Satire

Through the past decades' people of color, men and women have been subjected to the ideology that they are superior to another, black men and women are oftentimes based on the shade of their skin. It is commonly seen on social media, pictures of light skin vs. dark skin - at the bottom “Darkskins winning”, “ Darkskins ain’t got nothing on Light Skinned”, “I want mixed babies” or “If only she was lighter”- etc with heart eye emojis next to it. The plague of colorism was invented by colonization of white men, commonly slave masters that gave lighter slaves better jobs, such as working in the kitchen, maids, or nannies - their darker sibling, cousin, mother, and our father worked in the harsh fields. As children, they grew up to know that depending on their complexion where they’d be placed in society. Society still values this ideology today, with this societal biased on the rise, there has been an increasing number of fetish for one shade out of the spectrum of beauty.

More often than not, many Black men and women have experienced the murky and heavy effects of colorism. Daughters using lighter dolls to show a standard of Eurocentric beauty;the darker dolls to be ugly and dirty. The concern during pregnancy, darker mothers rubbing their bellies thinking what will their child’s hair texture be like? Or their eye color, or skin? At the hospital, their jaw drops when they receive a fair child with brown hair. As their child grows up, they pray they don't turn against them to lighter roots, and never to sep in the brown soil they were conceived in.

My design will end this worry, and only provide the unbiased beauty of character. A guaranteed strategy to cure all the consequences of colonization and fetishizing. Throughout the years, I have tried to be complacent, but the media shows no remorse or much change. We have tried to show all complexions are beautiful, but black children are still troubled- they look in the mirror and say “I’ve always been black and ugly¨. It is repulsive to know how important skin color is in our society. In my experience, I’ve known people to bleach their skin just to fit in, and feel beautiful. My idea might be the only way to save us from the chance of a race going to war within itself. We must start by temporarily going blind. This can be achieved with your God given limbs. I’ve tried it myself actually, my favorite method is using my thumb and finger pressing on the bone of the eye socket, soon you’ll be able to experience a perfect vision of beauty. There are several benefits of us going blind.

You can now walk around and actually learn a person’s personality, their goals, and interests. With this in mind, everyone will benefit, especially your black male friend who offensively says the common cheer ¨I prefer Light Skinned girls¨.This should also give light to the issues other people of the color face within themselves. No more race wars, like really imagine not having to debate about race issues in class without someone saying “Wow, I really, like feel like… black people should work on black on black crime." If we temporarily blind ourselves we can just ignore the issues of colorism all together, and the close relationship it has with racism. By ignoring them, we will no longer have to worry about the damaging results, to ourselves and our future.

Colorism and Beloved

When Denver goes to ask Lady Jones for help. Toni Morrison reveals that Lady Jones dislikes her light complexion and blond hair. Her features, at the time, could only be accomplished by rape.  Her features are a constant reminder of what everyone in her community ran away from. In that way, she feels alienated from her community

Today, the black women that society deems "most beautiful"  have the same features that Lady Jones has. This is because are visually closer to what society deems as true beauty, whiteness. While light skin women during Lady Jones' and now feel isolated from the black community, they benefit from their features in both black and non-black spaces. Within the black community, colorism (prejudice against those of a darker skin tone, typically among people of the same race) runs rapidly. Light skin black women are viewed as more docile and feminine. Conversely, dark skin black women are seen as rough and masculine. Because of this, light skin black women are more acceptable and "wife-able" in a society where marriage is the only goal women should. 

I understand that Toni Morrison was trying to get at a particular point by talking about Lady Morrison's light complexion. I which that she would have also included the struggle that dark skin black women in the novel because it is a very important part of our history.

Adjectives Defining Identity

In Beloved, Tony Morrison masterfully tells the story of life after slavery in a haunting manner. In addition to her literary techniques, Morrison's language surrounding race and identity caught my eye.

Throughout the novel, the color of one's skin is always tied into the person it describes. For example, Amy is a "whitegirl" and the house on Bluestone Road is in a "colouredpeople" neighborhood.

