Claudia Rankine is most recently the author of the poetry collections Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, 2014), Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, 2004), and Plot (Grove Press, 2001).For Citizen, she received the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.She currently serves as the Henry G. Lee Professor of Poetry at Pomona College. Teachers and parents! That the protagonist’s neighbor assumes her friend is a “disturbed” man who’s “casing” the neighborhood spotlights the unexamined assumptions he has about black people. Although some people might think that it’s possible to completely reject anything they don’t like and turn away from these things, the protagonist believes that people are forced to soldier through even the most undesirable circumstances. What’s more, though, she seems to respond to this by internalizing her neighbor’s point of view and telling her friend to speak on the phone in the backyard. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Citizen stretches the conventions of traditional lyric poetry by interweaving several forms of text and media into a collective portrait … “It was a lesson.”, Instant downloads of all 1408 LitChart PDFs Chapters … Each poem or passage, except the final two, addresses a specific event in recent history. The protagonist insists that the man is her friend, reminding the neighbor that he has even met this person, but the neighbor refuses to believe this, saying that he has already called the police. Get all the key plot points of Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric on one page. | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate “Jim Crow Rd.” is the first photograph to appear in the book, and it serves an important role: to show readers just how thoroughly the United States’ painfully racist history has worked its way into the present. Rankine continues to examine the protagonist’s gravitation toward numbness before abruptly switching to first-person narration on the book’s final page to recount an interaction she has while lying in bed with her partner. This outlook is most likely informed by her experience as a person of color who has faced many forms of mistreatment and has been forced to move on. This dilemma arises frequently for the protagonist, like when a colleague at the university where she teaches complains to her about the fact that his dean is forcing him to hire a person of color. Education. Again, the protagonist is put in the uncomfortable position of responding to a problematic comment, this time trying to figure out what to say in response to this woman’s disparaging attitude toward affirmative action. Poetry. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in, Very little emerges about the protagonist at the beginning of, Even at this early point in her life, the protagonist feels invisible when she’s in predominantly white spaces. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Instant downloads of all 1408 LitChart PDFs This assumption is made even worse by the fact that the neighbor has met this man before, proving that his implicit biases have usurped his ability to truly see him as a person rather than as an inaccurate, negative, and unfair stereotype. We'll make guides for February's winners by March 31st—guaranteed. He is, the neighbor says, talking to himself. Citizen: An American Lyric was published in 2014 by American poet Claudia Rankine, and remains a timely, even urgent meditation on race, violence, racism, art, and mediation. The artist speaking to the protagonist is white, and he asks her if she’s going to write about Duggan. Access Full Guide. In the foreground there stands a sign indicating that the neighborhood juts out off a street called Jim Crow Road—evidence that the country’s racist past is still woven throughout the structures of everyday life. In these moments, then, it’s especially meaningful when people of color stand together, giving each other the support necessary to call attention to injustice. Continuing to detail the experiences of this unnamed protagonist, Rankine narrates an instance later in the young woman’s life, when her friend frequently calls her by the name of her own housekeeper. Summary. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”. Recounting several of Williams’s “outburst[s]” in response to this unfairness, Rankine shows that responding to racism with anger—which understandably arises in such situations—often only makes matters worse, as is the case for Williams when she’s fined $82,500 for speaking out against a line judge who makes a blatantly biased call against her. It is cry about racism, prose and poetry with the line between the two often blurred or non-existent. (including. The first of these scripts is made up of quotes that the couple has taken from CNN coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the terrible aftermath of the disaster. This is why the therapist screams at the protagonist—not because the protagonist actually poses a threat (obviously), but because the therapist has the preconceived (and deeply racist) idea that black people represent danger. Unsurprisingly, the protagonist is right. Born in Jamaica in 1963, Claudia Rankine is the author of five collections of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, 2014), which received the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. Yet again, the protagonist is forced to grapple with the fact that many white people don’t see her for who she is, instead focusing solely on the color of her skin. After all, the protagonist’s colleague hasn’t even stopped to think about the fact that he has said something problematic, meaning that the protagonist would most likely have to explain this to him if she were to speak up. This time, the protagonist considers the idea that this white man only ever sees people who are like him, effectively ignoring black people because he only relates to other white people. On Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Citizen: An American Lyric is a 2014 book-length poem by American poet Claudia Rankine. This draws attention to the idea of visibility (or invisibility) and how other people’s implicit biases can impact a person’s sense of self—a theme that will resurface throughout, A photograph appears beneath the description of the. Claudia Rankine. Leaning against the wall, they discuss the riots that have broken out in London as a response to the unjustified police killing of a young black man named Mark Duggan. Eventually, the friend stops calling the protagonist by the wrong name, but the protagonist doesn’t forget this. After a tense pause, he tells her that he can take his calls wherever he wants, and the protagonist is instantly embarrassed for telling him otherwise. And yet, the man tries to act as if the. At one point, she attends a reading by a humorist who implies that it’s common for white people to laugh at racist jokes in private, adding that most people wouldn’t laugh at this kind of joke if they were out in public where black people might overhear them. