Racism In Claudia Rankine's Citizen : An American Lyric '

During a Ku Klux Klan rally in Ann Arbor in 1996, a supposed Klansman was attacked by a mob. In a display of bravery, “Keshia Thomas, [a black teenager], put herself between the protestors and [the] man” (“Teenager”). She saved the man’s life despite the fact that he was possibly a member of the Ku Klux Klan, an organization built on the ideals of white supremacy. While racism was still present in 1996, improved race relations are evident. For example, a racist man probably would not have been attacked, especially by white people, during the 19th century. Even if he was attacked, a black person probably would not have risked his or her life to protect the racist man, due to the hostile attitudes between the two races. In Charles M. Blow’s article, Constructing a Conversation on Race, he quotes the American Anthropological Association that “’present-day inequalities between so-called ‘racial’ groups are not consequences of their biological inheritance but products of historical and contemporary social, economic, educational, and political circumstances’” (Blow). The United States have granted different social classes based on race, such as minorities being considered lower than white people. Since the social division is supposedly no longer existent, the concept of race is no longer relevant in today’s society. Blow also states that “’The ‘racial’ worldview was

Over the years, the face of racism has taken on many forms. In present day America, racism is a very taboo subject. It a common view that racism is not a big issue anymore, given the large strides that we, as a country have made towards equality. However, the inequalities that still exist between races point to a different situation. Instead of the blatantly discriminatory acts that our nation has witnessed in the past, modern racism practices are more covert and seemingly nonracial, making this kind of discrimination seem more acceptable and politically correct. The Civil Rights Movement forced society to implement a new, subtler way to perpetuate racial inequality. In Racism Without Racists, Bonilla-Silva describes the justification

The threat issued against The Howard University community is another evidence of the discrimination that exists in our community. The final statement "After all, it's not murder if they're black" supports the point that Claudia Rankine uses in her essay "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning" saying that Dead Blacks are a part of normal life here. In that essay, she provides several cases of dead blacks to support the argument that the lives of Black people do not matter for Whites. The recent threat against Howard University Community is another proof for black community of our reality; a reality where blacks are seen as an inferior class, as persons who should not have rights.Claudia Rankine states all these points to support her

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.

This poem is written from the perspective of an African-American from a foreign country, who has come to America for the promise of equality,

Since the time of slavery, racism has become a systematically integrated into the subconscious of nearly all Americans, and this subconscious bias can often go undetected by even the people who reside in it. In “The Good, Racist People,” Ta-Nehisi Coates shines a light on American on these social norms and lifestyles which many “good Americans” might not necessarily consider racism. Going beyond what most readers consider obvious, such as lynching and segregation policies, Coates brings up the real example of a deli employee falsely accusing an African-American man of shoplifting. On the basis of a mere assumption. When that African-American man was identified as Oscar winning actor Forest Whitaker, the incident caught national attention. The

Both racism and violence are large themes of not just, Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space, but also of America during the mid-1900’s. Unfortunately, there still exists the same themes in today’s world even though the population is becoming increasingly more educated. Hate and discrimination are taught evils, not innate ones, and in order to prevent the need for stories such as Brent Staples’ to be told, society as a whole must band together to eliminate the occurrence of such a destructive, devastating

The election of Barack Obama as the 56th president of the United States raised many hopes that the “Black struggles” was finally over. For conservatives, Obama victory reassured their beliefs that there was no longer such thing as racism and that every American had equal rights and opportunity to pursue the American dream. While many people have come to believe that all races have equal rights in America, Tim Wise argues in his documentary “White Like Me” that not only does racism and unconscious racial bias still exist, but that also White Americans are unable to simply relate to the variety of forms racism and inequality Blacks experience. This is mainly because of the privileges they get as the “default.” While Wise explores the variety forms of racism and inequality today such as unconscious racism, Black poverty, unemployment, inadequate education system, and prison system, the articles by the New York Times Editorial Board, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Adam Liptak further explore some the disparities in the criminal justice system. Ana Swanson points out in her article, “The Stubborn Persistence of Black-White Inequality, 50 Years after Selma” that while the “U.S. has made big strides towards equal rights,” significant gaps still remains between the two races. With the Supreme Court striking down a “portion of the Voting Rights Act that stopped discriminatory voting laws from going into effect in areas of the country with histories of disenfranchisement,” civil

The idea of racism has evolved and has become less prevalent throughout the last century. Schools and public areas are unsegregated, voting rights, racial slurs being considered as unacceptable behavior etc. American sociologist and race theorist, Howard Winant states that’s “The ensuing approaches increased recognition of racial injustice and inequality, but did not overcome the discriminatory processes” (Winant,2000)Although the United states has come a long way to try to end racism, one cannot ignore the fact that it still exists. It is something that may seem invisible in society, but everybody knows that it still thrives and that it’s racial attitudes affect the way our society functions. One of these invisible forms of

Citizen is a narrative written to connect with the reader by telling stories in the second person . In the novel, “Citizen”, Claudia Rankine uses short stories and personal experiences to encapsulate the struggle that African American people endure when they are thrown against a sharp white background .

Despite changes in the landscape for treatment of ethnic minorities in the United States over the past 200 years, issues with racism has never stopped being an issue and continues to tarnish and tatter the very fabric of our nation. There has been a history of violence against Black people that dates back 400 years, to a time when the first slave was forcefully brought here to the USA (Rogers, 2015). From that time on, people of African descent have been dehumanized and treated as second-class citizens and this has become an ongoing community issue (Diversi, 2016). Racial classification was created as a way to condone slavery and maintain the primacy of the white race (Tolliver, Hadden, Snowden, & Manning, 2016). Aymer (2016) explains that the Critical Race Theory (CRT) provides a way to understand that the violence that Blacks face in America originates from the societal belief in White superiority and, when trying to understand the Black reality, centuries of racial oppression must be discussed (Aymer, 2016). CRT acknowledges that racism is primarily a problem in America and has contributed to the social disparities in the U.S. In addition, it notes other forms of oppression that are important to discuss and work through. CRT does not believe in the legal rhetoric that there is an impartial, equal way of dealing with individuals in the community that has nothing to do with color and everything to do with achievement and hard work. It also takes on an interdisciplinary

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine is a lengthy poetic attempt at exposing the competing consciousness pertaining to race and racism in society, pitting the historical person against the individual. Set side by side with The Souls of Black Folks and This Land is Your Land by Woodie Guthrie, Citizen takes on a very distinct impression of separate identities competing in one person.

All three of the poems discussed in this essay relate to the struggles suffered by African Americans in the late 18th century to the early 19th century in many different ways. They had to live under harsh

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.

The U.S. society is and has always been a white supremacist nation. In this essay I will prove how the U.S. society is now implicitly white supremacist by first giving an example of how today’s society has gone from explicitly dehumanizing non-whites, specifically blacks, to subtly degrading them. Second, I will argue how the one-drop rule still strongly affects everyday people in America as well as one of the most powerful positions man could obtain. Third, I will argue how our law enforcement and the justice system targets ‘unlawful’ persons based on appearances not actions. Fourth, I will argue how recent political activities have caused a surge in neo nazi groups. Last, I will argue how we are, in a sense, programmed to be “unconsciously