Although Morrison's deliberate combination of the two words makes perfect sense seeing as how race defines your position in society, I've never seen an author do this before. Subtle yet striking, this combination contributes to the author's depiction of identity where slaves are animals and stripped of agency. Denver isn't just a girl, she's a colouredgirl. Amy isn't just a girl, she's a whitegirl.

With this technique, there's no way to truly escape how society defines you. Whether you're free and just beginning to exert your power in the world, like Sethe attempting to murder all or her children, or if you're attempting to find some humanity in your enslavement, like Paul D and the bit, you're stuck in your own skin, haunted by the past, and powerless.

What do White People ACTUALLY Know About Black People?

The thing about a book like Citizen is that in theory is a nice book. But in actuality it isn’t. The book give a light glimpse of black life. It it only feeds into the one negative the black women live this side life filled with filled with racial adversity. And as a black women, I believe I can say we are more than this. What about your first love? Your first heartbreak? First swim of the summer? Failing a test? All of this thing make up a person and I do not believe this book helps capture this much need picture. Growing up I never saw this images of black women.

This thought bring up one question for me, What do non-black people actually know about black people? The answer to that is very little if anything. The one lens they are shown in classrooms and in the media is a stereotypical. Black people are never aloud to be well rounded characters. Instead they are the butt of jokes about how "ghetto", that character is. Where are the black girl next door characters? Where are the dark skin black characters? Where are the 'strong black leades' (as Netflix calls them)? What lacks is lacking in Citizen is the ability for black people to be who they are, people.

Angry Black Women

Quotes from Claudia Rankine's Citizen

“A friend tells you he has seen a photograph of you on the Internet and he wants to know why you look so angry. You and the photographer chose the photograph he refers to because you both decided it looked the most relaxed. Do you look angry?... Obviously this unsmiling image of you makes him uncomfortable, and he needs you to account for that.”

__

“For Serena, the daily diminishment is a low flame, a constant drip. Every look, every comment, every bad call blossoms out of history, through her, onto you. To understand is to see Serena as hemmed in as any other black woman thrown against our American background.” 

Our society has the tendency to label African American women “angry black women” as soon as we are no longer able to keep quiet despite the constant scrutiny and judgement we face in our day to day lives. Some people group all African American women as always being upset: waiting to yell and hit someone or resorting to violence over small inconveniences. In my own experience, people have made comments about me like “she looks like she’s about to fight you” just because of my facial expression or because I am disagreeing with someone. I know my character, and I know that I wouldn’t cause harm to anyone over something small but it seems like other people envision me to be that way because of my race and gender. 

This stereotype also ties into Serena. She was labeled an angry black woman by the press because of her response to a referee who she believed was making unfair calls. Other races and genders are able to express their distress about certain events, but when Black women do, we are seen as extremely violent; and others think we need to calm down and suppress our emotions. 

This “angry black woman” stereotype is unfair. Our anger and emotions are not unwarranted and we should have the freedom to react to the issues that we believe hinder on our well being. 

Documentary and Citizen

Considering everything that’s going on with our school right now, I was forced to think of the documentary while reading parts one and two. While watching the documentary I found myself in periods of shock when hearing about some of the black student’s experiences. I also experienced this while reading.

The one story about her walking to her therapist’s office for the first time really struck me. I just couldn’t understand how a professional environment could make such a ridiculous, and racist mistake. The person on the house didn’t even think twice about what they were doing. Even though they eventually apologized for the mistake, it is clear they did not learn what they needed to and they are likely to do the same thing again. I also thought about how this person could live the rest of their life, never being bothered by this situation. But I cannot begin to imagine what repeated activity like this might do to a person of color.

This passage and the many others in the book made me so angry and confused. Living the privileged life I do, I am not forced to see these instances. Therefore, I have begun to believe that we as a society are improving in this department. I was sadly mistaken. I know I will learn a lot from this book as well as the documentary. I am disappointed in myself for believing that things were better than they are, and for not attempting to learn more about the reality of racism in our society today.

