I found Claudia Rankine's book Citizen to be a more challenging read than I had expected. I think that there are many reasons for this: the style of writing is not something I am used to, the lack of quotes can be confusing, and the shifting point of view (first person vs second person) is sometimes disorienting. Rankine's use of poetry is unexpected at first, but it ends up really fitting the purpose of her writing. It reminded me of stream of consciousness writing, leading me to feel as though I was the person in the situations that she was describing. Without quotation marks around dialogue, it feels as though the scenarios that Rankine drops us in could really be happening. It is almost as if her writing is acting as our eyes to her world, allowing us to take on a completely different persona (or to put it a different way, it allows us to truly take a walk in her and her character's shoes).
What I found most surprising about the book was the atrocities that people of color have to live through each day. The very first story that Rankine tells is that of two twelve year old children, one who is cheating off the other, and when "she thinks she is thanking you for letting her cheat […] she tells you you smell good and have features more like a white person" (Rankine 5). Rankine is making a strong initial point: some people are under the delusion that children are innocent, but this story proves that racism can begin extremely young. The white girl in the story never gets caught cheating, and even though Rankine never explicitly states anything, the reader can infer that it is because the cheater is white that cheating is never suspected (Rankine 6). The rest of the novel progresses to greater challenges, most notably Serena Williams's career as a professional woman tennis player. This story surprised me because my family watches many of the tennis tournaments, and I never knew that such difficulties faced Serena and Venus in what appears to be an unbiased sport. I was particularly horrified by "the Dane Caroline Wozniacki, a former number-one player, imitat[ing] Serena by stuffing towels in her top and shorts" (Rankine 36). This type of blatant disrespect, not to mention racism, seems to be the norm for Serena and Venus.
My favorite part of the book by far happens when Rankine is talking about the memory of Mark Duggan. The character whose lens we are looking through is talking to a man about the riots after Mark Duggan was shot and killed by British police. There are two very important points that Rankine brings up during this scenario. The first is that "the UK police handled [the riots] very differently from the US media" (115). How a protest is presented by the media is critical to its ultimate success, which is what Rankine is trying to bring to light with this exchange. The US media took "Rodney King's beating, caught on video" and continued to show it, giving the riots context. However, the UK media did not have a video of the shooting of Mark Duggan, leaving the media to make do with footage of the rioting and looting instead, causing people to forget why the riots were even happening. This is an important example for how the media can make or break a protest. The second point that Rankine made during this story involved something that many of us are probably guilty of: the man is wondering if you (as the main character) will "write about Duggan? the man wants to know. Why don't you? you ask. Me? he asks, looking slightly irritated. How difficult is it for one body to feel the injustice wheeled at another?" (Rankine 116). This line, asking a question that many of us need to ask ourselves, is so strong, so pointed. At the end of the day, we're all humans who have likely experienced some sort of injustice at some point or another. The fact that the white man in this scenario feels like he should not have to write about the riots just because he does not share the same skin color is lazy and without excuse. Rankine does a wonderful job, for the entire book, to open up the minds of her Caucasian readers and show them what it is like to live on the receiving side of racism. On the other hand, she caters to her African-American readers by articulating so well their frustrations and anger.
Works Cited:
Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2014. Print.
I enjoyed your initial reaction to the text and had many similar thoughts. Although I did not mention it in my posts I thought of it as stream of consciousness also, especially in chapter four when she describes her feelings and the worlds interpretation of them "Sometimes you sigh. The world says stop that. Another sigh. Another stop that" (Rankine, 59). I thought the use of this was extremely powerful in putting the reader into the mind of the speaker and feeling the effects of racial discrimination.
ReplyDeleteI think its interesting how you interpreted the first story about the girls in school. My first reaction to this was how racial discrimination affects people of color at any age, even earlier than 12. I agree with your reading that children are not innocent, they inherent ideas and opinions from their parents. I also think that the point of this passage was to show that people of color are aware of discrimination and being treated as a second class citizen at a very early age.
I did not read to closely into the Mark Duggan passage but reading your thoughts it is very reminiscent of Deluca and Peeples discussion of the public screen and how it affects protest. The different ways protest is viewed in media has a major impact on the publics view of issues. I believe Citizen is also a very good book in opening the minds of white readers, and by using a radical writing style effectively causes them to reconsider their actions that traditional protest may have not accomplished.