“I’ve seen it happen over and over again: a black person gets killed just for being black, and all hell breaks loose. I’ve Tweeted RIP hashtags, reblogged pictures on Tumblr, and signed every petition out there. I always said that if I saw it happen to somebody, I would have the loudest voice, making sure the world knew what went down. Now I am that person, and I’m too afraid to speak” Angie Thomas wrote in The Hate U Give. Angie Thomas’ novel deals with racism, police brutality, and activism the main character -a young woman- goes through in life similar to Claudia Rankine Citizen: An American Lyric. Rankine symbolizes microaggression that African American people experience on a day to day base in society which situates them as different, through her poems and images. In Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric her usage of anecdotes formed the poetic lyric to be more relatable, emotionally appealing to the people, and capable to understand the heinous acts witnessed.
The connection the reader makes through Rankine’s anecdotes helpes the reader relate and understand the racial profiling and discrimination African Americans experience. “And when the woman with the multiple degrees says, I didn’t know black women could get cancer, instinctively you take two steps back though all urgency leaves the possibility of any kind of relationship as you realize nowhere is where you will get from here.”(Citizen 45). Racial comments are made upon many people of color due to them being seen as less than a person. Knowing that’s if they say anything would only be worse for them since the color of their skin is seen as a threat so they sit there in silence listening.“At the end of a brief phone conversation, you tell the manager you are speaking with that you will come by his office to sign the form. When you arrive and announce yourself, he blurts out, I didn’t know you were black! I didn’t mean to say that, he then says. Aloud, you say. What? he asks. You didn’t mean to say that aloud. Your transaction goes swiftly after that,¨(Citizen 44). This quote demonstrates an example of racial profiling that a person of color goes through. The manager had a prejudice of what “sounding black” means and “you” don’t fit inside that prejudice. This anecdote makes the reader feel the offense that “you” feel. First, the manager made “you” angry at his inappropriate comment and then they made you feel less “black.” In a way, he is undermined “you’re” identity by telling “you” that you don’t sound black therefore that makes “you” less black. This allows the reader to understand and experience through Rankine’s writing the prejudice and stereotypes which negatively affects people of color.
Furthermore, as Rankine’s gradually continues to tell multiple stories in the form of poems which emotionally connects to the reader. “because white men can’t police their imagination black men are dying” (Citizen 135). Because white men see people’s blackness as a weapon many people of color have died and still continue to die. “Maybe the content of her statement is irrelevant and she only means to signal the stereotype of ‘black people time’ by employing what she perceives to be ‘black people language.’ Maybe she is jealous of whoever kept you and wants to suggest you are nothing or everything to her. Maybe she wants to have a belated conversation about Don Imus and the women’s basketball team he insulted with this language. You don’t know. You don’t know what she means. You don’t know what response she expects from you nor do you care” (Citizen 41-42). This story allows the reader to sympathize with people of color who receive these types of comments all the time. Imagine being a normal human being going about your day, but to everyone else you are just your skin color or, you are just the stereotypes associated with your skin color. And because you look a certain way you must act a certain way, know certain things, be a certain way as if you are not allowed to be your own unique. You must fit into the narrative that society has created for you and other people who look like you.
Moreover, the usage of anecdotes informs the reader the understanding of the heinous acts African Americans witnessed due to their color of skin. “You assumed you two were the only black people in her life. Eventually, she stopped doing this, though she never acknowledged her slippage. And you never called her on it (why not?) and yet, you don’t forget. If this were a domestic tragedy, and it might well be, this would be your fatal flaw—your memory, vessel of your feelings. Do you feel hurt because it’s the “all black people look the same” moment, or because you are being confused with another after being so close to this other?”(Citizen 7). “The route is often associative. You smell good. You are twelve attending Sts. Philip and James School on White Plains Road and the girl sitting in the seat behind asks you to lean to the right during exams so she can copy what you have written. Sister Evelyn is in the habit of taping the 100s and the failing grades to the coat closet doors. The girl is Catholic with waist-length brown hair. You can’t remember her name: Mary? Catherine? You never really speak except for the time she makes her request and later when she tells you you smell good and have features more like a white person. You assume she thinks she is thanking you for letting her cheat and feels better cheating from an almost white person” (Citizen 5).
Reflection-
This essay shows that I’ve learned more about writing textual arguments. Before I’ve gotten use to writing analytical essays and writing and argument essay was hard for me at the beginning but I feel like it okay. I not sure but if I had to pick something out of my essay that made my proud it would probably be my thesis. Something that I felt that I still need to learn about writing an argument is how to set it up to seem like an argument not just an analytical essay.
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