In the book, “Citizen - An American Lyric” by Claudia Rankine wrote about racial prejudice that the black body has been facing due to stereotyping. In the book, Rankine said the blacks are being judged by the color of their skin and not viewed as equal to their white counterpart. Rankine then backed up her claims by using descriptive imagery to create pictures in our mind as well as evoking feelings by citing various incidents to illustrate how black persons are still being discriminated against and wrongly perceived in the society we’re living in today. The purpose of Rankine’s use of her descriptive imagery is an attempt to capitalize on all of a reader 's senses and build them into something vivid and real in the reader 's mind that some …show more content…
Rankine writes, "The wrong words enter your day like a bad egg in your mouth and puke runs down your blouse, a dampness drawing your stomach in toward your rib cage” (Rankine 8). This vivid image creates an awful experience of us having gotten sick one time or another and brings back these miserable and unwanted memories. Rankine creates this picture for her audience to show the racist remarks and injustice that the black body encounter on a daily basis but keeping their silence due to their frustrations with the societal structure and perceptions they have faced that no matter what they say really wouldn’t matter since they probably have already been labeled as an angry black person by those that don’t know them. Contrary to a medical term “John Henryism - for people exposed to stress stemming from racism” that in order to deal with this symptom, some people “achieves themselves to death trying to dodge the buildup of erasure” (Rankine 11). However, instead of achieved herself to death, she chose to buck the trend by sitting in silence. When we sit in silence, we tend to find a moment to reflect what has transpired. Then we regroup and reengage ourselves with what is in front of us …show more content…
While at his friend’s house babysitting, his friend’s neighbor called the cops on him because he was a stranger and is black. Noticing an individual who hasn’t been seen in this neighborhood and thought there was possibly a thief that has just broken into the house, the neighbor took a precautious action and called the police. The mindset the neighbor had at that time was based on his past experiences or how he views black bodies. A simple misunderstanding that could have been avoided. Another interaction dealing with racial prejudice is the incident of Serena Williams in a tennis match. When Serena was playing in a tournament, she became frustrated with the umpire because Serena thought the officiating umpire had made a call wrong on purpose. Serena said, "I 'm very angry and bitter right now. I felt cheated. Shall I go on? I just fell robbed" (Rankine 27). I think Rankine is trying to use Serena’s incident in her tennis match to convey to the audience that blacks are more prone to be at the receiving end of injustice because of the color of their skin even a world-class well-known tennis player such as Serena is not immune from it. This situation is no different than the incident mentioned earlier about a neighbor calling the cops thinking the house was going to be robbed because a black person was perceived to
Detrimental stereotypes of minorities affect everyone today as they did during the antebellum period. Walker’s subject matter reminds people of this, as does her symbolic use of stark black and white. Her work shocks. It disgusts. The important part is: her work elicits a reaction from the viewer; it reminds them of a dark time in history and represents that time in the most fantastically nightmarish way possible. In her own words, Walker has said, “I didn’t want a completely passive viewer, I wanted to make work where the viewer wouldn’t walk away; he would either giggle nervously, get pulled into history, into fiction, into something totally demeaning and possibly very beautiful”. Certainly, her usage of controversial cultural signifiers serve not only to remind the viewer of the way blacks were viewed, but that they were cast in that image by people like the viewer. Thus, the viewer is implicated in the injustices within her work. In a way, the scenes she creates are a subversive display of the slim power of slave over owner, of woman over man, of viewed over
“Citizen: An American Lyric” is a poem about the issues of race that gives a voice to African-Americans and strife in a white majority country. The book begins with the mention of “racial incidents experienced by Rankine and friends of hers” in the second person (Chiasson 1). Then, the experiences in a private school, the cabin of a plane, and on the way to therapy demonstrate that Claudia Rankine used African-Americans as professionals and academics who encounter injustices (Bass 1). For example, the author implements Serena Williams’ story. As a black tennis player in a white dominated sport, she had to confront “egregious acts of racism and unfairness” from umpires and commentators (Evaristo 1). One of the author’s objectives is to demonstrate that “no American citizen is ever really free of race and
