Claudia Rankine
Citizen
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, explores race relations within the United States by the use of subtle, subconscious remarks that have been present throughout her entire life, giving a thorough reflection of the modern cry for civil rights. Despite Citizen being a book of prose, the text contains many poetic elements that further allows the reader to recognize and understand the absurdity of racism regardless of the reader’s personal experience. Rankine allows the reader to experience the micro-aggressions, discrimination, and violence that African Americans fall victim to by her various writing structures and multimodal elements that place emphasis on these pressing social issues.
HOW YOU ARE INVOLVED
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen approaches the strife for social equality of African Americans by addressing the reader directly, exposing them to a vulnerable position of feeling discriminated against and feeling of invisibility. Throughout the poem, Rankine’s defiance against injustices advocates for a sense of equality by the use of such stylistic choices. By addressing the reader with second person pronouns, Citizen is written in a manner that forces the reader into a suppressed position, such as:
“You are in the dark, in the car, watching the black-tarred street being swallowed by speed; he tells you his dean is making him hire a person of color when there are so many great writers out there… Why do you feel comfortable saying this to me? You wish the light would turn red or a police siren would go off so you could slam on the brakes, slam into the car ahead of you, fly forward so quickly both your faces would suddenly be exposed to the wind.”
Speaking to the reader directly, Rankine effectively transcends the boundaries of race by generalizing the situation, allowing every reader of any background to empathize with her position. This stylistic choice also introduces to the reader the idea that these issues are not to blame on a specific scapegoat, but rather everyone in society is responsible for these implications—a concept Raúl Zurita also explores in his work, Song for His Disappeared Love.
Claudia Rankine reading an expert from Citizen that details a specific personal event that evokes empathy from every reader.
Recording of Claudia Rankine explaining the effects of racism on a society.
"This is what it looks like. You know this is wrong. This is not what it looks like. You need to be quiet. This is wrong. You need to close your mouth now. This is what it looks like. Why are you talking if you haven't done anything wrong?
And you are not the guy and still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always fitting the description.
RELATION TO CIVIL RIGHTS
Citizen serves as a voice for Africans Americans blanketed by social stigmas, left with a feeling of invisibility. Since many minorities are severely underrepresented in terms of literature and artwork, Rankine’s personal encounters act as a megaphone for their stories of adversity. Within the book, Rankine testifies,
“yes, and because words hang in the air like pollen, the / throat closes. You hack in the air like pollen, the / throat closes. You hack away. / That time and that time and that time the outside blistered / the inside of you, words outmaneuvered years, had you / in a chokehold, every part roughed up, the eyes dripping.”
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These lines perfectly encapsulate the anger repressed over the years by Rankine and other members of society oppressed like this, providing a voice for those suppressed by unequal civil treatments. Rankine is clear in her testament that these issues are the result of a universal fault, as everyone should stand up to the face of adversity. Rankine notes this by expressing her indication:
“You begin to think, maybe erroneously, that this other kind of anger is really a type of knowledge: the type that both clarifies and disappoints. It responds to insult and attempted erasure simply by asserting presence, and the energy required to present, to react, to assert is accompanied by visceral disappointment: a disappointment in the sense that no amount of visibility will alter the ways in which one is perceived,”
This excerpt shows the indignation that Rankine feels and wants to express in order for the world to change. Overall, Rankine uses several different methods to connect the reader with Civil and Human Rights ideas that provides a beautiful book to be the first spark in the flame of change.
Rankine uses Serena Williams's stories of racism throughout her career to demonstrate how unbiased racial inequality is, despite Williams's great success as an athlete.
Pictured above: This video documented Serena's fight for equality throughout her entire career and her breaking of stereotypes.
MULITMODAL ELEMENTS
Rankine’s consistent incorporation of multimodal elements throughout her work — ranging from paintings, sculptures, or moments captured on live television — emphasizes the omnipresence of racism.
Each medium of art is unique to the story, often serving as their own page of content rather than supplementary to the text. For example, Rankine uses Kate Clark’s “Little Girl” sculpture of taxidermic rendition of a doe with a human face, resulting in an abject projection of how Rankine is perceived by her peers. Images like “Jim Crow Rd.” by Michael Chase Murray and Getty image “Public Lynching” relay the same effect, leaving the reader apprehensive of the evolution of racism; despite segregation and discrimination of race now being constitutionally illegal, Rankine’s recounts all of her appalling experiences and these images shed a different light.
