Claudia Rankine Citizen Summary

In “Citizen” by Claudia Rankine, she discusses and uses film scripts that relate to blacks’ incidents. Rankine writes the story of “Jena Six” case where six black students at Jena High School who were convicted of beating a white student. Rankine asserts: “Boys will be boys feeling their capacity heaving butting heads righting their wrongs in the violence of aggravated adolescence...the fists the feet criminalized already are weapons already exploding the landscape and then the litigious hitting back is life imprisoned.” (Rankine 101). This portrays that sometimes there is a circumstance where boys are fighting into another and that is normal, but in this case, it shows that there is injustice where life imprisoned is the punishment for six

black boys because of fist fighting. According to the article of “We need to educate the media” by James Fox, Fox cites that “Jena Six” case as an example of a prosecutor’s abuse power where media willingly accepts as true claims. Fox states: “We need to educate the media, and ultimately the public whom we serve, that we seek justice, which necessarily means all people are treated equally, regardless of race.” This shows that the media should look for a strong evidence before they published it in public where they take the pros and cons of the victims.

It also means that if people take both sides of the victims, it will show the equality where people respect both sides’ opinions. There should be no exception or favoring which side they are interviewing or taking sides. In addition, Rankine mentions the story of “Stop-and-Frisk” where police officers stop and question blacks or people of color because of suspicious acting and something related to their race, even though they are not doing anything wrong. Rankine shows how these police officers stop blacks and make up some reasons to arrest them. Rankine says: “And you are not the guy and still you fit the description because there is only one guy fitting the description.” (Rankine 105) This indicates that even though that some blacks do not fit in the description, they still get stop and question based on their skin

color. According to the article of “Black and Hispanic Men Perceived to Be Large Are at Increased Risk for Police Frisk, Search, and Force” by Milner, George and Allison, they state: “An officer's perception of the size of a suspect-and thus of the potential physical danger posed by that suspect-may be influenced by the suspect's race, independent of actual size.

Size, like beauty, may be in the eyes of the beholder.” This means that police officers mostly questioned or arrested blacks because they think that blacks consider as a dangerous person where they might commit crimes every time they see one. In this case, there is racial discrimination where they judge blacks based on skin color and they think that blacks are the same. Furthermore, the picture that I will analyze is the incident in “Stop-and-Frisk” on page 110-111 of the book. This picture shows that these black men will always be the suspect for doing suspicious thing or crime where the police will stop and question them. Even though they are not doing anything wrong, the police will always make an excuse or reason why they fit in the description. These black men will always be the victim of “stop-and-frisk”

policy.
In “Black Movie” by Danez Smith, Smith expresses the life experience of blacks through poems. He uses some emotionally powerful and useful evidence of the black lives. He covers the theme of lost childhood, pain, mortality, death and race that is related to blacks experience. Some emotions that the speaker expresses are sympathy, anger and sad as he writes these poems. Smith is sad, concern and angry as he writes these poems because of the continuing same incidents that blacks experiences. He shows that blacks do not commit justice, equality and fair treatment as they live in this society. The quote that stands on me most is where he writes “Dear America.” Smith asserts: “We did not build your boats (though we did leave a trail of kin to guide us home)...We did not ask to be part of your America, (though are we not America? Her joints brittle & dragging a ripped gown through Oakland?). (Smith 34) It portrays that blacks seem that they are always the victim in crimes, even though they are innocent. In addition, he states: “Each night, I count my brothers. & in the morning, when some do not survive to be counted, I count the holes they leave. (Smith 34) It shows that every time there would be always an incident where blacks are the victim and some of them die without committing justice. Moreover, an example that I would analyze is “Not an elegy for Mike Brown.” Smith states: “You get when you are looking at your child, turn your head, then, poof, no more child. That feeling that’s black.” (Smith 21) It explains that the incident that blacks experiencing are also passed down to their children because people will also judge them as one of ordinary blacks where people judge their skin color. It also shows that blacks are always experiencing the same pain over and over again as a child and as they grow old.
In “Citizen” and “Black Movie” discusses the same experience as blacks face in the United States or in the society where blacks are always the bad victims or considered as dangerous person into people’s eyes. They both state different incidents of blacks’ experience, but the same plot where blacks are always the victim of doing suspicious things. Even though they are innocent, blacks still get arrested in the most part of cases. In the books of Rankine and Smith, they both portray the messages of the blacks’ experiences where blacks are always the bad victims in most cases, such as in sports, stop-and-frisk policy, media, school and in anywhere, but they expresses black lives experiences in terms of racism differently where Rankine shows it through images and artwork while Smith shows it through powerful poems, such as A History of Violence in the Hood, Dear White America and Dinosaurs in the Hood; they both show that racism should end, so that blacks or people of color will experience equality, justice and freedom without having fear to face some obstacles in their life; and there are following references that prove that racism still exists and the cycle of racial discrimination for black does not stop as Rankine and Smith portray in their books.