Claudia Rankine Citizen Summary

Slavery is abolished. Segregation is prohibited. How far has American society progressed in the subject of racism? Claudia Rankine’s Citizen offers a look into the problems that persist today through a compilation of stories and images. She uses facts and literal explanations along with multiple forms of symbolism to express numerous flaws still happening today. Focusing specifically on the ruminant animal symbol, Rankine portrays the American culture’s habit of pressuring people to repress their afflictions, specifically caused by instances of racial microaggression. She also brings attention to the preconceived ideas regarding race that stem from the unnatural, but historical events from America’s past.

The life of the narrator in Citizen

entails encounters of being treated poorly due misjudgment, which stems from the historical self. “Her house has a side gate that leads to a back entrance she uses for patients. You walk down a path bordered on both sides with deergrass and rosemary. . . when the door finally opens, the woman standing there yells, at the top of her lungs, Get away from my house! What are you doing in my yard?” (Rankine 18). This quote uses deergrass and rosemary to symbolize the negative preconceptions already planted in people's minds concerning race. Deergrass and rosemary, which are planted on either side of the pathway, are both used to resist deer. They symbolize a “resistance” in people toward another race; a resistance that has been sown long ago. The plants foreshadow the backlash of the therapist, and by shouting at her like she is an animal, the therapist strips away the speaker’s humanity. On page 19, a sculpture by Kate Clark titled Little Girl appears to be a type of deer with the image of a child’s face pasted on the animal's head. Immediately a connection between the previous passage and the figure emerges. The application of a child’s face shows belittlement; the body shows dehumanization. The therapist created, in the narrator, a sense of both belittlement and dehumanization by directly correlating the speaker with adverse predispositions.
Rankine shows, with another deer analogy, the disapproval given by society when one openly conveys upset regarding racism. “To live through the days sometimes you moan like a deer. Sometimes you sigh. The world says stop that. Another sigh. Another stop that. Moaning elicits laughter, sighing upsets,” (Rankine 59). The moaning is simply a common noise made by the deer that can be brushed off by the listener. The noise does not conjure serious emotions, only an unsympathetic laugh. A sigh shows distress, and the distress reveals the corruption of society. The world says to “stop that” because when the corruption is revealed, they are forced to deal with the issue. The American culture pushes for individuals to become accountable for their own worry. “The sighing is a worrying exhale of an ache. You wouldn’t call it an illness; still it is not the iteration of a free being,” (Rankine 60). The narrator explains that a worry is as natural and inevitable as a sigh. A sigh cannot be “the iteration of a free being” because it shows the speaker lives restrained by troubles that they cannot control. “You sit down, you sigh. You stand up, you sigh,” (Rankine 60). This quote indicates that, no matter if one decides to repress their afflictions or outwardly disclose the struggle they endure, they still have the frustration and ache. To imply the worry is a choice, also implies the person who sighs only seeks attention. The world criticizes people who stress because if they can persuade people into believing the issue lies within personal lack of self discipline to ignore worry, everyone else can continue on without thinking about the true corruption happening in society.
The author draws attention to contemplation and stress due to acts of racial microaggression through the comparison between herself and a ruminant animal.

This quote, “What else to liken yourself to but an animal, the ruminant kind?” (Rankine 60), shows how the narrator feels when trivialized by others for worrying about racist comments or actions she has observed or experienced. A ruminant animal, while eating, chews their food, digests it into the first of four chambers, and then regurgitates the food for further chewing. The comparison between the speaker and the ruminant animal not only depicts a feeling of belittlement for reacting to racial injustices, but also a cycle of aggression, stress, disbelief, and silence she endures. Being compared to an animal strips away her relevancy and humanity. The metaphor of a ruminant animal’s digestion cycle allows the speaker to display how she takes in racist acts, digests what has occurred, then “chews” on the issues

again.
The word choice of the “ruminant” animal, harkens back to the Kate Clark’s artwork, pictured on page 19, which causes the reader to become “ruminant” themselves.

When the reader first observes the image, they make an initial judgement about the piece. They might try to decipher what the symbolism behind the sculpture could be, but eventually move on, pushing the image to the back of their mind. Later, when the reader comes across the mention of a ruminant animal on page 60, they are drawn back to the picture. Now the reader will think more deeply about the sculpture, relating it to new found information. Clark’s sculpture is made of infant caribou hide, foam, clay, pins, thread, and rubber eyes. Caribou fall into the category of a ruminant animal and the fusion of the two beings, human and animal, compel the observer to identify what unifies them. The historical self often brought up by the speaker is connected to the animal part of the sculpture because of the oppression and treatment similar to that of livestock during the time of slavery, which serves as a reminder of the past and provoke an assessment of the present. The caribou represents not only ruminant thought and dehumanization, but also the targeting of a race because this animal is commonly hunted. This can additionally relate to the historical self because hunted animals are used to supply the hunter with food and even clothing, similar to how the black slaves were used to support the white community.

The discrimination of race, past and present, is unnatural. The reconstruction of the caribou’s face into that of a human face illustrates this concept. Another piece of symbolism within the child’s face presents the depreciation of the struggles someone of the black race suffers through. After looking into the piece further, you can see it’s polysemy; the contemplation is in the embodiment of a ruminant animal, the belittlement is shown using the child’s face in the sculpture as opposed to an adult’s, targeting and exploitation is represented as the caribou being a hunted animal, and the unnatural form of a human child fused with a caribou body coincides with racial prejudice being something created by society. Rankine’s strategic placement of this quote and art piece are used to draw the reader’s attention to a variety of racial issues.
In conclusion, Rankine has used the symbol of a ruminant animal to convey the suppression of distress caused by racial discrimination along with proving it cannot be controlled or ignored. She not only expresses this through words, but visually with the aide of Kate Clark’s artwork. American culture cannot continue to make racism an individualistic problem. Society created the artificial idea of racism long ago, and it is up to the entirety of this country’s people to begin to untangle what once was.