Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes and Black Women in America, by Melissa Harris Perry is a collection of statistical data, narratives and African American literature to accurately portray the history of black women while also proving that politics is not only voting and public policy. It is also a struggle for recognition and how that recognition holds immense political power to create change. The book offers the unique experiences and explanations of African American women in the American society that consistently overlooks their hardships and achievements.. For three centuries, black women have been under the shadow of black men’s fight for equality. Black women have fought hard to achieved such a high feat, but have only ended up as less than second class citizens; citizens that are not easily recognized to receive fundamental rights. These misrecognitions stem from the Perry’s main argument that the four common stereotypes falsely define black women, and misrecognizes them so much that society doesn’t deem them fit or worthy enough to have equal rights. …show more content…
Perry uses the metaphor of a crooked room to describe what these stereotypes do to black women. All these limit black women from finding themselves, and misrecognizes them not only to society but to themselves so much that black women feel shameful for not meeting their stunted expectations. This feeling of shame causes black women to more likely be “poor, to be unmarried, to parent children alone, to be overweight, to be physically ill, and to be undereducated and unemployed” (pg. 70). To combat the feeling of shame, Perry argues that black women will try to find their upright position and break away from those stereotypes, or distort themselves to fit better in their “crooked