Troopers film. Sky Marshal Dienes, a middle-aged white male, is replaced by Sky Marshal Tahat Meru, a Hawaiian. Her attitude and general demeanour speaks to this trope.
• In 1986, audiences applauded when the captain of the USS Saratoga was revealed to be a black woman (played by Madge Sinclair) in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
  • She also played Captain Silva La Forge, mother of Geordi.
• As noted above, Amanda Waller — played by Viola Davis in the DC Extended Universe — is the boss of Task Force X (nicknamed the "Suicide Squad"), a group of supervillains she assembles to do the government's dirty work in exchange for their freedom in both Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad. If they don't obey her, she activates the bombs planted in their heads.
• In the This Means War (2012), Angela Bassett - who seems to have cornered the market on these roles by and large! - plays the boss of the spy agency where Tom Hardy and Chris Pine work.

Literature

• The Chronicles of Dorsa: Akella is black, to judge by her description (dark brown skin, black hair in dreadlocks) along with her depiction on the cover of the third book, and she's also captain of a pirate crew. None of them ever doubt her authority, despite them all being men while she's the only woman, as a result of her skill and staunch loyalty for them. She also seems entirely happy with the gender ratio (she's a Butch Lesbian herself).
• In Island in the Sea of Time and its sequels, Marian Alston rises from being a minor captain in the US Coast Guard who was about to be quietly retired (and whose command, she suspects, was largely due to her being a black woman rather than the Coast Guard's respect for her abilities) to the Commodore of the Republic of Nantucket's burgeoning navy.
• Lucinda Washington, the editor-in-chief of the Chicago office of the Global Weekly in the Left Behind book series, and mother of Lionel Washington in the spinoff Left Behind: The Kids series. In the 2000-2005 Cloud Ten Pictures film series, Verna Zee filled the role of Buck Williams' boss, being a Composite Character version of herself and Lucinda.
• Tortall Universe: Desk Sergeant Kebibi Ahuda from the first Beka Cooper book is this for the Jane Street Kennel.^note Granted, being black in Tortall isn't as big a deal as being female, which itself is less of a big deal than in "modern" Tortall. She gets Goodwin, one of the two best cops in the Lower City, to do what she says. When Beka is mocked for falling into a pile of fish the night before, Ahuda steps into the training yard and amply demonstrates that none of the other trainees are immune to such mistakes either. There's also her Badass Boast to a misbehaving criminal.
  "Here, I am Queen Bitch, and you will muzzle yourself."
• The Witch of Knightcharm: Ceranna Babineaux is a black witch who is studying at an evil Wizarding School and is ranked second in the class. The top students have a vast amount of power over the student body, and since the top-ranked student Morgan is often away on missions or training her mentee, Ceranna winds up running many of the school's day-to-day operations. In particular, she's noted to be the boss of orientation, in which the fifty-two rookie witches are (lethally) winnowed down to thirty-two.

