Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen: An American Lyric” covers the issue of racism and how it prevents someone from developing into their true self. This text is similar to Zora Neale Hurston’s “How it Feels to be Colored Me.” Rankine’s text emphasizes the obstacles that African Americans face when developing their own individuality and Hurston’s text contributes to that.

One major idea present in both texts is the unrecognition of African Americans. We can see this idea in the first chapter of Rankine’s text. It occurs when the main character is taking an exam and is asked to lean over by another student so that the answers can be copied. The teacher or proctor that was present during the exam did not say anything to the other student. This makes the main character think about the lack of involvement or saying from the teacher. The idea manifests into something larger and the main character notices that the teacher may not even notice her presence in the classroom. This lack of notice by her teacher may be connected to the color of her skin and her race. This idea is also present in Hurston’s text. In the beginning of her text, Hurston starts the second paragraph by saying “I remember the very day that I became colored.” This very sentence goes on to foreshadow other events mentioned in the text. Hurston also refers to her experience of education and the lack of diversity. She recalls her time attending Barnard and how she would physically stand out of the crowd of white students due to her race and skin color. “For instance, at Barnard. “Beside the waters of the Hudson” I feel my race. Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself.”

Both of the two events experienced by Rankine and Hurston took place in an academic setting. This is especially unfortunate because academic settings such as schools and universities are where students should feel the most comfortable to be themselves and properly express themselves. Without this confidence, there can be a stunt in growth or self-development. The events mentioned by Rankine and Hurston really highlight this.

Another major idea present in both texts is the idea of dealing with racial insults. Both Rankine and Hurston mention the constant harassment and racial insults thrown their way, and their reactions to it. In Rankine’s text, this occurs within the first chapter. It takes place when the main character associates her with another person who happens to be a maid. The only reason this association is made is due to the main character being the same race as the maid. Her friend eventually realizes and stops making the association to end the awkward situation. Although this was a specific situation in Rankine’s text, Hurston mentions it as being a more general and regularly occurring obstacle that she faced. “Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me.” Both Rankine and Hurston attempt not to acknowledge the insults and move past it so that they can better themselves.

Claudia Rankine and Zora Hurston both discuss the issue of racism within their texts. They especially highlight how this racism can stop or defer the growth and development amongst African Americans. Although both of these texts are from the past, many of the issues discussed are still issues that we face today in the modern world.

In Rankine’s “Citizen: An American Lyric” we are introduced to a recount of various memories and experiences that the narrator has had and experience them ourselves. Rankine makes this possible through her usage of pronouns and I argue that she “makes” us into the narrator. The pronouns that Rankine uses offer an interesting take on the narrative. Upon reading the text, the reader may be confused at first, seeing the words, “when you are alone and too tired”(Rankine), I assumed that the book was speaking to me. I was preparing myself to read something that would be relatable but I was not prepared whatsoever. The use of “you” really entails you and places you in a position where you are experiencing these events along with the narrator. The main purpose of using the second person is to tell the readers a story and to allow us to be more engaged in the story but Rankine uses it in a matter where you, the reader, are experiencing these events. Not only are you experiencing the narrators moments in which she experiences racism and discrimination, no it is way more than just that, you are also being told an important message from the perspective of a black narrator. The message of how this discrimination happens in everyday life across multiple points in a day. It is unavoidable and happens in real life or even in our digital lives. This really gets you thinking about the world around you even today. The reader experiences the discrimination firsthand and she does a beautiful job at doing this by offering various descriptions and dialogue throughout the story. We are introduced first to a child’s perspective much like in “The Bluest Eye” and are told about multiple events that transpired to the narrator. These descriptions along with the usage of the second person provide a rich narrative as we “experience” the events being told to us by the narrator. Rankine’s narrator is speaking to the reader and attempts to make us understand how it feels to be looked down upon by a white girl. A feeling that neither the reader nor the narrator enjoys.

 The story progresses as we see the narrator’s experiences move beyond childhood and into adulthood. Much like the “Invisible Man” we are introduced to an adult perspective. We are no longer children but have now become adults along with the narrator, we “grew together”. In another memory, the narrator asks a friend to babysit her child while she watches a movie with her partner. Here we are introduced to another microaggression. What makes this memory interesting is the addition of interactions with the “third persons ”. In this memory, the narrator’s neighbor mistakes her friend who is black, for a robber. We see the stereotype of the neighbor and the interaction between the narrator and her neighbor. The readers feel as if they are interacting with the neighbor which is Rankine’s overall goal. This “third person” reassures us that we are now part of the story and are no longer just the reader. At the end of the memory, we speak to the narrator’s friend and tell him to speak in the backyard next time so that he is not mistaken for a burglar. The friend rightfully is upset by this and says he can speak wherever we want. We along with the narrator are left to respond with “yes of course”, and we can see that although the narrator had good intentions, she is in the wrong. What’s magical about this event is that through Rankine’s usage of the pronouns “you” we the readers, feel bad for telling our friend that it’s his fault for being consciences that way. This usage of pronouns allows Rankine to “attach” and embeds the reader to the narrator and turns us into the narrator. She was preparing us for our role in the novel and we have now become a part of Rankine’s story as both the reader and the narrator. This foundation allows us to interpret and understand the narrative in a different way as we continue to read it. 

Post Note: I feel as if readings like The Invisible Man and The Bluest Eyes have prepared us for this text. We saw different perspectives in each story and saw the world of each novel through different lenses. These lenses, I feel, are allowing us to be a part of Rankine’s novel and allow us to become the narrator.

As discussed on Monday, you’ve got a pretty simple job today. I’ve posted two academic articles on Morrison’s novel. Your job is to read them (duh) and comment on them using hypothes.is. A couple of things to think about:

• use the 252 group! Make sure to join if you haven’t: https://hypothes.is/groups/1Y7zVbmM/allred252fa20. And make sure to select it, rather than “public,” from the pull-down.
• note the different approaches to the same text:
  • the Werrlein piece is solidly in the “cultural studies” tradition, which emphasizes that literature is part of a spectrum of cultural forms, from Hollywood to advertising to traditional “folk” forms, and that literature does “cultural work” on its readers, aligning them with certain belief systems or political persuasions.
  • the Roye piece is indebted another strain of Marxist cultural traditions, “postcolonial” criticism, which emphasizes the embeddedness of literary works in long histories of colonial domination of the Global South and emphasizes the workings of struggles over class, race, and gender within literary texts and between those texts and the world they engage.
• For Monday, we’ll look at a very different perspective on Morrison’s work, that of the philosopher George Yancey, getting a taste of a more interdisciplinary approach to the text, so come on Monday ready to roll your sleeves up and think comparatively about different critical approaches.

Check out this long, detailed profile on Angela Davis, Toni Morrison’s rough contemporary whose life and work interacts in interesting ways with the novel:

Angela Davis Still Believes America Can Change (Published 2020)

Since the 1970s, the academic and activist has been an icon of feminism and Black liberation. Today, as the battle for equality wages on, the ideas for which she’s long advocated have finally entered mainstream thought.