If you’ve never read Citizen by Claudia Rankine, you’re missing out. Not only is this book an excellent account of what it is like to be a POC (person of color) in America, it is also an incredibly relevant text to the U.S. political climate right now. With so much going on relating to race in America right now, it is a must read for any liberal.
After being encouraged to read Citizen by my literary professor, I found that the only way I could digest this complicated text was through written response. Because of my position in society- upper-middle class white- I am in no way able to understand the narrative that Rankine outlines. Through the use of metaphor and juxtaposition, I sought to put into words what I thought her message was. Thus is what follows:
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A sky fades orange to baby blue
From up here, you wouldn’t even know the destruction on the ground
Can’t you see the racist slurs?
Can’t you hear the hate crimes spray-painted across the buildings?
Are the walls getting closer or are you just going insane?
You’re racking your brain for the answers to solve this age-old fight
You’re not at fault, you, you were just raised not knowing what that fault was
Even you still don’t notice it in conversation
Because It Doesn’t Affect You.
It never has and it never will.
But how can you repair a sinking ship with just one piece of chewing gum?
You desperately wish someone would give you the answers to where the chewing gum is, but nobody here has ever seen it at the store
Plus you’d need to buy an entire Wal-Mart filled with chewing gum to fill this crack in the boat
What if it’s too late, and you sink like a rock?
But where is the coast guard?
Or has he not come because he knows even the captain of the boat doesn’t trust him
And the passengers would shout at him from the deck
Because They’d Rather Die Than Be Saved By Him.
But after all the coast guard isn’t so innocent himself,
He’s been known to selectively save certain people
Based on the shrillness of their laughs
He’s been known to hold small children’s heads under water and count to 1,000
Accusations fly in many directions,
Like protons and neutrons in an atom
Like seeing someone you know at the supermarket
A handful of crazy coincidences that form our communities
It’s these communities that created these fights
Pitted tribes against each other
Enslaved millions
Calculated, conniving, and intolerable
Do not tell me that my country is great
It was built on the backs of the abused, tortured, and enslaved
What America fails to realize is that our soil is still soaked with blood and in no way willing to clean it up.
They’d rather have the maid do it.
My hope is that through the opening of minds and public discourse, America will continue to recognize, take responsibility, and make reparations for its atrocious past. Thank you.