Live-Action TV

• This is a regular feature in series by Shonda Rhimes.
  • Miranda "the Nazi" Bailey in Grey's Anatomy, particularly in the early seasons when she is in charge of Meredith and the other interns.
  • Scandal: Olivia Pope.
  • Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder, although she is much less polished than most instances of this trope.
• Played for Laughs in Abbott Elementary. Ava Coleman is the principal of the titular school but her overall personality is that of a hedonistic woman child who prefers to goof off, heckle others and needs to be implored by her coworkers to do her job.
• America's Next Top Model is created and produced by Tyra Banks. She also serves as The Host and one of the show's resident judge.
• Ms Janine Davies, the Human Resources Manager who is tasked with calling the boys at Caltech to order, speaking very plainly to them about behavioural lapses, and handing out disciplinary sanctions, in The Big Bang Theory.
• Blindspot: Assistant Director Mayfair, the FBI higher-up with a mysterious past in charge of Agent Kurt Weller's team.
• Victoria "Iron" Gates is the Tyrant who Takes the Helm in Castle (2009) after the death of Captain Montgomery. She's not as bad as she seems, though.
• Lieutenant Laguerta in Dexter also fits the trope in everything except actually being African-American (she's Afro-Cuban though, so still black). At the start of Season 2, however, she was once demoted in favour of a female Haitian-American officer who proved unable to handle the job because of difficulties in her love life, which is something of a subversion.
• Doctor Who:
  • The classic series has Brigadier Winifred Bambera and the new series has Captain Erisa Magambo, both high-ranking UNIT officers.
  • Liz 10 (Queen Elizabeth the Tenth), ruler of a future Great Britain relocated to a giant space whale in "The Beast Below".
  • "Hell Bent": The nameless Time Lord general, after her regeneration. (Since Time Lords name themselves, their name might actually be "The General," as much as the Doctor's name is, well, the Doctor.)
• Downplayed by Helen from Drake & Josh, who is black, female, and the manager of the movie theater where Josh works, but is fairly incompetent and, even during her flashes of brilliance, consistently The Ditz.
• ER:
  • A lot of characters answer to Dr. Angela Hicks.
  • The last season had Catherine Banfield.
• Forever: Lieutenant Joanna Reece, Martinez' and Hanson's commanding officer at the 11th Precinct. Her culture and family come up in one episode about the true authorship of a jazz standard, and she has a hobby, tennis, that would have been seen as breaking black stereotypes before the era of Venus and Serena Williams. (There was a different black woman lieutenant in the pilot episode.)
• Colleen Manus, Regional Director for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida's state police, in The Glades.
• Gotham: Capt. Sarah Essen, GCPD: The Captain of the Gotham City Police Department homicide squad and the boss of James Gordon and Harvey Bullock. At the beginning of season 2, she is promoted to Commissioner. Also Maria Mercedes "Fish" Mooney, a nightclub owner and mobster who leads a gang.
• Hilariously parodied and discussed in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Dennis claims to be a master of impressions, so Dee challenges him to do C.C.H. Pounder (who, as noted by her many entries on this page, is one of the walking embodiments of this trope). Dennis repeats a line from The Shield—"GODDAMN IT, DUTCH! WHAT OTHER ERRANDS DO YOU HAVE US RUNNING FOR THE D.A.?"—and wins praise from Charlie, Mac, and Frank. Dee takes Frank to task, as he doesn't even know who Pounder is; Frank responds that, judging from the impression, her character is "a no-nonsense black broad from the precinct", which is a spot-on summary of the Black Boss Lady in fiction.
• On Justified, when Chief Deputy Marshall Art Mullens is injured in the line of duty, he makes Rachel, the only black Deputy Marshall in the office, his interim replacement. It's made clear that he intends for her to replace him when he retires at the end of the year.
• Lieutenant Van Buren, for many years Da Chief in Law & Order. Gets extra bonus points for being a full head shorter than every one of her detectives and still commanding their respect.
• Luke Cage (2016): Inspector Priscilla Ridley, Misty Knight's commanding officer at the 29th Precinct. To a lesser extent, Captain Betty Audrey, before she's pushed out due to Rafael Scarfe's corrupt activities happening on her watch.
• Lt. Tanya Rice, head of Dwight's Memphis city police squad in Memphis Beat.
• Madeleine Hightower, the second boss the fictional CBI (California Bureau of Investigation) receives in The Mentalist.
• Murderville: The tough, no-nonsense chief of the precinct, Rhonda Jenkins-Seattle, is a black woman played by Haneefah Wood.
• In Odd Squad, the head of precinct #13579 is Ms. Oprah. She doesn't suffer fools gladly and is genuinely considered scary to some of the agents.
• Roz from Raising the Bar, who is the cool, calm, and collected head of the PD's office and serves as a contrast to Balco.
• Captain Claudette Wyms from The Shield. (C.C.H. Pounder again).
• Sons of Anarchy: The DA. She typically hides her natural hair underneath a straight-haired wig but removes the wig when it's time to throw down.
• There have been a number of black lady admirals and high-ranking officers on Star Trek: The Next Generation. None of them have been insane, either.
• The Steve Harvey Show had Regina Grier as principal of the school the other main characters worked at or attended. Her secretary even frequently called her "boss lady".
• Jessica Pearson, Harvey's boss and founder of the law firm in Suits.
• On Supernatural, when Death is killed, he's replaced by the reaper Billie, a pretty, black lady.
• Mrs. Frederick from Warehouse 13. (Also, every other role played by C.C.H. Pounder.)
• Heylia James from Weeds definitely qualifies too.
• Chief from the live-action Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego game show. Actress Lynne Thigpen was quite good at playing no-nonsense authority figures in general.
• Without a Trace's Paula Van Doren, who unfortunately disappears at some point in Season 2 with nary an explanation.

Podcasts

• The Adventure Zone: Balance: Madam Director Lucretia, head of the Bureau of Balance and the one who gives our protagonists their missions, is one of the few characters to have a canonically established ethnicity, described as a black woman in her mid-fifties with white hair. She's also a total badass and unquestionably the one in charge.

