Does Citizen: An American Lyric Effectively Address Systemic Racism?

          Cambridge Dictionary defines systemic racism as “policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that results in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race.” In America, systemic racism affects people of color politically, socially, and economically. As a collective, we all recognize that racism is still present in America, but many do not believe that systemic racism is prevalent in our society today. Through the use of micro-narratives that focus on microaggressions and implicit bias, expressive images, and video scripts, Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric effectively addresses systemic racism by allowing readers to not only learn about but feel the effects it has on people of color in America.

          The article “7 Ways We Know Systemic Racism Is Real” by Ben and Jerry’s breaks down different areas in our society where systemic racism is at play and how it affects the everyday lives of people of color in America. The seven areas discussed in the article are wealth, employment, education, housing, criminal justice, surveillance, and health care. Each one of these areas of society is impacted by systemic racism, which results in People of Color in America receiving unfair treatment because of their race. An example of an area impacted by systemic racism is employment and the inequality people of color face while getting a job. One major factor in getting employed is getting a job interview, but “job applicants with white-sounding names get called back about 50% more of the time than applicants with Black-sounding names, even when they have identical resumes.” (Ben & Jerry’s 2016). Therefore resulting in fewer job opportunities for people of color because their name carries a bias. Another example is criminal justice where there is severe inequality when it comes to prison population and conviction rates. Black people make up 13% of America’s population, yet they make up 40% of America’s prison population. These rates are because people of color are more likely to get convicted and receive higher sentence rates than white people who commit the same or similar crimes. All these affected areas of society add up to a society where people of color are deprived of opportunities and receive harmful treatment because of their race. This is systemic racism in America.

          Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric is broken down into seven sections filled with narratives, images, video scripts, and stories that are a part of a bigger conversation of race, microaggressions, implicit bias, and systemic racism. Within her one-hundred-and-sixty-page novel Rankine is able to make readers feel the impact that microaggressions and implicit bias have on people of color in America. 

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MICRO NARRATIVES 

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          Rankine’s narratives focus on the topics of microaggressions and implicit bias, which aids her in addressing the topic of systemic racism. The narratives address the topic by using metaphorical language and second person perspective to provoke strong emotions in readers that help readers not only learn the effects of systemic racism but feel them. One narrative that stands out and is a great example of systemic racism is the story of a woman who arrives at a job interview and the interviewer makes a shocking comment to her. “When you arrive and announce yourself, he blurts out, I didn't know you were black!” (Rankine 44). The surprise that the interviewer had about her being black ties back to systemic racism and how black people with “black names” don’t get called back for job interviews as much as people with “white names.” Therefore, the man was shocked to see a black woman because when giving her the call back he was expecting a white woman. When reading this narrative you not only understand how systemic racism is at play, but you feel how the comment the interviewer made on the woman's blackness made the woman feel in an environment she was previously welcomed into. 

          Claudia Rankine’s use of metaphorical language leaves readers with thoughts that evolve into an understanding of the message she is trying to convey. Rankine’s metaphorical language isn’t at a complexity that leaves you bewildered and takes away from the point she is conveying, but rather adds to the narrative and gives it a deeper meaning. A narrative in her novel that uses metaphorical language compares rain and microaggressions. “And as light as the rain seems, it still rains down on you.” (Rankine 9). Rankine conveys the message of how microaggressions, regardless of how small, still affect you, just like how a drizzle of rain can still get you wet. With the second-person perspective, Rankine includes many thought processes throughout the narratives that enable readers to peek into the minds of the people experiencing microaggressions. “What did he just say? Did she really just say that? Did I hear what I think I heard? Did that just come out of my mouth, his mouth, your mouth?” (Rankine 9). This thought process was specifically added to the rain-themed metaphorical narrative because the narrator was experiencing doubt about the microaggression they experienced, therefore they needed their glasses to see through the rain. The thought process made readers feel the doubt that can be present when experiencing a microaggression. Today, many people in America do not believe that systemic racism is real, therefore a seed of doubt is implemented in the minds of people of color when they do experience a side effect of systemic racism. 