How Rankine’s Ideas in “Citizen” are Presented in the Podcast "Serial"

Throughout Claudia Rankine’s novel, “Citizen: and American Lyric”, she presents the reader with everyday microaggressions that she faces as a black individual in America. The podcast Serial presents these same microaggressions and the effects of them in terms of a larger system: The criminal courts of America.

Sara Koenig explores the deep-seeded racial prejudice in our judicial system, from judges, to lawyers, to defendants. The “code-switching” that Claudia Rankine speaks on in her novel is reflected through the language of judge Gaul in the podcast. Gaul regularly refers to, “baby-daddys”  and assumes a fatherless past of many of the defendants that enter his court. His rulings reflect his views and he consistently makes suggestions of punishments that are blatantly unconstitutional. He often employs the threat of jail if the defendant decides to have another child, assuming that the defendant will leave the child eventually. He then puts them under probation, securing an omnipresent white gaze over their black body.

Rankine explores other ways in which black people are defined by the white spaces that they often inhabit. This takes form in the criminal justice building in the podcast Serial, and the way that prosecutorial staffs operate in the building. Prosecutors often employ certain tactics to prevent a change in the system. Specific charges that prosecutors pursue discourage defendants from suing the state if they believe that they have been wrongfully convicted, but instead encourages taking a plea deal. The podcast details how taking a plea is seen as a victory in the courts even if the defendant did not commit the crime in question. The prosecutors also employ racially charged language that raises specific racial perceptions of African Americans to try and influence a jury. Phrases such as, “reached towards his waistband” reinforce ideas about African Americans being dangerous and threatening officers, therefore justifying the police officer’s actions of force that are presented in the show.

Both the novel and the podcast then continue the conversation about race through art. Rankine has a series of art pieces throughout the book that support the ideas written about in the text. Similarly, the podcast uses art to redefine the spaces that are spoken about throughout the show. On their website, www.serialpodcast.org, they digitally recreate the spaces in the show with art added onto the building, redefining the spaces. Often times these were spaces that were largely defined by a white presence, but through the addition of art, the spaces are transformed into critiques of the spaces and beautiful representations of injustice in our country.

Claudia Rankine’s depictions of microaggressions provide a close-up view of daily life for many African-Americans. Though these experiences can seem small and contained to the individual, Serial provides examples of how these microaggressions can sneak their way into our institutions, and result in macro consequences.

Let's Talk About Race

When discussing Citizen by Claudia Rankine, our class had trouble starting the conversation. When we did being the discussions, it felt sparse and surface-level regarding both the content and literary architecture of the essays or poems.

We mentioned how the diversity, or lack thereof, in our classroom as well as the idea that the AP Literature class is a white space impacts how we discuss the book's content. One point we never finished talking about was the discomfort of being white and how this leads to withdrawing participation in fear of saying something wrong.

Although I understand this point of view, it is crucial to speak up, even if you "say something wrong." Part of the point of discussing race is to overcome prejudices and to teach others about non communal experiences. If we are to make progress in the race conversation, then we need to educate each other - which I felt we lacked during this unit.

If you're white, you will never understand the discrimination that minorities do. It is simply impossible because experiences shape us into who we are and our belief systems. When people who aren't white open up about their experiences, they are not inviting your pity or apologies. Instead, your job is to realize your own inherent prejudices and to encourage introspection in those who are unaware of their own biases.

The fear of being labeled racist, which has such a negative connotation, and rightly so, prevents constructive conversation. Last year, I read Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum. She argued that the term "racism" should be defined as a system of advantage based on race. Although I don't necessarily agree with this definition, it would certainly aid people in speaking up.

So, let's talk about race.

Cultural Appropriation In Oak Park, One Of The Most Progressive Neighborhoods

In Claudia Rankine's Citizen, Rankine often shares small anecdotes in order to create an image to get her point across. Some of the images she creates are extremely relatable to me, and I can picture them perfectly, even in my community.

