Claudia Rankine

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an internalized liquid smoke blurring ordinary ache. Just this morning another, what did he say? Come on, get back in the car. Your partner wants to face off with a mouth and who knows what handheld objects the other vehicle carries. Trayvon Martin’s name sounds from the car radio a dozen times each half hour. You pull your love back into the seats because though no one seems to be chasing you, the justice system has other plans. Yes, and this is how you are a citizen; Come on. Let it go. Move on. Despite the air-conditioning you pull the button back and the window slides down into its door-sleeve. A breeze touches your cheek. As something should.

I think that Claudia Rankine is touching on the very heavy subject that is being black in America. From the beginning of the book, she lets it be known that this is a series of poems about the oppresses. One poem (pg 52) is a picture that paints, “I do not always feel colored. I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” This is a play on words because she could be talking about people, places and things. She uses the term “white background” very loosely, and the black paint splatter creates imagery that she, (a black woman) is being spread across this canvas and had in any way. This ending section refers back to the rest of the book because it encloses this idea of separation. The mention of Trayvon Martin brings about a sad feel, but as a black person living in America it also brings about memories.

The word ‘Citizen’ is a mockery of what Claudia actually means to say, she believes that black people are not really citizens, so it is interesting that she chooses to title the book so. She basically says that after we hear news like what happened to Trayvon Martin, we let it sink in and we continue on. Now it may be because there might be nothing we can do about it currently, or it may be because it’s the societal norm and America wouldn’t be America without it. You can tell that either way she is a very knowledgeable and empowered woman because of the respectable manner in which she produces her craft.

Although she doesn’t outright say it, you know that she believes what is happening in our society is terribly wrong. One can interpret that she has resentment towards authority, leaning more towards law enforcement and the government. This is inferred because she could have used any word; Civilian, peoples…. She specifically chose the word Citizen because she wants to show that she is against being a citizen of this country. The lifestyle in her hometown of Jamaica is probably quite different because the majority of the population is African American. Claudia Rankine is probably stunned to see the amount of hate towards her own kind in a country that everyone thinks to be so much better than the other. Pages 134-135 display a list of fallen African American citizens, all who have never received justice after being killed by members of law enforcement. The she follows it up with deep words, “because white men can’t police their imagination, black people are dying.” And now we know what it means to be a citizen, while black.