In keeping with this indication that its difficult to move on from this entrenched kind of racism, Rankine includes a picture called Jim Crow Rd. by the photographer Michael David Murphy. We categorize such moments just as we categorize the incongruous things that people say and who said them. It happens in the schools (6), on the subway (17), and in the line at the grocery store (77), where the non-Black teacher, everyday citizen, or cashier looks straight past the Black person. A piercing and perceptive book of poetry about being black in America. In this instance, the black body becomes even more animal-like. For Rankine, there is no escaping the path from school to prison. To demonstrate this, she turns to the career of the famous African American tennis player Serena Williams, pointing to the multiple injustices she has suffered at the hands of the predominantly white tennis community, which judges her unfairly because of her race. The heads in Cerebral Caverns become a visual metaphor for Rankines poetry, connecting the slavery of the past to modern-day incarceration. Rankine writes, You cant put the past behind you. By merging poetic language with visual imagery, and subverting lyric convention in pursuit of her own poetic structure and form, Rankine forces us to see the erasure of Black people in every aspect of Citizen. When the clerk points out that the woman was next in line, the man responded, "Oh, I didn't see you.". Figure 3. The placement of the photograph at the bottom of the page is deliberate, as it makes the empty black space seem even smaller in comparison to the white figures and white space that surrounds it. Citizen by Claudia Rankine Themes Acceptance Identity Rankine argues that African Americans have had to sweep aside these microagressions and to accept how they are treated in order to be a good citizen, to survive, to not be the targets of law enforcement. What that something else . The childhood memories are particularly interesting because they give the reader a sense of otherness right from the start. Recounting several of Williamss outburst[s] in response to this unfairness, Rankine shows that responding to racism with angerwhich understandably arises in such situationsoften only makes matters worse, as is the case for Williams when shes fined $82,500 for speaking out against a line judge who makes a blatantly biased call against her. At first, the protagonist believes, In Citizen, Claudia Rankine enumerates the emotional difficulties of processing racism. The question itself responds to an incident at the 2004 U.S. Open, during which, Williams loses her temper after a Rankine switches between several speakers, although the reader may not be informed of these switches at all. Claudia Rankine gives us an act of creativity and illumination that combats the mirror world of unseeing and unseen-ness that is imprinted onto the American psyche.I can't fix it or even root it out of myself but Rankine gives me, a white reader, (are there other readers - the mirror keeps reflecting), a moment when I can walk through the glass. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. It is no longer a black subject, or black object (93)it has been rendered road-kill. Rankine illustrates this theme of erasure and black invisibility in the visual imagery, whose very inclusion in the work speaks to the poetic innovation of Rankines Citizen. Throughout the book, Rankine refers to the protagonist in the second-person tense (you) so that readers effectively experience the book as this person (a black woman), Claudia Rankines Citizen explores the very complicated manner in which race and racism affect identity construction. In this vein, Rankine is interested in the idea of invisibility and its influence on ones self-conception. The physical carriage hauls more than its weight. How do sports in particular encourage spectators and officials to assume influence or even ownership over the bodies of. By using such an expensive paper, Rankine seems to be commenting on the veneer of American democracy, which paints itself white and innocent in comparison to other nations. Rankine writes, [T]he first person [is] a symbol for something. From this description, it is clear that Rankine sees the I as a symbol for a human being, for she later states: the I has so much power; its insane (71). The structure, which breaks up the poetics with white space and visual imagery, uses space and mixed media to convey these themes. Anyway, I read this is a single sitting in bed and recommend it to everyone. She also calls upon the accounts lip readers gave of what Materazzi said to provoke Zidane, revealing that Materazzi called him a Big Algerian shit, a dirty terrorist, and the n-word. High-grade paper, a unique/large sans-serif font, and significant images. Rankine repeats: flashes, a siren, the stretched-out-roar (105, 106, 107) three times. Political performance art. -Graham S. Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. Furthermore, Black people like James Craig Anderson are killed on the road, squashed by a pickup truck (92-95). Get help and learn more about the design. Even the paper that the text is printed on speaks to the political nature of Rankines form, for the acid free, 80# matte coated paper (Rankine 174), which looks and feels expensive, holds within it so much Black pain and trauma. You can't put the past behind you. Claudia Rankine, Citizen, An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, 2014). Discover Claudia Rankine famous and rare quotes. A cough launches another memory into your consciousness. GradeSaver, 15 August 2016 Web. Javadizadeh, Kamran. Figure 5. 