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. The natural response to injustice is anger, but Rankine illustrates that this response isn’t always viable for people of color, since letting frustration show often invites even more mistreatment. Citizen: An American Lyric Claudia Rankine 24-page comprehensive study guide Features detailed chapter by chapter summaries and multiple sections of expert analysis The ultimate resource for class assignments, lesson planning, or leading discussions . Returning to the unnamed protagonist, Rankine narrates a scene in which the protagonist is talking to a fellow artist at a party in England. What’s more, although she chooses not to say anything about her friend’s problematic mistake, that doesn’t mean that she has forgotten about it—a reminder that this kind of mistreatment has a lasting impact, lingering long after it has taken place. Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric is a genre-bending meditation on race, racism, and citizenship in 21st-century America. Citizen claudia rankine sparknotes. In disjointed and figurative writing, Rankine creates a sense of desperation and inequity, depicting what it feels like to belong to one of the many black communities along the Gulf Coast—communities that national relief organizations all but ignored and ultimately failed to properly serve after the hurricane devastated the area and left many people homeless. “Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. At another event, the protagonist listens to the philosopher Judith Butler speak about why language is capable of hurting people. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. All the same, though, her guilt once more highlights the emotional strain that racism causes her. The protagonist experiences a slew of similar microaggressions. Indeed, this means having to contend with ignorance and mistreatment while spending time with people she considers friends. The conversation the protagonist has with her friend about embodying a “yes, and” attitude toward life is worth noting because it underscores the fact that the only way to respond to anything in life is by moving forward. LINKS Personal Website. A chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, she is the winner of many prizes including the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship. In keeping with the idea that there’s no way of avoiding or running away from what life offers up, the, Driving in the car one day with a colleague at the university where she teaches, the, Once again, the protagonist finds herself in a situation in which somebody who is supposedly a friendly acquaintance has said something racist and hurtful. There is, in other words, no way of avoiding the initial pain. The picture is of a well-manicured suburban neighborhood with sizable houses in the background. “Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. From the creators of SparkNotes. “Citizen – An American Lyric” by Claudia Rankine is a book which can be applied to anywhere in any country. In response, the protagonist turns the question back around, asking why he doesn’t write about it. RESPONSE: Citizen by Claudia Rankine 1 Craft Response: Citizen, by Claudia Rankine Julianne Henderson University of San Francisco Seminar: Further Forms Professor Soma Mei Sheng Frazier September 9, 2017 RESPONSE: Citizen by Claudia Rankine 2 In her captivating lyric essay, Citizen, Claudia Rankine exposes the inane logic that perpetuates racial injustice in our daily lives. Instead of following the woman to ask why she did this, the protagonist took her tennis racket and went to the court. To demonstrate this, she turns to the career of the famous African American tennis player Serena Williams, pointing to the multiple injustices she has suffered at the hands of the predominantly white tennis community, which judges her unfairly because of her race. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Of course, the woman is unwilling to consider the possibility that her son was rejected by her alma mater because he wasn’t good enough to go there. Our. She served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2013 to 2018. Our. She most likely suggests this because she herself is constantly trying to think of ways to cope with and avoid racist situations. For instance, when she and her partner go to a movie one night, they ask their friend—a black man—to pick up their child from school. The author writes in a free form, half poem, half prose format, which also includes pictures from current events, historical events, and historical civil rights emblems and paintings. Chapter Summaries & Analyses. Claudia Rankine is the author of five books, including Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric and the bestselling Citizen: An American Lyric. Claudia Rankine is the author of five books, including Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric and the bestselling Citizen: An American Lyric. Still, the interaction leaves her with a dull headache and wishing she didn’t have to pretend that this sort of behavior is acceptable. In turn, these experiences undoubtedly change her ability to feel close to people she’d otherwise have no problem connecting with. Whereas a white person who has never encountered discrimination might think it’s possible to create one’s own reality, the protagonist sees this as a privileged and naïve perspective. It is prevalent all over the world and that is not something to be proud of for anyone. Contact Information E-mail: crankin@usc.edu Phone: (213) 821-0477 Office: THH 430 . In other words, America is still racially insensitive to those who are seen as an inferior race, African Americans. