Citizen, By Claudia Rankine Essay

He wants his readers to imagine the pain and humiliation of the ill treatment that African Americans endure on a daily basis. King writes of vicious mobs lynching people’s mothers and fathers, policemen killing people’s brothers and sisters, a man and his wife not receiving the proper respect they deserve because of their skin color, and the notion that African Americans feel insignificant within their communities; this is why these peaceful demonstrators of whom the clergymen attack “find it difficult to wait” (King, 20). However, King believes that soon, injustice will be exposed, like “a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up” (King, 30). This vivid description helps arouse an emotional response, driving shame into the hearts of his white readers.

Racism is a big part of this book. It shows the absurdity of what people thought back then, which is an important lesson. It is important for us to learn what people’s views used to be, and how important it is not to go back to that mindset.

When one thinks of a “citizen”, they often imagine the process of gaining the title of becoming a citizen within a country. But often times people do not think of “citizen” or “citizenship” to be connected to race. In Claudia Rankine’s book “Citizen”, she takes time to discuss and display specific moments that have happened in the lives of African Americans who live in the United States. By doing so, she is investigating in depth of what it means to be a Black American “citizen” today in society. These stories, although reflecting upon minuscule moments, paint a large picture of the true reality of racism in America very prevalent today. In context to Rankine’s Citizen and other supporting documents such as Keywords: “Citizenship”, White Like Me and Cops See it Differently it can be proven that racial bias deprives full Black American citizens of “citizenship” within everyday society.

They shed a light on the myth of America being the city on a hill by showing how immigrants are enticed by the belief that America is the home of the morally superior and the home righteousness yet it treats its own citizens so poorly. Arnade builds upon this by showing how it's not only immigrants who believe that the American dream is flawed but Americans themselves. Arnade gives a few examples, one being Brendon Worth from Green Bay, Wisconsin who is a Native American who says, “To be free. There has been no American dream for me. I am a Native American, born on a reservation, and my people’s freedom has been taken away before, and my freedom taken away and I have been thrown in jail”(Arnade). Native Americans were the original people who were in the United States, and in today’s world they are treated as immigrants and are forced to live on reservations. Another example is Isaiah, an African American who has been through all of America’s tragedy as a colored male. He says, “What Martin Luther King said 50 years ago: The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of your skin color. We still fighting for that now. We still watching our children killed needlessly for nothing.”(Arnade). As an American who has lived for a long time, he has seen America’s transition from century to century and has witnessed the flawed American dreams and it's hypocritical nature throughout his many years of living. He knew that everything that the American dream stood for has disappeared. He is an African American male who is saying that young African Americans are being subject to the same treatment as immigrants. He shows that both young African Americans and immigrants are taught that they can trust the

In Citizen by Claudia Rankine, there is a selection of images scattered throughout the work, adding intriguing visual aspects uncovering sometimes-hidden themes in her writing One such image is an excerpt from Wangechi Mutu’s Sleeping Heads instillation, featured on page 147 of the book. In this collage, a child painted in red looks plaintively off-canvas, a cut out hand grasping his throat, with a bullet through his brain. This image is not easily shaken, and stands out from the others. Not only is it eccentric like the rest, but the longing tone the child’s eye gives off draws the viewer in, causing them to feel the need to figure out exactly what he is trying to tell them.

Alexander writes, “I have a specific audience in mind—people who care deeply about racial justice but who, for any number of reasons, do not yet appreciate the magnitude of the crisis faced by communities of color… I am writing this book for people like me—the person I was ten years ago” (p. xiii). By writing to an audience of readers who are not

Coates reveals that he understands the reality of black men in America. “Ethos is a rhetorical device through the author reveals his or her creditability to discuss the topic at hand.” (Kemp13). Coates shows throughout part one that he truly understand what it is like to live as a black man in America today. “ To be black in Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease.” (Coates 17). Coates displays that growing up black in Baltimore was a true challenge due to the racism, even before all the violence was added. Coates builds his credibility by giving the

Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent

This book tackled many situations that people of color face on an everyday basis. For example, in one situation Coates and his son were faced with mistreatment. A white lady pushed Coates son, rushing him to hurry up, in an act of showing who was boss, the author tells how he became upset with the situation. What ended up happening was that because of the way Coates defended his child people began to scream at him and threaten to call the police for his behaviors. He states that he faced a state of shock, he was unaware, how cruel people could be and how much power white people attained. (94) This example shows how people misjudge a person of color it doesn’t matter if they did something right, they are being called out just by the pigment of their skin. It goes to show that the statement Coates said was true “not being violent enough could me my body. Being too violent could cost me my body.” (28) Either way one may look at a situation, for a person of color, it can go bad and seeing through the eyes of this author we become aware that social racism still exists in today’s

One of the most prominent components of the text is that the black body is constantly under threat. Coats argues that “the question of how one should live within a black body… is the question of life.” He shows how racism works through the control and exploitation of black bodies and the delicateness of black bodies that results within a racist society. Coats writes that racism is a natural experience. Throughout American history, black men and women were chained, beaten, labored, and killed. Now, they experience police brutality and nonsensical shootings. Arrested for trying to get into their own homes and shot because they look suspicious or their hood is up. Shot because they inhabit a black body. It is the subtle ways in which a black body must conduct itself in public. Violence is consistent in an America that is still divided by race.

This passage from Dubois sets up the experience in Citizen, explaining the sensation of being judged and viewed by yourself and by society around you. To Dubois, the life of the ‘negro’ is lived in duality between being black (or negro, as Dubois says) and being American. The key implication from this described duality is the separation in identity between being ‘negro’ and being ‘American’. The same

“Understand,” her mother walked into the room demanding her attention. “What do I need to understand? We are decent God-fearing White American citizens who just want to live our lives and raise our children. We don’t need the constant complaints from the Negros, who are at the least, privileged to be part of this great Nation.”

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.

Right off the back from the beginning Mustafa Bayoumi, How does it feel to be the problem, provoked an interesting feeling of intimacy in my heart. As I read through the preface, I couldn’t help but be taken over by a feeling of gloom, sorrow, and lack of hope. As Bayoumi explained his motivation for writing the novel and frustration of the United States government, I could only support and feel the same way. Furthermore, one quote in the preface stood out to me and forced me to think deeply about it. W.E.B. du bois wrote in his the souls of black folk piece, “ Being a problem is a strange experience (page 2).” Even though, du bois composed this piece back in the pre civil rights era, a century later, the

Can you imagine living in fear for your life all the time? Fearing for judgement because of your skin color. Thinking everyone is out to get you all the time, that it starts to consume your mind. In “Cry, the beloved country” by Alan Paton, it is about social justice.