137163., doi:10.1017/S0021875817000457. She determines that its either because her teacher doesnt care about cheating or, worse, because she never truly saw the protagonist sitting there in the first place. Stand where you are. Urban danger. Gang-bangers. In the image (Figure 2), the deers body looks distortedits legs are oddly bent, its fourth leg is obscured, and one of its legs is cut off by the margin of the page. When she tells him not to get all KKK on the teenagers, he says, Now there you go, trying to make it seem like the protagonist is the one who has overstepped, not him. Teachers and parents! The trees, their bark, their leaves, even the dead ones, are more vibrant wet. They are black property (Rankine 34), black subjects (70), or black objects (93) who do not own anything, not even themselves (146). The picture of a deer first appears in Kate Clarks Little Girl (Rankine, 19), a sculpture that grafts the modeled human face of a young girl onto the soft, brown, taxidermied body of an infant caribou (Skillman 428). Many of the interactions deal with a type of racism that is harder to detect than derogatory slurs. In the book Citizen, Claudia Rankine speaks on these particular subjects of stereotyping deeply. Suduiko, Aaron ed. As a woman of color, I am always concerned about bringing a raced text into a classroom, especially at universities that are less diverse. Instant PDF downloads. But when the interactions are put together, the reader can understand the "headache-producing" (13) capacity of these interactions. This structure which seems to keep African-Americans in chains harkens all the way back to the trans-Atlantic slave trade (59), where Black people were subjected to the most dehumanizing of white supremacys injuries, chattel slavery (Javadizadeh 487). Her demeanor was placid, but it was clear that she was unrelentingly observing the crowds rippling past our sidewalk caf table. The lack of separation between clauses creates a sense of anxiety as there is no pause in our readingRankine does not allow us breath. African-Americans are still experiencing hardships every day that stem from slavery such as racial profiling, and stereotyping. The narrator contemplates why this person feels comfortable saying this in front of her. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. It begins by introducing an unnamed black protagonist, whom Rankine refers to as "you.". And this ugliness is some of what being an American citizen means. Returning to the unnamed protagonist, Rankine narrates a scene in which the protagonist is talking to a fellow artist at a party in England. No longer can 'you' abide by these misunderstandings, because you understand them too well. The mass incarceration of Black people, which was made explicit in the content and emphasized in the form, is reinforced in Carrie Mae Weems Black Blue Boy (Rankine 102-103), which features the same young Black boy in each of the three photographs (Figure 3). An even more pronouncedly racist moment occurs when the protagonist is in line at Starbucks and the white man standing in front of her calls a group of black teenagers the n-word. The way the content is organized, LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in. ISBN: 978-1-55597-690-3CHAPTER 1 When you are alone and too tired even to turn on any of your devices, you let yourself linger in a past stacked among your pillows. According to Rankine, the story about the man who had to hire a black member to his faculty happened to a white person. Rankines deliberate labelling of her work as lyric challenges the historical whiteness of the lyric form. This juxtaposition between black space and white space, body and no body, presence and absence, conveys the erasure of Black people on a visual level. Brilliant, deeply troubling, beautiful. Rankine seems to ask this question again in a later poem, when she says: Have you seen their faces? Read the Study Guide for Citizen: An American Lyric, Considering Schiller and Arnold Through Claudia Rankines Citizen, Poetry, Politcs, and Personal Reflection: Redefining the Lyric in Claudia Rankine's Citizen, Ethnicity's Impact on Literary Experimentation, Citizen: A Discourse on our Post-Racial Society, View our essays for Citizen: An American Lyric, Introduction to Citizen: An American Lyric, View the lesson plan for Citizen: An American Lyric, View Wikipedia Entries for Citizen: An American Lyric. 1 Citizen has continued to amass resonance in the years since this essay was first written in 2017, a ; 1 Since its first publication by Graywolf Press in 2014, Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric has cleared a remarkable path in terms of acquiring garlands and gongs, making its way onto American poetry booklists and curricula at a dizzying pace. You'll also get updates on new titles we publish and the ability to save highlights and notes. In context, the author is referring to the weight of memory, the racial insults, the slights, and the mistreatment by other players. Reviewed: Citizen: An American Lyric. Another stop that. This parallel between erasure and lynching can be seen more clearly when we look at Hulton Archives Public Lynchingphotograph, whose image had been altered by John Lucas (Rankine, 91) (Figure 1). These are called microaggressions. