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A review by barberchicago_books
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
5.0
My daughter lent me Claudia Rankin’s Citizen: An American Lyric, which she was studying in one of her classes in college. And I will be forever grateful to the author for writing it, and to my kid for exposing me to it.
This says a lot about me and how steeped in my whiteness I am: while this is not one of the first books that made me *act*, this IS one of the first books made me *feel*. It has been said that white people often intellectualize racism - lots of thoughts, rarely feelings. While the lived experiences of white people - regarding race - could not be more different than those of our fellow Black humans, if we choose not to *feel*, than we can not empathize. And when we cannot empathize, we cannot act with compassion.
So this left me wondering if my actions this far - because I’ve been reading more informational texts on race from Black authors (again with the thinking) - have been more performative than real.
Perhaps it was the format of Citizen: An American Lyric that got through my whiteness-filled head and into my heart. Part poetry, part short stories, part mini-scripts, Lyric kept me riveted through its unique style.
And the words. Like knives through the heart, Lyric held up the mirror of whiteness and made me confront its ugliness that desecrates humanity, especially those whose skin is melanated. Moreover, it made me feel the daily, cumulative effect of “feel[ing] most colored when I am thrown against a sharp, white background” (Zora Neale Hurston.)
Sitting in needed discomfort and gratitude for the experiences brought to life through this book.
This says a lot about me and how steeped in my whiteness I am: while this is not one of the first books that made me *act*, this IS one of the first books made me *feel*. It has been said that white people often intellectualize racism - lots of thoughts, rarely feelings. While the lived experiences of white people - regarding race - could not be more different than those of our fellow Black humans, if we choose not to *feel*, than we can not empathize. And when we cannot empathize, we cannot act with compassion.
So this left me wondering if my actions this far - because I’ve been reading more informational texts on race from Black authors (again with the thinking) - have been more performative than real.
Perhaps it was the format of Citizen: An American Lyric that got through my whiteness-filled head and into my heart. Part poetry, part short stories, part mini-scripts, Lyric kept me riveted through its unique style.
And the words. Like knives through the heart, Lyric held up the mirror of whiteness and made me confront its ugliness that desecrates humanity, especially those whose skin is melanated. Moreover, it made me feel the daily, cumulative effect of “feel[ing] most colored when I am thrown against a sharp, white background” (Zora Neale Hurston.)
Sitting in needed discomfort and gratitude for the experiences brought to life through this book.