Video Games

• Baldur's Gate III has Counselor Florrick, a dark-skinned wood elf (resembling and voiced by a black human female) who acts as Da Chief of the titular city's Flaming Fist. With Wyll's father Duke Ravengard captured by the Big Bad she becomes the sole Reasonable Authority Figure a good-aligned party can count on which is precisely why she ends up imprisoned after Lord Gortash's Tyrant Takes the Helm.
• Black Closet has Player Character Elsa, the Absurdly Powerful Student Council President of a girls' Boarding School of Horrors.
• Detroit: Become Human has Amanda, the Corrupt Corporate Executive currently in charge of Cyberlife. Depending on the player's actions, she's revealed to be a Shadow Dictator being operated by the Greater-Scope Villain Elijah Kamski, who invented the androids.
• In Diablo IV, Reverend Mother Prava leads the Cathedral of Light on behalf of the angel Inarius, whom the Cathedral worships as humanity's savior.
• Ice Queen Vivienne in Dragon Age: Inquisition was the Court Mage to the Queen of Orlais and the hedonistic Grande Dame of the nation's Decadent Court. She firmly believes in Work Hard, Play Hard as she works tirelessly to gain more political clout for herself in every situation she's in (the Circles, Orlesian Court, and Inquisition), yet she also relishes the luxuries her high position affords, and never fails to indulge. At the end of the game she has the potential to become the setting's equivalent of the Pope, and becomes so much of a tyrant that even the Knight Templar Cassandra leaves in disgust.
• First Citizen Joanne Lynette in Fallout 2, the mayor of Vault City. She's a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who supports the city's practice of slavery despite being black, and was intended to embody the absolute worst traits of Vault City's residents brought about by a comfortable, privileged upbringing that resulted in a massive superiority complex to others.
• Psychonauts 2: Hollis Forsythe is a black woman who also happens to be the second highest-ranked person in the Psychonauts organization (and temporarily number one due to Truman's condition throughout most of Psychonauts 2). Although she is respected by the Psychonauts, a Memory Vault shows that her race and gender are part of why her previous boss, Jack Potts, treated her poorly, to the point where he plagiarized her work.
• Nadine Ross in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is in charge of Shoreline, an organization of Private Military Contractors from South Africa. She's black, serious, and a One-Woman Army. She's also A Mother to Her Men, which is why she has such an intense enmity with Nate as he and his brother kill scores of her men throughout the game. Sadly, her men don't appreciate her loyalty, and her lieutenant Orca is all too happy to betray her once Rafe Adler's paid him for it.
• Wintermoor Tactics Club: Septavia, to such a degree that she openly unnerves Alicia, who won't go near her from sheer intimidation. Notably, Septavia never says a harsh word to Alicia in the game; Alicia's just a socially-nervous sort and Septavia is simply that imposing. Septavia is, in fact, quite kind to Alicia when the Tactics Club leader finally manages to work up the nerve to talk; it's apparent that Alicia holds Septavia up on a high pedestal, and Septavia is very gentle with her, encouraging her to find a third option to defeat the demon.
  • Alicia doesn't quite fit this trope, even though she is clearly the leader of the Tactics Club and their strongest advocate, mostly because she's way nicer than the general trope implies. Colin resents this about her, since he's technically the leader of the Club, and it plays a part in his temporary breakdown.
• XCOM: Chimera Squad has The Leader Godmother, an Afro-French Old Soldier who was a veteran of the war against ADVENT. True to her name, she acts as a dependable Team Mom to the rest of the squad, especially The Medic Terminal and her literal godson Cherub.

Webcomics

• Captain Safana in Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic. She's black, bald, and from the moment she gets introduced she makes it clear she takes flack from absolutely no one aboard her ship, whether they be royalty, priestesses, or wizards. And she's ready for the latter, carrying an anti-charm amulet making her immune to mind-control attempts.
  Captain Safana: Okay, listen up. Here are the rules on board this ship. I don't care if you're the kid of a sultan or a czar or a goddess. I'm in charge, I give the orders.
  I catch any of you priestess trying to "convert" my crew, you get out and swim.
  No magic gets practiced on board without express orders from me.

Western Animation

• Professor Grace Granville in Big Hero 6: The Series is the no-nonsense dean of San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, and the authority figure Big Hero 6 most frequently interacts with.
• Carmen Sandiego: The Chief of A.C.M.E. is an older black woman. Wears a snappy business suit and takes absolutely no attitude from uppity agents and crooks.
• Numbuh 5 in Codename: Kids Next Door was the former leader of Sector V, but couldn't take the pressure and stepped down in favor of Numbuh One, becoming his second-in-command. In the Grand Finale, he appoints her as his successor and after reassuring her that she had what it takes she later went on to become the Supreme Leader of the KND.
• Zan Owlson in Ducktales 2017 is a black-coded owl lady who takes over as the new CEO of Glomgold Industries in Season 2. But after having to deal with Glomgold's childish antics along with the McDuck family's attraction for anarchic adventures, she quits and vows to become a better CEO. And by Season 3, she's the new mayor of St. Canard.
• Grace Monroe in Infinity Train is the leader and prime founder of "The Apex": a cult made of trouble loving children who indulge in destroying the lives of denizens and the cars they reside in for their own amusement. She ultimately gives up the position after going through a season worth of Character Development and encourages her former subjects to reevaluate their lives for the better.
• Amanda Waller, again, in the Justice League and Young Justice (2010) cartoons, as well as several animated films, as head of Cadmus and Warden of Belle Reve penitentiary respectively. From several other entries on this page, you might have already guessed that her voice comes courtesy of C.C.H. Pounder more often than anyone else.
• Foxtail in OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes is a black muscular superheroine who leads the Super Team P.O.I.N.T. and at first appears to be the Big Good before her Knight Templar tendencies are revealed.
• The Principal in Sit Down, Shut Up.
• Steven Universe has the current leader of the Crystal Gems, Garnet, who, despite being a non-organic being, is still coded as a black woman. And in Season 5, Nanefua, a Ghanaian Cool Old Lady becomes Beach City's mayor and remains in position for the rest of the series.
• Bubblebee in Teen Titans (2003), a strong-willed and sharp teenage black girl, is made the official leader of the Teen Titans East Division in the end of Season 3.

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