An American Lyric

As far as I can tell, Claudia Rankine's purpose behind Citizen is to capture the frustration and rage of a community that has continued to be ignored and oppressed for generations. I find that her writing of Citizen in the form of a lyric to be the most ideal format for expressing her message. It gives her the freedom to explore a slightly different style and approach in each part. The first part starts with short, stylistic vignettes that built upon each other. While each is obviously just one example of racism being perpetrated, they all display a symptom of a greater issue at work. Furthermore, putting example after example makes it clear that these are more than just isolated incidents, but rather a constant presence.

In the second part Rankine takes a slightly different approach, analyzing Serena William's mistreatment by the tennis community, and defends her angry outburst against a referee. Without the context of her mistreatment, the outburst would come off as crazy, but understanding her history, the outrage seems entirely justified. It was the outrage of a woman tired of being stepped on and ignored by her contemporaries. It took a famous example of black outrage and explained how it came about to help the audience understand how that type of anger would come about.

The style in part 2 reads more like a traditional book than the more poetic prose style that was presented in the first part. That's because the ideas in this part needed more attention and detail to express the message. That being said, the change in style isn't abrasive, it feels very natural. Because Rankine presents Citizen in lyrics, she can jump around to many different styles and subjects depending on how much detail is needed. It gives her freedom to express a plethora of ideas in different ways without the tone shifts ever distracting too much from her actual message.