Before I even opened the book, I knew that the ideas it was going to explore were relevant to my country and therefore relevant to me. On the cover of Claudia Rankine's literary work, Citizen: An American Lyric, she takes the first step in inviting a white reader to listen to what she has to say.
The first part of the title, Citizen, evokes the idea of belonging in a country: a home country, a place that belongs to your family, your home, your country, you are welcome, you are proud, you belong. What makes someone a citizen? When you think of an American citizen, what image comes to your mind? All citizens have rights under the law, but not really. Not all citizens are treated the same. At the beginning and throughout the whole book, Rankine tells stories of micro-aggressions against black people and about racism on a larger systematic scale. She does bring up the word citizen again towards the end of the book, but by including it in the title, she puts the idea of what it means to be treated like a citizen in the readers mind immediately.
The second part of the title reads, An American Lyric. Before the book is even opened, the reader knows that it is about America as a whole, not a small group or part of America. Rankine makes it clear from the beginning that the stories she is about to tell are American stories. The stories about black people in America apply to all Americans. She forces the reader to realize that that the issues she writes about cannot be ignored. They cannot be put aside in a different category. They are American problems that white Americans need to pay attention to.
I really like how you say that just by the title of the book you know that somehow you connected to it, we all can connect to it. I think that's what makes citizen a good poetry book because Rankine writes in a way that makes the reader connect to the story. She doesn't just tell you about race in America but she illustrates it for you, shows you what it looks like.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the title proves the book should be relevant to and discussed by everyone who is a citizen, especially an American one. I found it is also interesting that it is called an American lyric, as we are talking about the poetry of song lyrics. Not only do lyrics convey poetry, but also stories, as you suggested.
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