Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric is a contemporary work that looks at the lives of those who face racial injustice in a so-called “post-racial” America. Written as a series of poems and prose with included images, Rankine uses artistic language that allows readers to see both instances of outward racism and microaggressions, as well as understand how it affects the everyday lives of people in America.

The book is divided into seven sections; Rankine starts off the book by combining a variety of incidents that standing alone may seem like simple mistakes or misunderstandings. It introduces the notion that in contemporary America, racism is not just systemic or outward the way it was before. The second section of the book introduces the recurring theme of identity and the metaphor of the game of tennis, using Serena Williams as the main example. The third section goes back to talking about microaggressions, this time focusing on how to interpret or react to them. The fourth and fifth section go into a more abstract format but continue to talk about previous themes of identity and judgement, discussing the confusion the narrator feels on how exactly to feel better and move forward. Section six incorporates recent historical events such as the murders of Trayvon Martin and James Craig Anderson, which show the audience realities of racial injustice in more obvious ways. Rankine ends the work by stating that the ending to this particular story is unknown, which compels readers to think about the future of racism in society and actions that can be taken that will promote change.

The first section of the book is important because it introduces the themes and overall structure that remain constant until the end. Similar to reality, the reader is abruptly thrown into these scenarios with no explanation of why they are happening, which is why it is fitting that the first situation is one that is experienced at a young age in Catholic school. This situation also brings up the notion of invisibility in the public eye, which is shown when the narrator suggests that Sister Evelyn “never actually saw you sitting there”, which could be why she never said anything about the white student cheating off the black student. Claudia Rankine mainly uses second person in the book because it allows readers to interpret what is happening at a more personal level; various instances throughout the sections prove that microaggressions go undetected if people have never experienced it themselves. Rankine’s use of questions, such as “Did they just say that?” also introduces the idea of people not knowing how to interpret what happened or how to react to it; what is complicated about microaggressions is trying to decide where incidents have racist intentions or if they are just mistakes or were misinterpreted. The situation at Starbucks where a stranger uses a blatantly racist term to describe a group of teenagers provides an example of outward racism in America today. This is the first instance where the narrator says someone actually speaks up, and their statement is met with a “Now there you go.” This is important because it shows that when racism is confronted, society reacts by dismissing one’s feelings and deeming it as an overreaction, which continues to be discussed throughout the other sections.

Section Two of the book is also important because the theme of identity gets discussed more in depth, and the metaphor of a tennis match gets introduced and uses Serena Williams as the primary example. Serena Williams is a widely known black tennis player; because tennis is a predominantly white sport with a white history, Williams catches the eye of the public, and not in a majorly positive way; she faces unfair umpires and a biased audience. Going back to the example in the first section where a black person can be made to feel invisible in society, there is also hypervisibility of black people, or people of color in general, in the public eye. One of the most important quotes in the book is mentioned in the second section, which is “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a white background.” This not only applies to Serena Williams and her career in tennis but in America as well. This idea can be connected with the title Citizen because it displays what it is like to be a citizen in the United States; even if someone is a citizen in the United States they face obstacles being a person of color because the country, like tennis, has a white history. Serena Williams represents black citizens, because while she is allowed to play and compete, similar in the way that all citizens are promised equality, she still faces setbacks and obstacles in a sport like tennis for being a person of color.

Section Three is important in that Rankine goes back to instances of microaggressions, looking more at the way society views racism in America. A man says that there are jokes that would make someone laugh when they are with their friends but not in public, “where black people could hear what was said.” When meeting someone for the first time after speaking on the phone, a manager blurts out “I didn’t know you were black!” and followed it by saying he did not mean to say it “aloud”. Both these examples indicate that many white people in the United States feel comfortable with casual racism in society, and therefore do not feel the need to correct or legitimize it. These examples also go back to the theme of identity and not just how one views themselves, but how the rest of the world views them as well. This section shows how white people in society unconsciously or consciously create a divide between themselves and black people; examples in the passage include the real estate agent being uncomfortable around “you”, one’s white friend code switching in an attempt to possibly relate to them, and two men describing watching two black men interact is “like watching a foreign film”. By creating this divide, black people or other people of color are essentially being “thrown against a sharp white background”. The theme of unintentional judgment is also present, as well as the lack of self-awareness, which contributes to racial injustice. Judgements made by various people in society also comment on the “historical self” that is part of one’s identity, even if they do not want it to be.