At the beginning of Section III, a friend of the narrator calls her a “nappy-headed ho” (41). This shocks the narrator, because her friend had never talked in what she calls “black people language.” The friend seems to have adjusted her language based on her surroundings, which is something I see all the time in my community. For example, I see white kids, who hang around black kids, try and act like they are black, similar to the friend in Section III. This includes using what Rankine calls “black people language,” which unfortunately includes the n-word. I’ve heard too many white kids say the n-word, thinking it’s okay because they are friends with black people. Because of their surroundings, they adapt and change who they are. I believe that changing the way you act, talk, and carry yourself because of the people you are around is wrong, despite almost everyone doing it. I can admit to doing it, just on a lot smaller of a scale. I act very differently around my friends than around my parents. It’s just a matter of when it becomes offensive, which is what Rankine is trying to expose. Cultural appropriation is a thing, however there are levels to how offensive it is. I believe Rankine is trying to inform society about how common this problem is, and how it often goes unnoticed. The problem seems to be getting worse, and I see it almost everyday, even in a very progressive community.

Mixed Race Persons in America

In class, we were talking about how in America, we often limit our conversation on race to just two races, black and white. This means that a number of groups are excluded from this conversation.

As someone who is both black and white, I have witnessed this dichotomy in my everyday life. I feel that common misconception about mixed race persons is that they are two races, when I often feel like I can only be one or the other. This strict grouping in America that tells us we are either black or white can leave the rest of us who are neither or both wondering where they fit in.

I make this point to emphasize the fact that we need to recognize that not everyone is black or white. Many people are neither, and many are both. We need to acknowledge this and incorporate these peoples into our conversations about race and American society. We exist, and we deserve recognition.

Getting to the Point

Citizen describes an incident in which a white man overlooked the narrator (a black woman) in a drugstore (pg.77). The passage itself was interesting to me because I am not totally sure if the events described are racially motivated or not. I feel that in some ways this reflects much of the Black experience because a key component of racism is erasure, or making Black people feel that their experiences aren’t valid or even real sometimes. The ambiguity of the scene itself speaks to that I believe.

Our in class discussion was interesting to me because of what I perceived from many students as a distinct unwillingness to accept that it could have been racially motivated or the idea that if the literal events weren’t racially motivated there wasn’t a “point”. I think that Citizen should be evaluated a work of literature. If we as English students can accept without question the at times dubious symbolism of every 19th and 20th century white author as fact, why must we challenge the symbolism when it comes to Claudia Rankine? To me in some ways this discussion was a reminder of the subtle erasure that I think is the “point” of the passage.

Not Your Job

“Memory is a tough place. You were there” (Rankine, 64).

This is nothing new to you. You’ve seen this before. You’ve breathed this before. You’ve felt that. And that. And everything they think you haven’t. You have.

You wish it was different. You know that that is just your excuse. For what?

Inaction. Passivity. Willful ignorance.

Funny. That reminds you of “Willful Obstruction.” Obstruction of what? Beyond police officers, perhaps those around you are willfully obstructing justice. There are no innocent bystanders. Silence isn't simple. "Willful Obstruction." Isn't that a felony? How would you know?

You know.

What even is a felony? What applies to your brothers and sisters might mean nothing more than a warning to the girl in your math class.

You know this. Your TV knows it. Your eyes and ears and mouth and hands and toes know it. Your memory knows itself. Your memory's job is essentially to never forget. It’s a trap, a prison. The whole damn thing.

And no, for God’s sake, you don’t want to read about it and talk about it over and over with people who don’t actually care to acknowledge that your life is real and valid. Your life -- and your experiences. Of course, that’s what you meant. You sometimes forget that people don't always see the correlation. You’re sorry you didn’t clarify.

Reading and rereading your experiences is like the universe giving power to your memory. Don’t they know how hard you’ve worked to move forward from that, rather than backward? You know they do, and you know they also do not at the same time. You know they don’t understand that concept, and you know that you won’t ever be able to get them to understand it. Understand you.

You.

You’re here. You were there, but you're still there. You're here. You’re real. Tell yourself over and over. What happened was real. What’s happening is real. Don’t they know? No. And it isn’t your job to teach them.

