2nd Perspective

The 2nd-person perspective it the rarest of all the literary perspective. It is where the speaker talks directly to the reader. The 2nd-person perspective is characterized by the use of the word "you" coming from the speaker directed at the reader. In Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric, the 2nd-person perspective is nearly exclusively used to tell the story of microaggressions and the ways everyday situations are effected by race in America.  The sentence "Despite the fact that you have the same sabbatical schedule as everyone else, her says, you are always ob sabbatical. You are friends so you respond, easy" (47). This sentence is very typical to the book at it is in the 2nd -person. The meaning of this use of perspective is that Rankine is universalizing her experience as a African-American female academic to the reader. Rankine wants the reader to put themselves in these racially charged situations so that the reader \may understand how these small interactions and be interpreted very differently by different types of people. This is specially used for white people reading the book, as most of the misunderstandings throughout by the text are caused by a miscommunication or understanding between a black person and a white person. The audience is also other black people who may have experienced similar situations to the one Rankine describes in her book.