Sigh....

In Citizen, Rankine discusses the involuntary pulse of sighing. She states, "The sigh is the pathway to breath; it allows breathing. That's just self-preservation. No one fabricates that. You sit down, you sigh. You stand up, you sigh. The signing is a worrying exhale of an ache." (60) I think this is very poetic because Rankine describes something all individuals do daily regardless of who you are. Also, she describes a universal action in a concise and clear way. It reminded me of all the sighing I have done while reading this book. While reading, it makes me sad and angry of all the prevalent examples of racism apparent in our society. One of the examples that made me deeply sigh was the story of the neighbor who called the police because they saw the owners' of the house black friend. In the text it states, "Your neighbor tells you he is standing at his window watching a menacing black guy casing both your homes... You tell your neighbor that your friend, whom he has met, is babysitting. He says, no, it's not him. He's met your friend and this isn't that nice young man." (15) Eventually, the neighbor calls the police. This made me so upset. The neighbor believed that could not be the couple's friend because he is black. In addition, the neighbor attributes nice and friendly to white people and "menacing" (15) to black people. Also, he thought the friend was a threat because he "seemed disturbed. " (15) This is so messed up. It is ridiculous the neighbor still called the police even when the couple said the guy in their house was their friend: that is beyond racist and prejudice... Anyways, I appreciate Rankine implementing different types of racism in her book to make readers well-informed about the prevailing racial discrimination toward black and African-American individuals.