Analysis Of Claudia Rankine's Citizen

The stereotypes in the story, makes it difficult for the readers to conclude the race of each character. People assume that the African American character would be illiterate and uneducated and the white character to be well-educated. During the time period of the story African Americans did not have access to a decent education; making it harder for them to learn just the basics. Whites had access to good education, making it easy to believe the white character is more educated. It is also believed that a person that is well educated will have a better lifestyle when they are older. A well-educated person will have a better job, paying more, and have a better opportunity to afford the means of a luxurious lifestyle. An under educated person will most likely live in poverty, struggle for their basic needs, or live in a declining neighborhood. Behavior is a harder stereo type to use to distinguish a race. Many assume that whites have an entitled attitude toward life. Whites had access to a good education and jobs, they had a “I’m better than you” attitude. On the other hand, many think African Americans were upset because of how easy it was for whites to have better access to the basic necessities such as education and housing.

Throughout the years, sports have become a major part of society. Sports, a large percentage of the time, are a part of peoples’ lives in one way or another. Whether they participate in them or just enjoy watching them, sports are a big deal to the majority of people. There are also some individuals who have redefined the expectations when it comes to certain sports. For instance, Babe Ruth redefined the way people think about baseball, or Michael Jordan completely changing the game of basketball. But Joe Louis and Venus and Serena Williams have changed their games in a way no one could have imagined. Although “Champion of the World” by Maya Angelou and “Woman Who Hit Very Hard and How They’ve Changed Tennis” by Michael Kimmelman are different, they are similar in the ways they show how the respected athletes, Joe Louis and the Williams sisters, changed the game and were seen using symbolism in racial and sexual progression.

Citizen is formatted into various stanzas and sentences, in some case the stanzas are just one line. Claudia Rankine uses various literary elements to throughout the lyrics. However, the narrator/point of view is the one that changes constantly being male, female, black or white. Rankine’s most impactful point of view is when she uses second person, making the reader the speaker, thus creating impactful events. The tone of the lyric is tireless, this is expressed through the countless incidents mentioned that resulted without change. Unlike most lyrics Rankine’s work is filled with images some are direct but others are more complex, yet all are representative of discrimination against the black community.

This is not just a remarkable accomplishment for her, but for her whole team. she is above and beyond deferred to, the professional tennis player added.

Citizen: An American Lyric breaks the continuum of a linear narrative. It forces the reader to pause and engage with the visuals included in it. Furthermore, Claudia Rankine uses commentaries as a literary genre that effectively extends the ways and expressions in which Americans still encounter racism. Visuals and texts juxtapose to create captioned artworks; which Rankine interprets for the reader. Thus, those interpretations function as informative: telling the venues and forms where racism is portrayed and sponsored.

If this story took place 50 years ago, it would be completely different. Fifty years ago was the peak of the civil rights movement, and racism was way more extreme. Even though racism is still a major problem today, 50 years ago, it was the biggest problem that existed. Black people didn’t nearly have the amount of rights as they do now, but stereotypes still create a target on their backs today.

Eitzen (2012) describes sport to be a rule-bound activity that should promote fair play, sportsmanship, and hard work, but there have been many unwritten rules, in particular within the sport of tennis that do the opposite effect. Within tennis, players that self-referee their own matches are required to make lines calls and should give their opponent the benefit of the doubt when unsure of where the ball landed. When an opponent or parent chants loudly this in turn can get inside a players head giving the opponent a psychological advantage. As a player competing in tennis, an opponent would stomp their feet loudly on the ground creating an impression that they were coming to the net, creating an unfair tactic in the eyes of the other player. As Stewart (2014) stated, if a player wants to win at any cost, rules and structures can be disregarded, creating an unfair victory for the opponent. Crone (1999) stated that an athlete focusing on the end-result or a win-at-all-costs attitude, there then becomes a de-emphasis on the process that in turn leads to less sportsmanship and promotes

As with their previous Australian Open final, Venus ended up runner-up. With Serena still working her way through new motherhood, Venus will have her eye on the title that has eluded her. As amazing as the American dominance was at the US Open, one big reason for grabbing your Australian Open tennis tickets might be the resurgence of one women’s player.

She showed us the beauty of her work in Citizen. Citizen was not only a poem or a lyrical poem as most people tend to refer to it, it is a comprehensive work of art. Rankine showed this to us by engaging us in an analysis of the different art presented in Citizen. A poem does not need to be always written, sometimes it could be sculpted, painted or photographed. Two outstanding artworks she engaged were a photograph of a beautifully ornamented basketball hoop constructed on the high ceiling and photos of a deer with the face of a black woman. The former represented the goals and ambitions of people that were never achieved as a result of different factors like their race or gender that stifled their abilities. On the other hand, the latter represented the stoic character exhibited by a woman who had an encounter with a psychologist. The poem revolved around a woman who made an appointment with a psychologist and ended up being shouted at and treated in a shabby manner. Ultimately, she addresses the encounter in a calm manner with little to no emotional response. Rankine’s performance of this work also extended to her providing further details about the occurrence and her personal opinion on the encounter. Rankine revealed she would have acted the same way the woman acted. Primarily, the occurrence highlights the different ways people of color have acclimatized to

She also said that Venus has been their leader and everyone looks up to her. Williams is both a great player and a person. No one can actually

“Citizen” is both insistently topical, with references to Trayvon Martin and stop-and-frisk police tactics, and concerned with intimate moments when racial impasses spring up between friends and colleagues. Stylistically, it takes readers on a ride over varied terrain, going from verse to prose to visual images by artists like Carrie Mae Weems and Glenn Ligon, whose work is often grounded in wordplay and social commentary. These deliberate collisions, Ms. Rankine said, help “to create openness

In Sunday’s Final, Murray came out guns blazing, winning the first set 6-3 by playing solidly and maintaining a controlled aggression. Toward the end of the first set, there was a controversial moment when the umpire overruled a call and awarded Murray a point rather than replaying it. The crowd, already overwhelmingly on Djokovic’s side, really jumped on the official. Despite winning the point, Murray seemed frazzled by the incident.

Playing inside the clay court has been quite a patriarchal sport but nevertheless, women like Martina Navratilova proved to the world that women can certainly do it, too. Navratilova is a Czech tennis player which had been nationalized as an American citizen. All over the web of tennis rankings, she was one of the greatest players in the history of this sport. He went on to win 168 titles, including nine at Wimbledon, four at the US Open, twice at the Roland Garros Cup and three in the Australia Open. She laid-off her shining tennis career in 1994 but returned in 2000 for exhibition tournaments and competitions in doubles and mixed, which created pandemonium when her full-pledged fans have known about it.

Ever since Europeans found the new continent which we call America today, over three million black natives were sold from Africa to it to be the lowest slaves in the past three centuries. They had borne tragic lives so many years. Though there were several times of resistance movements for the rights of the black, Americans even have gone through the Civil War which almost ruined the U.S., they still could not be totally free and earn most people's respect yet. After reading Claudia Rankine's “Citizen”, it becomes much clearer about the racial discrimination in our real daily life.

World No. 1, Serena Williams did not have an easy year. The road to this year’s U.S. Open was fragile for her. She lost twelve sets in the four majors. In the French Open, she had to play five three-set games, which she never had had to do before. Although, Williams had trouble winning the major titles, she always found a way to beat any opponent she met on court.