Ever since the abolition of slavery in the United States, America has been an ever-evolving nation, but it cannot permanently erase the imprint prejudice has left. The realities of a ‘post-race world’ include the acts of everyday racism – those off-handed remarks, glances, implied judgments –which flourish in a place where explicit acts of discrimination have been outlawed. It has become a wound that leaves a scar on every generation, where all have felt what Rankine had showcased the words in Ligon’s art, “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background” (53). Furthermore, her book works in constant concert with itself as seen in the setting of the drugstore as a man cuts in front of the speaker saying, “Oh my god, I didn’t see you./ You must be in a hurry, you offer./ No, no, no, I really didn’t see you” (77). Particularly troublesome to the reader, as the man’s initial alarm, containing an assumed sense of fear, immediately changing tone to overtly insistent over what should be an accidental mistake. It is in these moments that meaning becomes complex and attention is heightened, illuminating everyday prejudice. Thus, her use of the second person instigates curiosity, ultimately reaching its motive of self-reflections, when juxtaposed with the other pieces in
The world today can sometimes be a hard place to live, or at least live in comfort. Whether it be through the fault of bullies, or an even more wide spread problem such as racism, it is nearly impossible to live a day in the world today and feel like it was only full of happiness and good times. Due to this widespread problem of racism, often times we tend to see authors go with the grain and ignore it, continuously writing as if nothing bad happens in the world. Fortunately, Claudia Rankine, is not one of these authors. Rankine manages to paint a vivid picture of a life of hardships in her lyric Citizen: An American Lyric. In this lyric Claudia Rankine shows that she truly has a very interesting and not commonly used approach to some literary
According to Kaleem (2016),” Africans Americans athletes have grappled with complicated feelings about patriotism and if the country has embraced colored people”. And the controversial point with Kaepernick’s stance Kaleem (2016) says is that “challenging patriotism is controversial”, But however, anybody with unalienable rights is able to challenge that notion and stand up for what he or she believes in. According to Kaleem (2016), in the article it talks about Black Lives Matter and these are examples of African American’s from the past have not been treated with the same rights and people who stand for the national anthem have not tried to protest at all. Kaepernick’s protest has been able to counter exist because of his stance against police and getting black people and colored people to stand with him on this subject. It is often said that America is OK as it is right now, Kaleen (2016) but it can also be said that Kaepernick’s stance is not just about who’s equal, but also is about why people are still dying and why must be just colored
In “Citizens: An American Lyric” by Claudia Rankine the audience is placed in a world where racism strongly affects the daily American cultural and social life. In this world we are put as the eyewitnesses and victims, the bystanders and the participants of racial encounters that happen in our daily lives and in the media, yet we have managed to ignore them for the mere fact that we are accustomed to them. Some of these encounters may be accidental slips, things that we didn’t intend to say and that we didn’t mean yet they’ve managed to make it to the surface. On the other hand we have the encounters that are intentionally offensive, things said that are
“…it is said that there are inevitable associations of white with light and therefore safety, and black with dark and therefore danger…’(hooks 49). This is a quote from an article called ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ written by bell hooks an outstanding black female author. Racism has been a big issue ever since slavery and this paper will examine this article in particular to argue that whiteness has become a symbol of terror of the black imagination. To begin this essay I will summarize the article ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ and discuss the main argument of the article. Furthermore we will also look at how bell hooks uses intersectionality in her work. Intersectionality is looking at one topic and
The two concepts are perhaps the most powerful writing of the sheer burden of African-American in our society. Ever though the story was written many decades ago, many African-American today reflect on how things haven’t changed much over time. Still today American will conceptualize what is “Black” and what is “American”.
The story “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde demonstrates that she comes across a realization that she had to speak up for her rights and independence when she visited the capital city of the United States, Washington, D.C. Lorde explains how she was frustrated with the situation that occurred in Washington, D.C., which shows that she had learned the reality of the society. She writes about many things that she came across during the trip to Washington D.C. in the summer vacation. In the essay, the meanings of independence for Lorde are to fight for it and to speak up for the rights that they deserve. Lorde and her family visit many places in the capital city where they were told to leave the place because black people were not allowed there.
