Citizen and Poetry

At first glance, both on the inside and the outside, Citizen, by Claudia Rankine, doesn't seem like poetry. But, once you start reading, it is clear that it couldn't, and shouldn't, be anything else. She is trying to tackle one of the biggest problems in America right now, and poetry is certainly the right way to do so. Poetry allows an author to embed a multitude of different and complex messages within a few short, but powerful, lines. This allows the reader to fully experience life through the eyes of someone else, not just as a passive, indifferent observer. With an issue like race and racism, it is extremely important to remember that real people are affected by it every day and Claudia Rankine does an amazing job preserving the human aspect of this problem while still making a commentary about the issue on a more broad level.