Belonging matters in the multifaceted political behaviors of poor Black women. That is one of my key takeaways from the beautifully crafted and well-argued research that informs Redefining the Political: Black Feminism and the Politics of Everyday Life by Dr. Alex J. Moffett-Bateau. Some may look at my first statement and wonder if that is not already known. But that would miss the nuance Moffett-Bateau takes us through to understand how and why belonging matters fully and specifically to Black women who find themselves existing in a culture of erasure caused by violence, poverty, and policies that often punish more than reward. In this work, Moffett-Bateau centers the voices of 31 Black women residents, current and former, of the Altgeld Gardens or Phillip Murray Homes, one of Chicago’s public housing developments, to show us how they engage in the possible political self (PPS), and in essence resist erasure—even the form of erasure that happens within dominant understandings of political behavior.

Moffett-Bateau argues that these women engage in subversive extrasystemic politics, which can be easily overlooked by those who use what may be considered a more traditional understanding of political behavior and power. She rightly asserts that, given the often narrow view employed in mainstream political behavior analyses, the experiences of p