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crystalstarrlight 's review for:
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America
by Melissa V. Harris-Perry
Bullet Review:
I don't think I will do a full review of this, but I do want to add to my initial bullet review.
I decided to read this based off my Goodreads' Friend, Christine's, review. Please check her review out, as it will be much more complete than mine.
I ended up catching this on audiobook (thank you again, Audible!) and when my internet went out back in August of 2019 (the Great Internet Outage of 2019), I started listening to this instead of listening to YouTube when doing household chores.
This is not what I would consider your stereotypical "pop science/social science" nonfiction book. It has excerpts from black fiction and poetry. The format, along with how information dense it could be in places (and listening to a bunch of facts and figures is somehow worse than reading it) is really what takes away a star from this review.
The message of this book is astounding, even more so with Obama out of office. The various ways black women are "damned if you do, damned if you don't" by white men, white women, black men and even black women are astounding. You sometimes shake your head and wonder, is there any chance at equity?
This book doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties in black women's lives and how easily they are stereotyped as the Jezebel (the overly sexual woman), the Mammy (the caretaker of white people), and the Sapphire (the angry black woman) - and even how the positive stereotype of the "Strong Black Woman" can be equally damaging!
As a white woman, I hope to have even more compassion for my sisters, to have more understanding and to be better in my interactions with all people, so as not to help perpetuate these stereotypes anymore.
(And whaddya know, this ended up nearly being a full review! Ha!)
I don't think I will do a full review of this, but I do want to add to my initial bullet review.
I decided to read this based off my Goodreads' Friend, Christine's, review. Please check her review out, as it will be much more complete than mine.
I ended up catching this on audiobook (thank you again, Audible!) and when my internet went out back in August of 2019 (the Great Internet Outage of 2019), I started listening to this instead of listening to YouTube when doing household chores.
This is not what I would consider your stereotypical "pop science/social science" nonfiction book. It has excerpts from black fiction and poetry. The format, along with how information dense it could be in places (and listening to a bunch of facts and figures is somehow worse than reading it) is really what takes away a star from this review.
The message of this book is astounding, even more so with Obama out of office. The various ways black women are "damned if you do, damned if you don't" by white men, white women, black men and even black women are astounding. You sometimes shake your head and wonder, is there any chance at equity?
This book doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties in black women's lives and how easily they are stereotyped as the Jezebel (the overly sexual woman), the Mammy (the caretaker of white people), and the Sapphire (the angry black woman) - and even how the positive stereotype of the "Strong Black Woman" can be equally damaging!
As a white woman, I hope to have even more compassion for my sisters, to have more understanding and to be better in my interactions with all people, so as not to help perpetuate these stereotypes anymore.
(And whaddya know, this ended up nearly being a full review! Ha!)