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Materazzi And Zidane

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Language serves as a tool that can either bring people together or tear them apart. It consists of what a person says and how they say it, as well as the dialect that each person speaks in. Claudia Rankine argues that a person’s skin color is still the core issue that lies within racism, and while she references Frantz Fanon within her lyric, Fanon discusses how it is language that’s actually the main problem that stems from racism. First hand accounts of racial tension open Citizen, allowing the reader to figure out where they belong within a situation of oppression. Rankine discusses in a LA Times article that this was no accident, she wants to have the reader place themselves in the situation and see how they perceive the world. She questions, …show more content…

Rankine wants people to see race and to take note of it throughout life. Zidane was seen as doing more harm by head-butting Materazzi than Materazzi did when he called Zidane a “big Algerian shit, dirty terrorist, nigger.” Hundreds of articles were written after the incidence, but most of them revolved around the fact that Zidane responded with violence. People would have much rather had Zidane taken the racist remark instead of showing that violence is the best solution to any problem. Rankine combines personal accounts with the script from the altercation, as well as quoting other authors to discuss how it is not okay to just let racial slurs go by, but people are still expecting others to ignore the lack of progression society has made regarding racial acceptance. She quotes Fanon with “when such things happen, he must grit his teeth, walk away a few steps, allude the passerby who draws attention to him, who gives other passersby the desire wither to follow the example of to come to his defense,” illustrating the usual response that people have with racist remarks. …show more content…

We think “did that just come out of my mouth, his mouth, your mouth?” when a racist comment is made; racism is “buried in you,” for it is in my past, your past, everyone’s past. This is a language different from the one that Fanon speaks of, which is one that can equate a black man to a white man. Fanon argues that it is language that causes oppression, and that “the one who expresses himself well, who has mastered the language, is inordinately feared...he is almost white.” Here Fanon says that it’s not the color of your skin that causes oppression but the language you speak. He states that “it must be understood that the Negro want to speak French because it is the key that can open doors which were still barred to him fifty years ago,” claiming that it’s the language that allows a black man to advance in life. Rankine does not agree with Fanon in the sense that it is language at the root of racism, for she show accounts of everyday life that result in oppression based on a person’s skin color, not what they say or how they say it. The opening story is of a little girl of color and a little white girl in middle school, where the white girl asks the girl of color if she can cheat off of her during exams; the white girl compliments the girl of color by saying she has “features more like

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