The Community Behind Invisiblity

The opening story of Claudia Rankine's book, Citizen An American Lyric is a strong, moving beginning. It is a story everyone can identify with, the feeling of being invisible is one every human being has felt at some point in their life. While the book is about the experiences of blacks, specifically black Americans, this opening sequence is universal and sets the book up to make the reader feel like they can identify with it. Everyone who has ever felt invisible, like they are not worth even being seen, knows how much your stomach just crumbles in on itself and everything feels like it just falls apart. The more people treat you as invisible, the more you start to believe that you really are invisible.

Rankine's choice to start the story about invisibility draws the reader into the story and makes them kind of feel bad about themselves and the pain they felt when they went through when they felt invisible. This feeling is especially important for white readers who need to be able to understand, just a little bit, the pain that accompanies being black in America. 

Also the part about invisibility is about the past, is a modern adult lying in bed remembering her childhood years in school when she was invisible. This painful memory still lingers with her, and invades her thoughts when she is so tired that she can barely do anything. This experience was so horrible and painful that it will never leave her. Once again, anyone can probably identify with this constant invasion and is important for Rankine to establish this before starting the rest of her story.