Harris - The sisters are alright : changing the broken narrative of black women in America

The Sisters Are Alright is a love letter to black women. Winfrey Harriss unapologetic celebration of our intelligence, mettle, and beauty counters the proliferation of negative stereotypes we endure daily. She sees us, she knows us, and she also understands that were not monolithic. Winfrey Harris surfaces stories about black womens realities that are often glossed over or tossed aside, urgently insisting with beautiful prose that contrary to our cultural narrative, black womens lives matter.

Jamia Wilson, Executive Director, Women, Action, and the Media

Tamara Winfrey Harris picks up where Ntozake Shange left off, adding an eighth color to the rainbow of For Colored Girls. This academic work reads like a choreopoem that challenges the notion that black women are too tough to love or be loved. The author does more than deconstruct the stereotype of Sapphire; she asserts that black women are diamonds, and she insists that her reader consider their sparkle.

Duchess Harris, PhD, Professor of American Studies, Macalester College, and author of Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Obama

Tamara Winfrey Harriss book The Sisters Are Alright is a fitting answer to the question W. E. B. Du Bois said all black Americans are forced to consider: How does it feel to be a problem? In a society that treats black people as problems and women as problems, it is nothing short of revolutionary to answer, as this book does, No, really, the sisters are alright.

Jarvis DeBerry, journalist, The Times-Picayune, NOLA.com

The Sisters Are Alright is written with the same honest, compassionate tone Tamara Winfrey Harris is known for. This book feels like a hug for the overlooked brown girl. Its a combination of experience, honest reflection, history and popular culture, and a good read no matter your race or experience. She brings it home with a strong call to action, reminding us that while resilience is necessary, so is basic human respectand we would do well to follow her lead.

Samhita Mukhopadhyay, author of Outdated: Why Dating Is Ruining Your Love Life

If corporate media and pop culture are active volcanoes, Tamara Winfrey Harris is a clear-eyed excavator who can help us make sense of their constant, painful eruptions. Writing from a place of love, Winfrey Harris pulls at the strings that unravel the racism, sexism, and abject irrationality of newspapers attempting to reduce one of TVs most powerful producers to an Angry Black Woman; of hip-hop stars, pundits, and preachers blaming black girls for the violence and discrimination they are forced to endure; and of reality TV replacing black womens humanity with slavery-era tropes. After laying those biases bare, The Sisters Are Alright elevates the too-often-unheard voices of black women themselves, offering nuanced insights about the nature of love, sex, beauty, marriage, violence, economics, politics, culture, and more. Anyone who cares about black women will enjoyand learn a lot fromthis excellent new book.

Jennifer Pozner, Executive Director, Women in Media & News, and author of Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV

The Sisters Are Alright

Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America

Tamara Winfrey Harris

The Sisters Are Alright

Copyright 2015 by Tamara Winfrey Harris

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First Edition

Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-62656-351-3

PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-352-0

IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-353-7

2015-1

Cover design: Wes Youssi, M.80 Design. Cover illustration by Adee Roberson, using a photograph by Jamel Shabazz from the collection Back in the Days. Book design: VJB/Scribe. Copyediting: John Pierce. Proofreading: Nancy Bell. Index: George Draffan.

Bookish girls grow up dreaming of being publishedat least this one did. My sincerest gratitude to everyone who helped make my dream come true: my parents, Joseph and Constance Winfrey, who gave me a love of words and a belief that I can do anything; my husband, LaMarl Harris, who graciously suffered the messy and all-consuming process of birthing this book; and my friends and fellow writersAndrea Plaid, Christopher MacDonald-Dennis, Deesha Philyaw, Stephanie Gilmore, and Carolyn Edgarthe best and brightest support group a girl could have. And to the hundreds of women I interviewed for this book: I see you sparkling. Thank you for trusting me with your stories. I hope I did them justice.

Black women possess so much joy and love, yet we are told that we do not deserve this. Then there is systematic oppression keeping our access to love, respect, joy, and highest self-worth at arms length. Through this collage I incorporated rich color, shapes, and atmosphere that aim to recontextualize this narrative.... Art is powerful in the way that we can create our own universe in which our dreams and visions for the future come true.

Adee Roberson

ABOUT THE COVER

Illustration by Adee Roberson (http://blackpineappleadee.tumblr.com/), using a photograph by Jamel Shabazz from the collection Back in the Days.