Vengeance

"And there is no (Black) who has not felt, briefly or for long periods, with anguish sharp or dull, in varying degrees and to varying effect, simple, naked and unanswerable hatred; who has not wanted to smash any white face he many encounter in a day, to violate, out of motives of the cruelest vengeance... to break the bodies of all white people and bring them low, as low as the dust into which he himself has been and is being trampled..." (124).

When reading the book, Citizen, I found this quote very powerful and strong. I believe  that a person should not feel this way towards a group of people. The people Rankine describes should not feel this way at all. Where has the world come in terms of race to allow this to enter the minds of the victims who are being mistreated ? Of course after centuries of being hated, the people Rankine has describe does feel this way.
The first half of this quote, it describes the pain felt from being hated. The people who felt pain at one point wanted to get vengeance in the cruelest way. To put the white people who hated them in their shoes, to show them how they felt, how they were mistreated, how angry and hurtful it was for them. This quote give us clue to how they feel, that we may have not recognize due to the fact we never had to deal with an issue like this, that is why it is so powerful. The audience is given the perspective of those who felt the anguish pain of being who they are and how they feel. Rankine has done a great job to express the feelings of the people she describes in her book and this quote is one of her most powerful quotes.