Writing in the Second Person

I have never felt invisible in the sense of race, I am a privileged white girl. I feel invisible in situations, for example, classes when all of the other students are smarter than me and every time I have tried to raise my hand the teacher skips me. Or this summer when I went to New York alone I didn’t know anyone, I would walk the streets alone or get coffee at a place I have never been before and every face was unknown. Nobody looked or cared about me, nobody knew my name. More importantly, nobody cared. I am not saying that here people stare at me and care but when I go running or go get coffee I recognise people and people recognise me. New York was a different type of alone but I liked it. Everyone was alone, I didn’t know anybody so I didn’t feel the pressure to do/act/dress in a certain way other than I wanted too. Which is weird, because I brought back some of those tendencies here and my friends have commented on how I dress differently when to me its just what I decided to wear. So, below is me writing like Claudia Renkin in the 2nd person.

You’re walking down the street to go to your 8:45 AM class. You reach into your back pocket and grab your phone. 8:36. Crap and your casual stroll turn into a “New Yorkers” walk. Which to anyone outside of New York, it is a speed walk or even an awkward looking jog. The beautiful thing about rush hour mornings is the crisp air. The cool wind tickles at your arm hair and the back of your dress flies up with every fast-paced step. To-go cup of coffee in one hand, you can feel your coffee move as your speed increases, trying to balance the beverage before it spills. You see three other people doing the same thing, you start to think you fit in.

What the magic is about New York is, especially at rush hour, is that everyone is the same and everyone is equal. The world is rushing somewhere whether that is home, work, the subway or actually running. You are alone, but you don't’ feel lonely. Everyone around you is alone. Nobody is staring at you, and you aren't staring at anybody. Everyone is fully focused on themselves. You’re all alone but you’re doing it together all focused on how you’re going to make it through the day.

New York surprisingly is the quietest city you know. Only among a million beating hearts could you still hear a cigarette burn on a balcony in Brooklyn.

Who is to blame for racism in the United States

I am not here to point a finger at any particular person our group, and trust me there are many people to blame for racist beliefs that have ran through America since it was formed. In my eyes racism is never going to end until we stop pointing fingers, and come together as a whole.

A song and video that has stuck with me since it came out last year was ¨I´m not Racist¨ by Joyner Lucas. If you have heard the song, I hope you were as moved by it as I was, and if you haven´t heard it then you really should give it a listen (and watch). Half of the 7 minute song is a racist white man wearing a MAGA hat spitting racial slurs left and right at a young black man who just sits there and listens. Then the white man stops and give the black man a chance to say his side of the story. After about 3 minutes of the black man saying his perspective on racism and culture and America, the two come together and hug it out vouching to understand each others side and work together to end racism.

I think the message of the song is the answer to stop racism in America. People on both sides need to stop blaming the other, and everyone needs to come together as a group. If each side feels attacked by the other then there will never be progress.

Welcome!

Welcome to the weblog for our AP Literature class  -- the place where we will be continuing conversations from class and starting new ones. We'll be discussing and debating literary conundrums, the meaning of life, and so much more. We might even see a little poetry.

So, what's a blog? And how will we be using it class? For information on blogging and how to join and post to our blog, see "All About Blogging."

We're looking forward to a great year.

Make sure you check your e-mail for your invitation to join the blog. Also – and this is very important – the first step you should take after you accept the invitation is to edit your user profile so that you control how your identity and your communication preferences.  Click on the pull-down menu next to your name in the upper right corner of the browser and click on “Blogger Profile.” Then click on “Edit Profile.”

You can fill out as much of it as you want, but the only requirement is -- under “Identity” -- make sure your “Display name” is your first name and last initial only -- so we provide some anonymity while still allowing your classmates and teacher to be able to identity who you are. For example, change “Bernie Heidkamp” to “Bernie H.”

