Nicole Kheyfets
Professor Koning
English 115
17/9/2021
Citizen Blog Post #1: One cannot learn a skill without hands-on experience
Throughout Claudia Rankine’s Citizens, she writes every scenario in the second person. By doing this, she addresses the reader directly, putting them within each situation of microaggressions. Rankine uses vivid imagery, such as the image of the deer with the human head, to further transport the reader into the different worlds she creates. This image allows the reader to visualize that humans can be hunted by other humans just as often as other humans hunt animals. While humans can physically hurt each other, they can also hunt one another by the words and beliefs that one says to another, which is in the form of microaggressions. By using phrases such as “You begin to think. . . that this other kind of anger is really a type of knowledge” (Rankine 9) enables the reader to redirect their mind and their thinking that being microaggressive is not a conscious act but somewhat subconscious. When a reader reads the word “you,” they visualize themselves. Even if someone may not have experienced microaggressions or were not aware, they experienced a microaggression. Every time Rankine puts in the word “you,” the reader can envision themselves as the ones who are a target of microaggressions. “You” also enables self-understanding for how microaggressions work, how to be aware of when it is occurring, and when to take action to prevent it. Some may not even be aware they are facilitating microaggressions because they have surrounded themselves for years, possibly their entire lives, with aggressors of microaggressions. People formulate their opinions based upon others around them and may not be subconsciously aware that their views can cause another’s discomfort. Putting oneself into the scenario of being the victim of a microaggression, like Rankine does by writing her book Citizen in the second person, can be a tool to help one become self-aware to recognize what a microaggression is, when it’s occurring, and how to stop it. In part IV of Citizen, Rankine states that “You can’t put the past behind you” (Rankine), but you can learn from it to move forward. To learn, you must experience. One can’t remember a skill without attempting to do it. To fully understand the heinous world of microaggressions, one must experience being within the act of these aggressions. Reading Claudia Rankine’s Citizen allows the reader to experience these different scenarios spread out within the book and comprehend how these aggressions are every day.
I have never experienced racial microaggression. However, I have experienced gender microaggression because I am a female. Reading Claudia Rankine’s Citizen allows me to understand what a racial microaggression looks like and how it feels. Through every scenario, when I read it, I fill in the word “you” with an image of myself. After reading each experience, I almost feel slight disbelief and anger because how can someone judge another solely because they’re of a different race? It’s appalling that there are people who don’t even know they’re causing others this type of pain because they do it subconsciously. I believe it’s brilliant that Rankine wrote this book in the second person to help those, like myself, who haven’t experienced a specific type of microaggression, to experience it through poetry. Once one encounters something, they can learn from it, and therefore teach others about it to help prevent things like microaggressions from happening at all in the future.
Works Cited
Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Graywolf Press, 2014.