Citizens

Citizen by Claudia Rankine isn't the type of book that I would in my free time, but it did interest me in a couple ways. In one of the poems, there is a racial profiling situation between a neighbor and the speaker's friend. The neighbor assumes that the "menacing black man" pacing in front of the speaker's house is not the "nice young man" he had met before. The speaker and her husband call the friend that they had babysitting at their home and he confirms that he is that man. By that time you could already hear the police sirens in the background because the neighbor had called the police on suspicions. Then the speaker does this:

"Feeling somewhat responsible for the actions of your neighbor, you clumsily tell your friend that next time he wants to talk on the phone he should just go in the backyard. He looks at you a long minute before saying he can speak on the phone wherever he wants. Yes, of course, you say. Yes, of course."

 It brings a new meaning of black people should be able to do things without being blamed or accused. It's unbelievable that he couldn't talk on the phone without almost being arrested just because from far away he looked like a "menacing black man" who was casing a house talking to himself. In what world would it finally be okay for him, a "nice young man" to be able to do simple things without the possibility of him going to jail. That's s world that I would want to live in.