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform and stay alive. Nick Laird is a poet and novelist who teaches at NYU and Queen's University, Belfast, where he is the Seamus Heaney Professor of Poetry. In an article discussing the Black Lives/White Backgrounds of Rankines Citizen, Bella Adams states: the blank and typically white backgrounds on which Rankines words and images appear (69) is representative of the hierarchical racial formation that is rendered nearly invisible by its colour (white) and positioning (background) in the contemporary, so-called colour-blind or post-racial United States (55). Using frame-by-frame photographs that show the progression leading to the headbutt, Rankine quotes a number of writers and thinkers, including the philosopher Maurice Blanchot, Ralph Ellison, Frantz Fanon, and James Baldwin. The Atlantic Ocean Breaking on Our Heads: Claudia Rankine, Robert Lowell, and the Whiteness of the Lyric Subject. PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, vol. Sometimes the moon is missing and beyond the windows the low, gray ceiling seems approachable. The physiological costs are high. At times I wondered why she for example attributes a single horrible quotation about Serena to a monumental non-existent entity called "the American Media." . Hearing this, the protagonist wonders why her friend feels comfortable saying this to her, but she doesnt object. To see so many people moved and transformed by her work and her vision is something that should give us all hope. There is, in other words, no way of avoiding the initial pain. Rankine sees this type of ambiguity [that] could be diagnosed as dissociation in Serena Williams, whose claim that she has had to split herself off from herself and create different personae (Rankine 36) speaks to the kind of psychological disembodiment that Black people are subjected to. Whether Rankine is talking about tennis or going out to dinner, or spinning words until youre not sure which direction youre facing, there is strength, anger, and a call for white readers like myself to see whats in front of us and do better, be better. And this is why I read books. Project MUSEmuse.jhu.edu/article/732928.Sdf, The Dissolving Blues of Metaphor: Rankines Reconstruction of Racism as Metaphor in Citizen: An American Lyric, www.guernicamag.com/blackness-as-the-second-person/. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. It's a moment like any other. Creating notes and highlights requires a free LitCharts account. This disrupts the historically white lyric form even further because she is adapting and changing the lyric form to include her Black identity and perspective. With the sophistication of its dialectical movement, the gravitas of its ethical appeal, and the mercy of its psychological rigor, Claudia Rankine's Citizen combines traditional poetic strains in a new way and passes them on to the reader with replenished vitality. They have become a you: You nothing. This decision to use second-person also draws attention to the second-class status of black citizens in the US (Adams 58), or blackness as the second person (Sharma). Still, the interaction leaves her with a dull headache and wishing she didnt have to pretend that this sort of behavior is acceptable. This dilemma arises frequently for the protagonist, like when a colleague at the university where she teaches complains to her about the fact that his dean is forcing him to hire a person of color. In this moment, the protagonist realizes that being black in a white-dominated world doesnt make her feel invisible, but hypervisible. This, in turn, accords with the author Zora Neale Hurstons line that she feels most colored when shes thrown against a sharp white background. These thoughts, however, dont ease the painthe persistent headachethat the protagonist feels on a daily basis because of the racist way people treat her. He is, the neighbor says, talking to himself. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. "Claudia Rankine's Citizen comes at you like doom. Ms. Rankine said that "part of documenting the micro-aggressions is to understand where the bigger, scandalous aggressions come from.". This erasure would also happen on a larger scale, where whole Black communities would be forgotten about, abandoned in the crisis that was Hurricane Katrina (82-84). What is most striking about the visual image is the omission of a human subject. 3, 2019, p. 419-457. The wearer of the hood no longer exists, and the now empty hood has been cut off or detached from the rest of the body. No, this is just a friend of yours, you explain to your neighbor, but it's too late. Both this series and Citizen combine intentional and unintentional racism to awaken the viewers to such injustices present in their own lives. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Unable to let herself show anger, she suffers in private. Struggling with distance learning? You raise your lids. The first section of Citizen combines dozens of racist interactions into one cohesive chapter. Rankines use of the second-person you also illuminates another kind of erasure, where dissociation becomes another kind of disembodiment that Black people are subjected to. 38, no. The erratum to the chapter is available at 10.1007/978-3-319-49085-4_14. As the photographs show Zidane register what Materazzi has said, turn around, and approach him, Rankine provides excerpts from the previously mentioned thinkers, including Frantz Fanons thoughts about the history of discrimination against Algerian people in France. The mess is collecting within Rankine's unnamed citizen even as her body rejects it. LitCharts Teacher Editions. You (Rankine 142). By talking about her experiences in second-person, Rankine creates a kind of separation between herself and her experiences. In the foreground there stands a sign indicating that the neighborhood juts out off a street called Jim Crow Roadevidence that the countrys racist past is still woven throughout the structures of everyday life. Amid historic times, Claudia Rankine feels a deep sense of obligation. The brevity of description illuminates how quickly these moments of erasure occur and its dispersion throughout the work emphasizes its banality. Below are questions to help guide your discussions as you read the book over the next month. "I am so sorry, so, so sorry" is her response (23). Johanning, Cameron. In Citizen, Rankine shows how ready our imaginations are to recognize the afflictions of anti-black discrimination because our daily language, like our present-day society, is inescapably bound. Chan, Mary-Jean. You begin to move around in search of the steps it will take before you are thrown back into your own body, back into your own need to be found. Hoping he was well-intentioned, the woman answered . He says he will call wherever he wants. The collection opens with a reproduction of Kate Clark's 2008 sculpture, Little Girl. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Its dark light dims in degrees depending on the density of clouds and you fall back into that which gets reconstructed as metaphor." (Citizen, 1) - Section I 1, 2018, pp. Each word is a lyrical tribute to Black Americans and all that isn't shouted out on a daily basis. What is even more striking about the image is that each photograph looks like both a school photo and a mug shot. Rankines use of form, visual imagery, and metaphor are not only used to emphasize key themes of erasure, disembodiment, systemic hunting, and the mass incarceration of Black people, but it also works to construct the history of Black citizenship from the time of slavery to Jim Crow, to modern-day mass incarceration. The frames, which create 35 cells on either page, also allude to Black imprisonment, as the subjects appear to be behind wooden prison bars (Rankine 96-97). The same structures from the past exist today, but perhaps it has become less obvious, as seen in the almost invisible frames of Weems photograph. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. Three years later, Serena Williams wins two gold medals at the 2012 Olympic Games, and when she celebrates by doing a three-second dance on the tennis court, commentators call her immature and classless for Crip-Walking all over the most lily-white place in the world.. Racist language, however, erase[s] you as a person (49), and this furious erasure (142) of Black people strips them of their individuality and the rights that come with an I that are given during citizenship. Rankines use of form goes beyond informing the contentthe form is also political. 9 likes. This is a poignant powerful work of art. This symbolism of the deer, which signifies the hunting and dehumanization of Black people, is emphasized throughout the work through the repetition of sighing, moaning, and allusions to injury: To live through the days sometimes you moan like deer. In particular, the narrator considers what her own voice sounds like. In response, the protagonist turns the question back around, asking why he doesnt write about it. It's raining outside and the leaves on the trees are more vibrant because of it. A seventeen-year-old boy in Miami Gardens, FL. The narrator hopes to be "bucking the trend" of the physical tolls racism imposes by "sitting in silence" and refusing to engage with racists (p.13). It was a lesson., Instant downloads of all 1699 LitChart PDFs I Am Invested in Keeping Present the Forgotten Bodies.. Believer Magazine, 28 June 2020, believermag.com/logger/2014-12-10-i-am-invested-in-keeping-present-the-forgotten/. . In the photograph, there are no black bodies hanging, just the space where the two black bodies once were (Chan 158). Essays for Citizen: An American Lyric. By utilizing form, visual imagery, and poetry, Rankine enables us to see the systemic oppression of Black people by the state. The voice is a symbol for the self. Claudia Rankine zeros in on the microaggressions experienced by non-white people, particularly black females, in the United States. Complete your free account to request a guide. View Citizen_ An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine.pdf from ENG L499 at Indiana University, Bloomington. It's an image that lingers in your mind because it is so powerful and emotionally evocative. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. A provocative meditation on race, Claudia Rankine's long-awaited follow up to her groundbreaking book Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric. Rankine describes these everyday events of erasure in small blocks of black text, each on its own white page. Their citizenship which took many centuries to gain does not protect them from these hardships. What did he say? Claudia Rankine's Citizen is an anatomy of American racism in the new millennium, a slender, musical book that arrives with the force of a thunderclap.It's a sequel of sorts to Don't Let Me Be Lonely (2004), sharing its subtitle (An American Lyric) and ambidextrous approach: Both books combine poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction, words and . (84-85); Did you see their faces? (86). So much racism is unconscious and springs from imagined . A mixed-media collection of vignettes, poems, photographs, and reproductions of various forms of visual art, Citizen floats in and out of a multiple topics and perspectives. Citizen by Claudia Rankine is an exceptional book which is much deserving of all the awards it has won. The way the content is organized, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. Claudia Rankine is an absolute master of the written word. In Claudia Rankines, Citizen: An American Lyric, she explores racism in a unique way. She takes situations that happen on a daily basis, real life tragedies and acts in the media to analyze and bring awareness to the subtle and not so subtle forms of racism. When she objects to his use of this word, he acts like its not a big deal. An unsettled feeling keeps the body front and center. This book is necessary and timely. "Citizen: An American Lyric", p.124, Macmillan . Claudia Rankine's book Citizen: An American Lyric was a New York Times bestseller and won many awards. The text becomes a metaphor for the way racism in America (content) is embedded in the existing social structures of systemic racism (form). . 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