The way humans look externally and feel internally has been a barrier and the kernel to many of America’s social conflicts. Audre Lorde’s essay, “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger,” attempts to answer why Black women feel contempt among one another. It resonates that Black women, in lieu of their hatred for each other, should replace it by bonding together because they share the same experiences of being women and Black. In the essay titled, “Colorblind Intersectionality,” penned by, Devon W. Carbado seeks to expand the definition of “intersectionality,” which is a theory Professor Crenshaw initially introduced as a, “Drawing explicitly on Black feminist criticism,” (Carbado 811). Carbado is able to provide other forms of intersections by
Yet it might feel like black people are still not treated fairly, compared to a few hundred years back it has been a drastic improvement. “Peace cannot be achieved through violence; it can only be attained through understanding.” (Emerson, n.d) This is what the people of the Black Civil Rights and arts movement did; they kept peace and attained it through understanding not violence. Throughout the multiple years the Black Civil Rights movement has taken place, the people it changed and the numerous of opportunities it created have been substantial to how we live in current day. Without the movement, the world wouldn’t be as socially advanced as we are now. Knowing that there are still a lot of people in the world that show hate towards people over race, sexuality and/or gender, ever since these two moments, people have felt confident to release art without being hated on over there race. Due to all of this, the Black Civil Rights Movement has had a major impact on all artists around the world, and will never be forgotten. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that” (King,
In the 1960s and 1970s the South was deeply divided and full of tension over public integration. Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, a distinguished social critic today, has experienced these social tensions and he uses this exposure to help him write on these issues. In January of 2015, Wellington published The Crisis which contains a well known essay called “The Power of Black Lives Matter”. In this essay Wellington addresses the growing problem of systematical racism and how Black Americans are and should be fighting it. It is Wellington’s belief that the movement Black Lives Matter draws attention to systemic racism and is the key to changing our society. Alicia Garza, a founding member of Black Lives Matter, defines the
In his book “Between the World and Me”, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores what it means to be a black body living in the white world of the United States. Fashioned as a letter to his son, the book recounts Coates’ own experiences as a black man as well as his observations of the present and past treatment of the black body in the United States. Weaving together history, present, and personal, Coates ruminates about how to live in a black body in the United States. It is the wisdom that Coates finds within his own quest of self-discovery that Coates imparts to his son.
Through the decades, there have been different types of social issues that affect many people. “The personal is political” was a popular feminist cry originating from civil rights movements of the 1960s, called attention to daily lives in order to see greater social issues on our society. This quote can relate back to many social issues that still occur till this day that many people are opposed of. One of the major social issues that still exist today, for example, is discrimination against colored people. In Javon Johnson’s poem, “Cuz He’s Black,” he discusses how discrimination affects many people, especially little kids because they are growing up fearing people who are supposed to protect us. Johnson effectively uses similes, dialogue
Several psychological studies conclude that the mind has adapted universal reactions to colors. While these responses are subjective depending on the region, there are general responses that exist in relation to the human population as a whole. According to journalist Sarah Marinos, color psychology professor Jill Morton’s global studies have reported that when surveyed on the significance of specific colors “black was linked to bad luck and mourning” (70). Black now encompasses strong “association(s) with impurity” (Sherman and Clore 1020). Many have come to see black as a sign of moral pollution, “not because immoral things tend to be black, but because immorality” (Sherman & Clore 1020) contaminates much like dirtiness might taint a clean mind. Prejudice against the color black has established not only its negative connotation in language, but a deep resentment within America’s roots linked to its progression into a cultural identity. Though there appear to be no longer a “scientific justification for racial classification” (Banton 1111), there is an obvious “dualism in language” (Wilson 112) which links the color with its “cultural representations” (Wilson 112), i.e. Blacks, or African Americans. It has arrived to the point that the “achromatic hue[s]” (Wilson 113) has become defined “solely from the viewpoint of heritage” (Wilson 113). As