During the last section of the book, Rankine explains that she does not “know how to end what does not have an ending”, which comments on the complexity of the deep-rooted, now subtle racism seen today in American society. The narrator is often conflicted on whether to react or not to react to these microaggressions; a friend in Section 3 even expresses that it is better not to react or to not “absorb the world” because she “refuses to carry what does not belong to her”. The book also shows what could happen when one chooses, examples being Serena Williams being viewed as insane when getting angry over the bad calls the umpire made, or someone dismissing it with the phase “there you go”. The point of the book was not to give possible excuses or justification for the events that occurred but to state them for what they were, to let people know that they exist and how it affects someone who experiences it directly. There is no proper end, no direct solution to fixing societal injustices, but one can simply keep playing the game. Rankine ends the book by saying “it wasn’t a match. It was a lesson.” The final scenario finally uses first person, showing the narrator dealing with a racist encounter, but choosing to go to the tennis court instead. Going back to the example of Serena Williams, even though she faces racial bias there is still a commitment of showing up to play. When Rankine describes it as a lesson, she is saying experiences in America can only teach people and let them learn from their past mistakes; having the mindset that there is a winner or loser prevents change from happening, and self-awareness leads to growth.

The overall themes and concerns of Citizen connects to The Self and Other in Literature because identity is the main theme of the book. Throughout the book there was a challenge of looking at the idea that “Americans battle between the ‘historical self’ and the ‘self self’”, which is first described in Section One. One’s self self describes their true self: who they are based off their own life and experiences. One’s historical self is a different part of their identity that has history attached to it, which is often troubling to black people in America because their identity is often associated with how they were valued and viewed in previous history. The quote “A black artist cannot paint a flower without it becoming a slavery flower”, which is found in Section Two, is a prime example of having the historical self play into one’s identity without their permission. With people of color there is conflict in finding out how much of their identity is made up of the historical self, and for white people there is a conflict in how they end up judging and treating people of color based on their historical self. The quote “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background” also related to the theme of self and identity because it is the result of this kind of judgement and racial injustice that is seen in American society.

To summarize, Claudia Rankine’s Citizen promotes the discussion of microaggression and racial injustice in America to people who may not be aware of it. The purpose of the book is to compel the audience to reflect on the society they live in, as well as how they may be contributing to stagnation. In order to move forward and develop as individuals and as a society, one needs to take a look at themselves, as well as understand the differences other people experience. The themes of identity and judgement are significant because it relates to a larger group of people and allows for the audience to look through different viewpoints, and to therefore take experiences as lessons.

 

Rhetorical Situation

The text of the exploratory essay is my analysis of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, which discussed topics like identity and racial injustice in the United States. The essay is five pages long.

I am the author of the exploratory essay. I am an 18 year old college student who attends the City College of New York. I am aware of how important racial identity is to individuals and I think being open to and having heard other people’s experiences helped me understand the themes I wrote about in the essay.

The audience of my exploratory essay was my professor, who assigned us the paper, and can be other college students, such as my peers who also read the book. Another audience for the essay can be individuals who want to look at different viewpoints of the book, or how it was interpreted differently.

The purpose of the essay was to look at the different themes that Rankine included which helped support her point of the importance of racial identity in America, as well as how it can negatively impact an individual because of the way they are viewed in society.

The setting I wrote my exploratory essay in was in my bedroom, as well as the City College Library on the the fourth floor. My room was quiet and so was the library, which allowed me to think critically and analyze.