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Standing in line one day at a Starbucks, the, In this scene, the protagonist encounters a much more blatant form of racism than the kind she experiences on a daily basis. As a relatively short American Lyric, one must assume that this half of the book – the parts where nothing is said – has great meaning and is equally as important as what is said directly. In the final sections of the book, the second-person protagonist notices that nobody is willing to sit next to a certain black man on the train, so she takes the seat. An even more pronouncedly racist moment occurs when the protagonist is in line at Starbucks and the white man standing in front of her calls a group of black teenagers the n-word. Published in 2014, Citizen combines prose, poetry, and images to paint a provocative portrait of the African American experience and … Claudia Rankine’s bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. LitCharts Teacher Editions. It is on racism and according to me racism is not just deep-rooted in The United States of America. Rankine transitions to an examination of how the protagonist and other people of color respond to a constant barrage of racism. (including. As a result, the protagonist feels suddenly jarred out of their otherwise close dynamic and unable to feel a sense of kinship with her friend, who is apparently so preoccupied by the supposed differences in their cultural identities. Worse, saying this makes the protagonist feel like she—as a person of color—is expected to apologize. As a person of color, the protagonist finds herself having to constantly field racism in what might otherwise seem like unexpected circumstances. When he says this, the protagonist realizes that the humorist has effectively excluded her from the rest of the audience by exclusively addressing the white people in the crowd, focusing only on their perspective while failing to recognize (or care about) how racist his remark really is. Considering Schiller and Arnold Through Claudia Rankine’s Citizen Reading Between Lines of Citizen Citizen: An American Lyric, by Claudia Rankine, is a work in progress (it's been updated many times now). When she tells him not to “get all KKK” on the teenagers, he says, “Now there you go,” trying to make it seem like the protagonist is the one who has overstepped, not him. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. In this way, she is the one who would have to expend emotional energy in order to address. Intermedia Arts, 2822 S Lyndale, Minneapolis, MN 55408. In Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, the blank white space occupies more area than all of the black text and pictures combined. Struggling with distance learning? On the drive back from the movie, the protagonist receives a call from her neighbor, who tells her that there’s a sinister looking man walking back and forth in front of her house. Chapters 1-2. Some of them, though, aren’t actually all that micro. The existence of John Henryism is a testament to just how much facing discrimination can refigure a person’s life. Citizen: An American Lyric. Rankine narrates another handful of uncomfortable instances in which the unnamed protagonist is forced to quietly endure racism. Unable to let herself show anger, she suffers in private. A chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, she is the winner of many prizes including the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship. Rankine moves on to present “situation video[s]” commemorating the deaths of a number of black men who were killed because of the color of their skin, including Trayvon Martin and James Craig Anderson. Claudia Rankine on Citizen: An American Lyric - 2015 L.A. Times Festival of Books - Duration: 9:15. Citizen is comprised of multiple different artforms, including essayistic vignettes, poems, photographs, and other renderings of visual art. See a complete list of the characters in Citizen Kane and in-depth analyses of Charles Foster Kane, Jedediah Leland, and Susan Alexander Kane. All the same, though, the man who calls the teenagers the n-word refuses to acknowledge his own racism, acting as if it’s not problematic that he has just used the most offensive and racist word possible to refer to black people. Citizen: An American Lyric is a powerful work, the most recent by poet Claudia Rankine. Interests: Publications. Just Us is an invitation to discover what it takes to stay in the room together, even and especially in breaching the silence, guilt, and violence that follow direct addresses of whiteness. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”. Even though it will be obvious that the girl behind her is cheating, the protagonist obliges by leaning over, wondering all the while why her teacher hasn’t noticed. She also calls upon the accounts lip readers gave of what Materazzi said to provoke Zidane, revealing that Materazzi called him a “Big Algerian shit,” a “dirty terrorist,” and the n-word. CITIZEN: AN AMERICAN LYRIC by Claudia Rankine From 03/10/2017 to 04/02/2017 at . This, in turn, illustrates how destructive it can be to face the nearly impossible task of coping with racism. The next “situation video” that Rankine presents is about the 2006 soccer World Cup, when Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi, who verbally provoked him. Claudia Rankine, without telling us what to do, urges us to begin the discussions that might open pathways through this divisive and stuck moment in American history. “It wasn’t a match,” she replies. Home; Home; Recent Posts. Thurs, Fri, Sat at 8:00 PM; Sun at 2:00 PM ONE STUDENT MATINEE (limited tickets), Thur Mar 16 at 1:00. All the same, though, the man who calls the teenagers the n-word refuses to acknowledge his own racism, acting as if it’s not problematic that he has just used the most offensive and racist word possible to refer to black people. Citizen: An American Lyric essays are academic essays for citation. Instead of level-headedly seeing this man for the person he is, the neighbor quickly decides that he’s a criminal. Claudia Rankine Aerol Arnold Professor of English. 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