Negrotown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg58d8opQKA
(Won't allow you to access from school account)
Key & Peele have done dozens of skits making fun of race in America, but I believe there was no bigger or better skit than, "Negrotown". If you've never seen the sketch, Key is stopped by the police for being black, he hits his head on the car door as the policeman shoves him into the back, and he's then sent into a fictitious place where every grievance black people have due to race is rectified. What is immediately hilarious is the list of struggles/annoyances that black people endure, that maybe no white person would know. For example, the inability to get a cab, or getting approved for a loan, or how white people love to touch black people's hair. These are things that white people may know but many don't. What's interesting is how they weave in the obvious things, like being able to wear your hoodie and not get shot. This is a use of satire because just hearing it, it sounds hyperbolic. But really it's not an exaggeration at all. The ridiculousness of the sentence itself is a reflection of how ridiculous and racist America is.

However, the most ironic part of the entire skit is how white it looks and sounds. I am no music or dance expert, but black people don't sing or dance like that. It's ironic because when you think of a black utopia that "Negrotown" is supposed to be, those wouldn't be the images or sounds you would probably think of, or at least I wouldn't. But what's even more interesting, that I never noticed until I looked at it closely, is the subtle hints or black cultural images that they throw in. While you're watching Jordan Peele teach Keegan-Michael Key about "Negrotown", I'm sure you didn't notice the men in the back who are wearing dashikis. Or the two teenagers shake hands like Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff do on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Or while at the end when everyone in the street is doing possibly the whitest dance ever, there are about 4 people on the side doing different black dances. And while they all do their dances, they end at the same point, united, with their fists in the air. It something that I didn't notice at first, but it perfectly caps off a hilarious yet serious reflection of race in America.

"The Office" Satire: Diversity Day

The entire basis of the show The Office is satirically criticizing the everyday experiences of the American workplace. A particularly keen example of the show's use of satire is apparent in one of the first episodes aired, titled "Diversity Day", in which a company enforces a day in which the office celebrates and learns about diversity and the different cultures of minorities in the office. Despite having hired a group leader to educate the employees, the racially ignorant and offensive manager of the office takes over the training and flips a would be helpful day into a place to insult and offend minorities in any way he could think of. The satire of this episode is apparent because it communicates that when we try to discuss the racial and ethnic stigmas and issues prevalent in our society, the conversation is often taken over by white people and makes the problem worse. Additionally, he "diversity day" the company enforced brought attention to people's tensions and prejudices without actually solving any of the problems, consequently only making people uncomfortable and reinforcing a somewhat volatile work environment. The audience of the show is therefore unconsciously educated about the problems we have with racial discussions today and given an example of what not to do.

General Thoughts on Citizen

I'm going to open this by saying that I am not good with poetry. Since middle school started to make poetry more of a task than a fun way to express myself, I've turned away from the medium for better or worse. However, Citizen is a key exception. While I may not be able to grasp all the meaning that Claudia Rankine has carefully placed into the page (for example, when she talks about using I,) but I can understand more than enough. This book, collection of poems, whatever you want to call it really, is an experience. While I may have reactions to other books I've read, Citizen brings out a much deeper response. This book, more than any other has managed to give a clear idea of what it is like to be the "other."

When we talk about binaries, we usually split things into the "us," and the "other." The idea is that binaries exist because in order to define ourselves, we must first set a group as the "other" in order to more clearly define ourselves. Usually binaries will get stuck as they are because of an inability for one group to really empathize with, see through the eyes of, and recognize the other group. Depending on who you are, Citizen fixes that issue. I am white, and Citizen very quickly and very effectively gave me an idea of what it is like to be an African American surrounded by white people.

Something that I thought was interesting was how Rankine kept coming back to how the white backdrop emphasized color. (Maybe not those exact words, but something close to it.) It makes me think of my hometown and how in many places, its very uniform. We have a decent amount of diversity here, but there are still some problems, and as some of my older teachers said, you can know whether a class is AP or not just looking at the kids in the class. There are problems all through the US with racism, and before anyone says "Hey! You're wrong! Things are better than they were!" I just have to say that a lot of the issues have just become more invisible. People are (supposed to be) on their best behavior in public, being sure not to offend anyone, and so we aren't made aware of the problems. Additionally, how can you know if society has planted subconscious racist patterns? I think that the unconscious programmer is the greatest threat at the moment. It's a hard issue to fix, but books like Citizen can help to spread awareness and show people the do's and don'ts so that everyone can get along better. Hopefully eventually a resolution will be reached, and Citizen  is the book to get the ball rolling.

