Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America - Exploring Identity, Race, and Gender in Modern Society | Perfect for Book Clubs, Social Studies, and Personal Growth

Charisse Jones is an award winning author and reporter for USA today. Kumea Shorter-Gooden is a licensed psychologist and professor of psychology at Alliant International University.This book carefully recreates the emotional rollercoaster that Black women ride every day in corporate America. This work rest on the African American Women’s Voices Project (AAWBP), which interviewed four hundred African American women from across the United States. Overwhelmingly the women commented that they are always shifting from “White” to “Black” in terms of their vocabulary, interactions, movements, and emotional stress. This is viewed as a coping skill that often diminishes the joys of living an authentic life. Jones notes that this is causing detrimental mental and emotional stress on Black women. The continued effects of racism and sexism makes African American women susceptible to many issues: anxiety, low self-esteem, eating disorders, obesity, depression, and self-hatred. African American women are allowed to share their feelings and voice their concerns in this ground breaking research. While the term sister circle is not mentioned, it is referred to in terms of seeking out others from similar backgrounds and having regular breaks with women pressing through similar issues. There are suggestions for how to live through the effects of racism and sexism. The narrative is most important as the women deal with motherhood, issues in the workplace, accepting their beauty (however different that may be), building relationships with men and women of other cultures, and accommodating their truth in spirituality. African American women are celebrated and loved on in this remarkable work.