Move on.’ As Rankine’s brilliant, disabusing work, always aware of its ironies, reminds us, ‘moving on’ is not synonymous with ‘leaving behind.'” –The New Yorker The realization at the end of this book sits heavily upon the heart: ‘This is how you are a citizen, ‘ Rankine writes. “ is an especially vital book for this moment in time. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named “post-race” society. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person’s ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Some of these encounters are slights, seemingly slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV-everywhere, all the time. Winner of the 2015 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in PoetryĬlaudia Rankine’s bold recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Winner of the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetryįinalist for the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism Finalist for the 2014 National Book Award in Poetry.
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