Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Citizen: An American Lyric

Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

27 reviews

nvillanuevadrv's review

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

5.0

A juxtaposition of astute reflections on the tide of racism and white supremacy that permeates every nook and cranny of the U.S. and beyond. Rankine wields deft and evocative poetic lyricism that captures vignettes from the cultural landscape.

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avisreadsandreads's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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lydiajines's review

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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itsanniek's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

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mattyvreads's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

A poignant, thought-provoking, and no-nonsense indictment of racism, misogyny, and their intersection, in America. Rankine does not mince words.

This piece is a sort of extended poem which illustrates her experience as a Black woman in America, including micro-aggressions carried out against herself, her friends, and Black female athletes like Serena Williams who faced casual racism in their sport that had huge consequences.

I am eager to read this book again, as to soak up even more of Rankine’s words. She is an icon.

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sairywhy's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

4.25

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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challenging reflective fast-paced

2.5

I am sorry but this book was really not for me. I did not get along with the writing style nor the way it was structured, these sort of fragmented and episodic reflections were too difficult for me to follow, I mostly felt confused and clueless about what was going on.
Honestly, I understood maybe a third of what I read and while that is certainly on me, it really hampered my fruition of the book and the general appreciation of the reading experience.

I also struggled with the final section in verse and most of it went over my head. I admit that I am not a devoted poetry reader and, when I actually read it, I am usually drawn to a more prose-like and matter-of-fact type of poetry.

I think a book like this is just too much experimental for my personal taste. However, I did appreciate the section focusing on Serena Williams and the racism she experienced in her career as a tennis player, it might be because it was the part that more closely resembled a traditional and straightforward essay.

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eve81's review

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challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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krhe's review

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dark

4.0

Me apunto las obras referenciadas porque hay varias cosas interesantes. Primera vez en mucho tiempo que anoto un libro, pero merecía la pena.

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savvylit's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

Citizen is a brutal look at Black identity, microaggression, police brutality, and erasure. Rankine interweaves personal recollections of microaggressions with examination of racial hatred in the public sphere. For instance, there is a significant section of this book that reflects upon racism faced by Serena Williams. Juxtaposing public instances of racism and police brutality with her own personal experience allows Rankine to emphasize the broad spectrum of a distinctly American brand of racism.

As I tend to do when reviewing poetry, let me leave you with a fragment of Rankine's own words:

"You are you even before you grow into understanding you are not anyone, worthless, not worth you. Even as your own weight insists you are here, fighting off the weight of nonexistence. And still this life parts your lids, you see you seeing your extending hand as a falling wave— I they he she we you turn only to discover the encounter to be alien to this place. Wait. The patience is in the living. Time opens out to you. The opening, between you and you, occupied, zoned for an encounter, given the histories of you and you— And always, who is this you? The start of you, each day, a presence already— Hey you—"

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