Claudia Rankine depicts in her book Citizen stories about famous minority figures that suffer from racism, and explores racism in terms of actions and their effects, on the recipient, and on the bigot. Rankine especially depicts stories of minority sports celebrities and how some of their actions are viewed through the lens of racism and race roles, actions that deal with anger outbursts. The consequences of racist actions and racist insults are explored also. Rankine offers several high-profile examples of famous sports players who reacted with incredible anger at the racist behavior they were confronted with I believe that Rankings specific word choice of “you” refers to all citizens who’ve been wronged AND don’t have racial transparency. She clearly makes this book for minorities because she wants to present them with examples of how we are the victims, and how breaking the stereotype of rage …show more content…
The first story or example that I will be talking about is the killing of a black man named James Craig Anderson, whom was beaten and run over by a group of white men in a pick up truck. Citizen is an American lyric book that explains the tacit response to both those who wonder how and why these hate crimes happen. Rankine explains to us how brutalization happens- over brunch, at a university or at a checkout line. She follows the particles, the stuns and streams that turn into the tempest. The asserted scorn wrongdoing of James Craig Anderson, a 49-year-old vehicle plant laborer, who was beaten and afterward killed by a gathering of white high schoolers goal on harming a dark individual. Deryl Dedmon Jr., 18, of Brandon, Miss., and his companions were at a gathering drinking when Dedmon professedly told companions they ought to leave, saying, "Let's go f--- with some niggers," according to CNN. According to CNN, this is what happened in the scene, “The teens
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.
Robinson saw that athletic success did not guarantee full freedom in the racially and economically unequal American society. Opposing players often reminded him of his race arguments, rougher hits, and racial slurs. (Gale)
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen contains a number of intricate images usually following a story within a section of the lyric. Using the context of the story, one is able to perceive his or her own meaning for why the image was included. The images provoke thought and emotion in many different ways. While an image may seem sad to some, others may decipher a positive or progressive view of their own. The true beauty of these images alongside their text is that they will bring forth a unique response from each and every reader.
Have you ever wondered how far back in our history the world has been full of hate, prejudice, and rage? It has been seen in the form of war, mass genocide, enslavement, and even something minimal compared to the others, like riots and looting for centuries. Despite this common knowledge, there are many forms of violence, injustice, and rage that go unseen. Carol Anderson’s, White Rage, dives deep into the idea that maybe the worst forms of rage do not come from the most obvious and attention-capturing events, but the ones who stay hidden and subside deep in their privileged and ‘noble’ positions. She wants to show you, through the eyes of a minority, what it is like to constantly be looked past and looked down upon. Anderson argues the fact that no matter how many laws and regulations are put into place to cease the existence of racism, the rage in America continues to thwart African American advancement. Through precisely compelling choice of words and a structural design that pulls everything apart only to piece it back together to form a much larger picture, Anderson brings rage, the white rage, into a new and different light. This shows readers the depth of the racial problems in our country through a recap of groundbreaking historical events, advancing or obstructing African Americans, along with the white backlash.
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
Rankine divided her lyric into seven sections. Although each section focused on different topics they were connected by an underlying theme, racism. The first section focused on incidents of microaggression. Strategically Rankine begins to display incidents that stem from childhood, drawing a clear line that skin color causes children to be treated
Citizen, written by Claudia Rankine in 2014, narrates testimonies of systematic racism and every day micro aggressions through poems, essays, scripts and images. Rankine documents the racist encounters through the second person point of view for the reader to feel and understand the effects racism has on the body and mind. This paper will examine hypervisibility and invisibility of the black body embedded in the novel because of decades of racism. Rankine emphasizes the sensory emotions and feelings of the black body as a response to America’s reluctance to recognize and empathize with black men and women.
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.
Citizen, is a book by the author Claudia Rankine, who was born in Jamaica, and then immigrated to the US at a young age. After seemingly absorbing and understanding the culture of America, she writes the book Citizen, to not only define violence, but as a voice to black individuals on the racism and violence they face daily. The book does a very good job of putting the reader in the shoes of a black individual in America, without not making it believable. The book has its own style, which is used to show the violence that blacks face daily. This book was the perfect addition to the course in the sense it unwittingly attempts to answer the question, “How does it feel to be a problem?”.
In 2015, according to the Criminal Justice Information Services Division, there were 6,837 hate crime offences reported to the police. A hate crime is an incident or offence motivated by a bias based on race, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. Of those 6,837 offences; 58.9% were motivated by racial bias; 19.8% by religion; 17.8% by sexuality; 1.7% by gender; and 1.3% by disability. Today’s society has a cruel view of those who aren’t part of the un-oppressed majority- those who aren’t deemed to be “normal.” The society we see in The Crucible by Arthur Miller is just as- if not moreso- intolerant of anything placed outside of the socially accepted norm. Intolerance such as this can lead to fear, violence, unfair treatment, and unrest in the community.
As indicated, hate crimes can be explained through the use of theory and, one such theory is the symbolic interactionism theory. As criminologists were engaged in attempting to
Hate Crime in the United States of America THESIS: In this research paper, information will be given on hate crime in the United States of America. It’s best to know about these types of crimes before it’s too late because it’s rarely reported or spoken about but does occur on regular bases. Hate crime didn't come about until the early 1980's. It's sad how these types of crimes still occur so many years later; there are innocent people who are attacked simply because of their race, religion or sexual orientation. Based on the articles, hate crime in the USA is very common and the chances to be a victim are high enough. Hate crimes are ignorant and pointless, they need to be stopped.Done to many different people in many different
of murders went up 100%, Cross burnings went up 200%, and vandalism went up 50%.
Throughout American history, violent criminal acts against a specific person or a group of individuals were just that, violent crimes. In the 1980’s, the term hate crime was born. The term hate crime was used by a group of advocates to describe a series of violent incidents targeting several minorities (Nij.gov, 2015). A hate crime is “a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender 's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation,
Pop culture has enlightened and exposed the world to the good, the bad, and the ugly under every circumstance, and people tend to be more provoked, influenced, and intrigued by the bad and the ugly rather than the good. One topic of pop culture that never fails to gain attention is violence in its many forms. While at a state of constant social change and adaptation, the population finds more and more disagreements on the ever-changing and conflicting views and beliefs of each individual, which can lead to violence in some, if not most cases. Hate crimes are crimes or actions motivated by certain disagreements among groups that typically involve some form of violence. This essay will discuss the violence in racial hate crimes against African Americans, because the violence in these hate crimes, both past and present, will help educate individuals about different racial perspectives on the claimed “unfair” or “unequal” treatment of the African American race compared to the treatment of whites in all aspects of society and life. In the United States, African Americans as a race haven been one of the main targets for violent racial and hate crimes. Racial violence and hate crimes against African Americans have been a part of the United States since the very beginning, with a spike in conflict around the 1960s era of the African American Civil Rights Movement, and are even portrayed now in current pop culture sources. Violence against African Americans in films like The Help (a