Melissa Harris-Perry's Sister Citizen is a book that covers a wide ground: black American women's misrecognition by society and how that misrecognition affects their subjectivity and participation as citizens. Luckily, Harris-Perry's framework is really helpful and she does a great job weaving together analysis of literature and film with findings from academic and census research with actual black women's voices, stories, and experiences.

She carefully balances discussing problematic aspects of how some black women buy in (to varying degrees) to the popular stereotypes of the "Mammy", "Sapphire"/"Angry Black Woman", or the "Jezebel" without denying women agency. This particularly comes out in the nuanced way she talks about ways Michelle Obama has been stereotyped and has herself both resisted and embraced certain stereotypical traits. What I most appreciated was how broadly she defines "politics" and citizenship - showing the many ways in which black women practice politics in their personal lives simply through trying to navigate in an environment Harris-Perry likens to a "crooked room".