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IMAGES

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          In total Claudia Rankine includes eighteen images throughout her novel created by various artists in a variety of different styles, mediums, and structures. Each image adds depth to the narratives that it is attached to or the novel as a whole. The image “Little Girl” by Kate Clark is displayed on page nineteen after a narrative of a therapist who saw their patient approaching their home and treated them as though they were an animal. This animalistic behavior she displayed toward her patient was caused by an implicit bias she had toward the race and outward appearance of her patient. The image “Little Girl” is of a taxidermy deer sitting down with the face of a human attached to it with pins and a concerned and frightened look on its face. This image connects to the narrative because it conveys the message that people of color constantly have a target on their backs. The image itself is a metaphor because a deer is always a target for hunters to hunt, just like how people of color are a target for non-people of color to attack and harass. 

          Fast forwarding to the end of the novel the image “The Slave Ship” by Joesph Mallord William Turner displayed on the last page beautifully wraps up all the content of the novel by bringing readers to the start of it all. The image “The Slave Ship” is a dark-toned scene of a slave ship with enslaved people drowning in the water below. The sky in the image looks like fire and the waves are painted to make the image intense and show its grueling story. Having an image of a slave ship at the end of the novel brings all the previous content full circle to the event where systemic racism and racism in general began. In the 1660’s White settlers in America needed people to work on their plantations, so they bought slaves. In order for these White settlers to justify slavery they needed to create a distinction between White and Black people. One way they did this was in Virginia, a law was created that made Black women “tithable” (taxable), which associated them with hard labor and there was no such law created for White women. This distinction between Black and White people in the 1660s was the beginning of defining people by the color of their skin and their race. Therefore, the image of the slave ship brings full circle the start of oppression based on race, and the previous events that are discussed in the novel are the result of that starter event. 

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VIDEO SCRIPTS

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          Towards the end of the novel, Rankine shifts the narratives from microaggressions to major publicized events translated into video scripts of murders caused by biases and outright racism. The video scripts evoke remembrance of events, comparison of one’s own experiences, and strong emotions, that deepens the readers' understanding of how systematic racism is present in the everyday lives of People of Color in America. One of the video scripts is of the murder of Trayvon Martin that occurred on February 26th, 2012. Trayvon Martin was shot by George Zimmerman on his way home from the market because Zimmerman saw Trayvon Martin as a suspicious person in his neighborhood and believed the skittles in his pocket were a gun. A 17-year-old boy walking home from the market was seen as “suspicious” because of his race and the implicit bias that a black person would be carrying a gun, got him killed. “They have not been to prison. They have been in prison. The prison is not a place you enter. It is no place.” (Rankine 89). People of color are trapped in a prison and its name is ‘systemic racism.’ Systemic racism doesn’t just make the lives of people of color that much more difficult, but it kills people because of their race and the bias attached to it.

          While most of the video scripts are based on real events one video script in particular shares a universal experience that people of color have most likely experienced. The video script is called “Stop-and-Frisk,” which follows a man of color going through the process of being detained by the police and every thought running through his head. “And you are not the guy and you still fit the description because there is only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description” (Rankine 105). Though the narrator of this video script did nothing wrong he is being detained because of the bias unfortunately most cops have about people of color. This story can relate to the countless interactions people of color have had with the police force that has resulted in unpleasant and/or traumatizing experiences. The bias many of our police officers have is due to systemic racism and how it has shaped the way many people think of a certain race. 

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CONCLUSION

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          Systemic racism affects people of color in so many aspects of their lives and it is very much present in America today. Claudia Rankine’s narratives, images, and video scripts help address this very real and very impactful issue. A novel like Rankine’s where difficult topics are talked about in a manner where you can feel the effects it has on people is vital to have in a society where systemic racism isn’t fully acknowledged as a real issue. Rankine’s carefully crafted words, second-perspective narratives, and images help readers feel and learn not only about what systemic racism is, but how it feels to be imprisoned in it. 

 

Works Cited

“7 Ways We Know Systemic Racism Is Real.” Ben & Jerry's, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc., 2016, https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2016/systemic-racism-is-real. Accessed 18 October 2022.

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Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Graywolf Press, 2014.