Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America

Harris-Perry (Barbershops, Bibles, and BET), columnist for the Nation, draws on literature, biography, social science, anecdote, and focus group statistics to explore the three most pervasive (and pernicious) stereotypes of black women—Jezebel (who signifies sexual promiscuity), Sapphire (emasculating brashness), and Mammy (a devotion to “white domestic concerns”). She assays the political implications and consequences of these archetypes in the lives of contemporary black women—and for how they influences black women’s participation in American public life, finding that they enjoy a less than complete citizenship: “these misrecognitions contribute to pervasive experiences of shame for black women [which] limit the opportunities for African American women as political and thought leaders.” Harris-Perry’s methodological style leaves a lot of room for academic debate, but her easy straddling of women’s and African-American studies and current hot-button issues (everything from Hurricane Katrina to the Duke lacrosse case) and her style could fit as easily into the classroom as a reading group. (Oct.)