Originally Posted by Truth78

I am reading this book and I just wanted to know some of your thoughts about this phenomenon called shifting.

Based on the African American Women's Voices Project, Shifting reveals that a large number of African American women feel pressure to compromise their true selves as they navigate America's racial and gender bigotry. Black women "shift." They change the expectations they have for themselves. Or they alter their outer appearance. They modify their speech. They shift 'white' as they head to work in the morning and 'black' as they come back home each night. They shift inward, internalizing the searing pain of the negative stereotypes that they encounter daily. And sometimes they shift by fighting back.
Do you ever feel that you are working overtime to put others at ease? Or that you have to leave your true self at the door in order to placate White colleagues? Do you downplay your abilities or strengths for fear of outshining Black men? Do you speak one way at the office, another way to your girlfriends? Is it sometimes a struggle to feel good about your looks? Are you constantly battling stereotypes?