Books
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and black
women in America
By kam williams
Special To The Skanner News
“T
his book is concerned with understanding the emo-
tional realities of black women’s lives in order to
answer a political, not a personal, question: What
does it mean to be a black woman and an American citizen?
…The particular histories of slavery, Jim Crow, urban seg-
regation, racism, and patriarchy that are woven into the fab-
ric of American politics have created a specific citizenship
imperative for African-American women—a role and image
to which they are expected to conform.
We can call this image the strong black woman… The
strong black woman myth is a misrecognition of African-
American women. But it creates specific expectations for
their behavior. ”
— Excerpted from the Introduction (pgs. 20-21)
What is it like to be a black woman in America? That is
the basic question explored by Professor Melissa Harris-
Perry in her fascinating new book, Sister Citizen.
According to the author, this society has historically exert-
ed considerable pressure on black females to fit into one of
a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel.
The selfless Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish
devotion to white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the
expense of those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as an
emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the char-
acters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television shows
Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry points out how the propagation of these
harmful myths has served the mainstream culture well. For
instance, the Mammy suggests that it is almost second
nature for black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source of the Jezebel, black women had no con-
trol over their own bodies during slavery given that they
were being auctioned off and bred to maximize profits.
Nonetheless, it was in the interest of plantation owners to
propagate the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
Sadly, that notion has persisted to this day, which is why
so many African-American women’s rape allegations aren’t
taken seriously, like that of the NYC hotel maid who recent-
ly leveled just such a claim against a well-connected guest
from France. Despite the existence of DNA evidence, the
charges were dropped, thereby leaving the accuser shamed
by the insinuation that the contact must have been consen-
sual.
The author might argue that the stigma of the black
female as loose played a role in the case’s disposition with-
out even a trial. For as she points out here ever so succinct-
ly, ”White men’s right of access to black women’s bodies
was an assumption supported both by their history as legal
property and by the myth of their sexual promiscuity,” and
“Emancipation did not end the social and political useful-
ness of this stereotype.”
A feminist manifesto endeavoring to free sisters forever
from the cruel and very limiting ways in which they con-
tinue to be pigeonholed.
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September 21, 2011 The Seattle Skanner Page 5