Yes, And?

Claudia Rankine is an astounding writer with incredible skill, whose work is so rich in meaning that it may be impossible to discover all the intent put into her work. While reading Rankine's Citizen, I was caught up on the meaning of one seemingly insignificant phrase: "Yes, and". It is first introduced in a passage early on in the book. Rankine writes:

You are reminded of a conversation you had recently, comparing the merits of sentences constructed implicitly with "yes, and" rather than "yes, but". You and your friend decided that "yes, and" attested to a life with no turn-off, no alternative routes (8). 

She returns to the phrase on the following page, remarking, "Yes, and it's raining" at the start of a passage which finishes with, "And as light as the rain seems, it still rains down on you" (9). The rain is a fairly evident metaphor for racism, with even the 'light' microaggressions still affecting people's daily lives. Paired with the previous explanation of "yes, and" the phrase appears to become a reminder of the way racism is truly ingrained into society and the lives of citizens. Racism has no turn-offs, no alternative routes; people of color and specifically black people have no choice but to face racism head on.

This explanation of the phrase's meaning seems to make sense for many of its next uses. It appears again on pages 16, 17, and 43 as part of separate small anecdotes of microaggressions, on pages 28, 29, 31, and 33 during the analysis of Serena Williams as well as page 62 during a reference to that same tennis match. Though some uses of the phrase are incredibly poignant, such as, "Yes, and the body has memory" on page 28; others are seemingly random inserted in the passage. This is not to say they are not impactful - they serve as consistent reminders that racism is unavoidable, but I cannot but help but wonder why Rankine chose those exact moments to give that reminder.

The phrase then disappears for over 100 pages as the book transitions from structured to abstract, from displaying racism to living it. It finally reappears again on page 151, once Rankine has again begun to recount various moments of daily racism. It is contextualized by a commentary on how internalizing racism has become the daily routine, culminating in the statement, "Yes, and this is how you are a citizen" (151). This use is especially significant and thought-provoking as it also includes the title of the book. Twice more the phrase appears, on pages 154 and 156 (note: I may have missed a mention or two, this may not be a complete list).

However, Rankine does an extremely interesting thing on the final page of the novel: she reverses the word order. In her final message to the reader, she states, "And yes, I want to interrupt to tell him her us you me I don't know how to end what doesn't have an ending" (159). This flip appears at (I believe) only one other point in the novel - page 112's opening line: "And yes, the inaudible spreads across state lines". Though the intent of the flip is less clear than that of the phrase use in the first place, it appears to signify an inability to express the racism that is universally felt. Still, I wonder if there is some deeper meaning or purpose to these flips, as I am certain that they were written with painstaking thought and direct intention. A writer such as Rankine would not have let both the motif and its inverting happen by coincidence.

I Am a Citizen, Are You?

Before I even opened the book, I knew that the ideas it was going to explore were relevant to my country and therefore relevant to me. On the cover of Claudia Rankine's literary work, Citizen: An American Lyric, she takes the first step in inviting a white reader to listen to what she has to say.

The first part of the title, Citizen, evokes the idea of belonging in a country: a home country, a place that belongs to your family, your home, your country, you are welcome, you are proud, you belong. What makes someone a citizen? When you think of an American citizen, what image comes to your mind? All citizens have rights under the law, but not really. Not all citizens are treated the same. At the beginning and throughout the whole book, Rankine tells stories of micro-aggressions against black people and about racism on a larger systematic scale. She does bring up the word citizen again towards the end of the book, but by including it in the title, she puts the idea of what it means to be treated like a citizen in the readers mind immediately.

The second part of the title reads, An American Lyric. Before the book is even opened, the reader knows that it is about America as a whole, not a small group or part of America. Rankine makes it clear from the beginning that the stories she is about to tell are American stories. The stories about black people in America apply to all Americans. She forces the reader to realize that that the issues she writes about cannot be ignored. They cannot be put aside in a different category. They are American problems that white Americans need to pay attention to.