Rankine’s use of the body in a both impersonal and deeply personal way brings to light how racism functions. By showing the impersonal way people make assumptions and punish the black body shows how racism functions without having sense to it. Rankine reveals the personal by describing the black body’s reaction to racism.
In a very intimate and particular kind of way, Rankine describes the reflex type reactions to racism from the point of view of the receiver of racism: “Your fingers cover your eyes, press them deep into their socks….”(66), “Words work as release- well-oiled doors opening and closing between intention, gesture. A pulse in a neck, the shiftiness of the hands, an unconscious blink….”(69) , “An unsettled feeling keeps the body front and center.”(8)
All of these descriptions of sensations and reactions feel incredibly familiar. These reactions are ones people have had to many other situations other than racism therefore feel universal while also being deeply personal. These are reactions are so personal they feel lonely.
Rankine describes the nature of racism as impersonal by showing the actions of the perpetrators of racism: “Serena asks incredulously by asking if she looks like a gangster to him. Yes, he answers.”(34), “Haven’t you said this to a close friend who early in your friendship, when distracted, would call you by the name of her black housekeeper?”(7), “...people who felt her black body did not belong on the court.” On the other hand, these general descriptions of the black body and their statements about where it belongs and where it does not shows the senseless nature of racism. It shows the privilege that comes with being racist and the dehumanization that comes with facing it. Acting in impersonal ways towards others shows a lack of acknowledgment of the other as a full and individual human being. In America, assumptions are constantly made about the black body, those making these assumptions base them solely on the appearance of blackness.
These two ways Rankine describes the back body are complete opposites. They contradict and contrast each other in extreme ways. She highlight the senselessness of one way of seeing black bodies by showing the humanness of the other.
I like how you brought up the black body, which is a large part of the book. The contradictory descriptions that Rankine gives about the black body are important to notice and you did a good job analyzing them. I like the contrast you pointed out between intimacy and the impersonal nature of racism.
ReplyDeleteThis really pinpoints maybe the best thing about about Citizen, that it both makes racism from the victim's point of view seem so familiar, even to a white reader like me, while making familiar casual racism seem bizarre and surprising.
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