Claudia Rankine Microaggressions

Social injustices plague the world, still to this day. There are few who speak about these unjust cruelties that others face. Those who do, enlighten those who ignore and refuse to acknowledge. In Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine discusses social injustices through her analysis of micro-aggressions.

Microaggressions are intentional and unintentional negative statements or actions done to another, typically having to do with race. The mainstream society puts the impact of microaggressions off and do not acknowledge the cruelty that people of minorities, especially people of color, endure. Rankine puts forth a book filled with examples of injustices that her and her friends face or have faced in their normal, everyday lives.

Rankine describes microaggressions in the lense of second person.

She starts the book by leading the reader to imagine going to a Catholic school. While taking a test, the girl behind asks for “you to lean to the right during exams so she can copy what you have written” (5). She later states how “you smell good and have features more like a white person” as if her relating someone white changes her entire perceived perception (5). This arrangement continues with the teacher never catching them due to the fact that she rarely notices “you”. The fact that children encounter and experience discrimination is preposterous. Being told that “you have features more like a white person” is not a complement. What does looking more like a white person have to do with anything? What even is looking more “like a white

person”?
Another example is being told at an interview that “his dean is making him hire a person of color when there are so many great writers out there” (10). The small actions that one tolerates continues to deepen and widen its impact. This shows how people of color are often being used for statistics. Companies just want to be able to display and prove their diversity through numbers. One’s talent has nothing to do with the hiring and majority of the people in their company do not share the view of everyone having an equal capacity and potential for greatness.
Being the source of blame of others problems. This is put into perspective through the exemplification of a woman talking to another woman of color about her whole family attending this particular college, except for her son. She blamed the woman of color’s acceptance to the college as the reason for her son’s rejection. This example may be small compared to other excuses or explanations for failure because of someone's race. There are many people who critique people of color and find them the reason for all of their problems. There are some who are injured by these people who hold these perspectives. Rankine’s usage of this example brings awareness about the wrongings and encourages the readers to change their views on others.
Traveling does not give one much of a break from society. When traveling on an airplane and black passenger was subjected to discrimination. A lady and her daughter were disappointed with their seating arrangement next to the black passenger. The mother proceeded to sit in the middle in attempt to “protect” her daughter.
Becoming overwhelmed and fed up with the constant injustices that they face just gets interpreted as black anger. Many people are told to grow up and get over it instead of recognizing their faults and attempting to right their wrongs. Rankine gives an example of a woman of color overhearing a white man call black teenage boys “niggers” in a Starbucks. When she responded to his comment stating that he should not “get all KKK on them” because they are just kids, he told her “now there you go” (21). Instead of recognizing his fault and apologizing, he just turns the situation on the woman making it seem that she has just blown things out of proportion.
Rankine lists the names of victims of discrimination and injustice in hopes of the readers learning about them and their stories, as many of their stories are not shared by the mainstream media. This further implements the concept of people of colors voices are muted and ignored. Their stories are not of importance to many.
These negative views that people hold carry out into their adulthood and get passed down to their offsprings.

This causes negative views to continuously brew and adapt. With children being taught stereotypes, bias cloud many’s judgements and being to deepen over time. This many cause injustice in the police force, media, and personal lives. Children following their parents footsteps allow for other children to be hurt. The negativity that the youth undergo can be extremely damaging and led them to feel lost and stuck in stereotypes.

Rankine discusses Serena Williams quite a few times in the text. She alludes to William’s strength in fighting against the social and racial injustices that she has encountered and her ability to overcome them all. Serena plays and competes in a white dominated game. Throughout her tournaments, she has suffered several incorrect calls and fouls due to the color of her skin. When letting her frustrations getting the best of her and speaking out against the incorrect judgement, Serena was labeled as an angry black woman mixed with other

stereotypes.
Aside from the horrible commentators, Serena was humiliated by a fellow competitor, Caroline Wozniacki. Wozniacki stuffed her “top and shorts” with towels to imitate Serena. This was viewed as something all in good fun and playful. If this were to have taken place the other way around, there is a low probability of the reaction being viewed as playful.
By the end of the book, the readers feel the frustration, worthlessness, hurt and invisibility that the victims and minority community feel. Rankine attempted and succeeded to bring awareness about the injustices that the people of color face. Through her usage of “you” puts the reader in the victims shoes and allows for the readers to feel the pent up frustration. Rankine further implemented her argument of injustice through the minimal color of black in her book. She proves how minorities are overpowered and overwhelmed by white, like the pages in the book. Rankine hopes that through the reader's understanding how detrimental microaggressions are to one’s life, injustices will slowly deteriorate. Citizen is not meant to be deracinated, instead to be used as a lesson.