Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

27 reviews

readbycarina's review

challenging emotional fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny

solenodon's review

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Police brutality

klor's review

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

3.75

In a trip to California about 4 years ago, a friend asked me, "What age did you realize that other people existed (outside of your own life)?" That was a constant reminder throughout reading the first half of the book and throughout, especially as Rankine details the various microagressions that happen in her daily life and slowly expanding that into the larger scale things such as biases and police brutality. Sometimes we just want to be seen, but properly.

While the scripts in the middle of the book left a lot to be desired, the writing points out a clear picture in between the various vignettes of what it's like to live as a black person in today's world. I'd love to reread this book in the future as I think it's something that grows on you with time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Death, Police brutality, and Racism

viaviaggi's review

challenging informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Slavery

kalbalde's review

emotional reflective fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Police brutality

ablaine's review

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality

lara_bk's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, and Hate crime

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

Minor: Death

evergreenreader's review

challenging emotional informative sad

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, and Racial slurs

five's review

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Minor: Body shaming, Death, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Violence

tshepiso's review

challenging dark informative reflective

4.0

In many ways, Citizen is an impenetrable read. It's filled with cultural references and iconography that even someone knowledgeable of African American history might miss. Beyond that, this book is often harrowing. Rankine's detailed examination of how it feels to be black in America is visceral and successfully embodies the reader in Rankine's experiences.

Because of this, I wouldn't recommend it as a casual read. It's a book that requires focus to parse and a willingness to do further research to gain a full picture of Rankine's intent. However, so much of Rankine's writing in Citizen is so arresting and brilliant that I can't help but want to put it in the hands of more people. This book is filled with sentiments I grasped instantly and resonated with deeply. Her razor-sharp use of poetics and structure captured the layers of racism and microaggressions in a way I've never seen done before. I am in complete awe of her mastery of craft

Claudia Rankine is a fantastic author. She is on such a high level of craft that I probably didn't even grasp a lot of what she said in this book, but what I did moved me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Police brutality