fierce, important, abstract poetry

I have heard of Claudia Rankine's renowned work for many years, but this book was my first taste of her fantastic writing abilities and fiercely passionate perspective on a wide variety of issues circulating racism in America. This book is defined as an "American Lyric," and I would certainly use the word "lyric" to describe the style of writing portraying the abstractness of microaggressions. I was not a huge fan of every single section - aka, most of the verbosity went over my head - but I deeply admire the apparent wordsmith Rankine is. I also admired her integration of various images throughout the work that she doesn't directly comment on but expertly connects to the content of the adjoining words. The book is made up of various "scenarios," all written in second-person, allowing the utilization of "you" to really draw her readers into the situations being described. I wholeheartedly believe this is the kind of book that everyone should read principally because it attempts to open the eyes of its readers regardless of race, ethnicity, or any other shallow definer to understand the implications of everyday situations African Americans repeatedly deal with in this country. Also included are scripts from situational videos Rankine has collaborated with her husband to write and produce. I've seen a handful of the videos, and watching them while following along with the script is a truly thought-provoking experience, allowing for deeper consideration beyond merely reading words on a page that don't correspond to visual images. All in all, this book is important and stands as a creative entity in its format as well as content.



Some of my favorite quotes from Citizen: 

​“because white men can't
police their imagination
black men are dying”

"Perhaps this is how racism feels no matter the context - randomly the rules everyone else gets to play by no longer apply to you, and to call this out by calling out 'I swear to God!' is to be called insane, crass, crazy. Bad sportsmanship."

"Language that feels hurtful is intended to exploit all the ways that you are present."

"The world is wrong. You can't put the past behind you. It's buried in you; it's turned your flesh into its own cupboard. Not everything remembered is useful but it all comes from the world to be stored in you."

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