“Craving recognition of one’s special, inexchangeable uniqueness is part of the human condition, and it is soothed only by the opportunity to contribute freely to the public realm… Misrecognition in public has a profound impact on the private self.

Ralph Ellison’s stunning novel Invisible Man is a masterful treatment of the recognition crisis faced by black Americans. It opens with a declaration of misrecognition: ‘I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.’ Ellison’s protagonist struggles with multiple forms of misrecognition. He finds that he is sometimes hypervisible, exposed to the aggressive and unwanted gaze of tormentors, and at other times transparent, as though those whom he encounters can simply see through him. Always, racism keeps the world from seeing him accurately.”

(Later, on Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston):

“Not until she finds love with Tea Cake does Janie experience the profoundly transformative experience of being recognized. Tea Cake’s recognition of Janie give her space to grow. Rather than trying to fix her based on an inaccurate understanding of who she is, Tea Cake partners with Janie to pursue shared goals.”

–from Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa Harris-Perry