"This book is concerned with understanding the emotional 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 segregation, racism,
and patriarchy that are woven into the fabric 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
exerted 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 characters 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 hastemp
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 control 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 recently 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 consensual.
The author might argue that the stigma of the black female as loose played a
role in the case's disposition without even a trial. For as she points out
here ever so succinctly, "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 usefulness of this stereotype."
A feminist manifesto endeavoring to free sisters forever from the cruel and
very limiting ways in which they continue to be pigeonholed.
Sister
Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America