Rankine collects examples of racism from both her life as well as the broader world around her, presenting these in essays, poems, or images throughout this short work. I found a number of her personal anecdotes were especially powerful, though I would not say the same for the various sections based on incidents pulled from the news, media, or popular culture.
Citizen by Claudia Rankine (November 2021)
The exception to the latter point above would be the observation that because white men cannot police their imagination, black people are dying. In addition to these types of insights, another strength of Citizen is the way it recreates the mood left in the wake of being victimized by racial abuse, which I would describe as the sudden reemergence of that instinct to shrink the possibilities around you as a necessary means of self-protection; once burned, you know not to touch the stove, and your future interactions with it are forever informed by the incident. I think Rankine says something to this effect when she describes the way you might pull back your presence or attention after being targeted by racially abusive language, given the devastating internal punishment of hearing and absorbing such words (though I'm not entirely sure this was in Citizen, as I didn't see it in my notes). To put it another way, it's better (or at least, safer) to pull back from the environment once the environment demonstrates the risk of full participation.
There is an interesting aspect of her piece about Zidane's headbutt on Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup Final, which got him ejected by a red card moments before the end of the game. There was an idea, initially corroborated by certain lip leaders, that Zidane was provoked into retaliation by racially abusive taunts, and I think this idea is somewhere in the foundation of Rankine's piece. The story that has emerged since then (based on comments from both players) paints a picture that is familiar to me from decades on a basketball court - it seems like Zidane essentially reacted to trash talk, specifically a comment referencing Zidane's sister, and at least in my interpretation it seems that it was just Materazzi's attempt to wind up the player. I can't say for sure, I suppose, if this changed how I read the piece, particularly as its main arc is not strictly about the headbutt (it's about the way we respond to the abuse of language), but that was certainly my initial suspicion.
Now as I think again about it, I wonder if this in some way helps the piece reinforce the overall point of Citizen - the situation of racism at this moment in time is such that it creates problems not just in its direct, obvious abuses, but also in the way it permanently alters the experience of the marginalized. There is something about a false alarm that suggests a truth known only to those ringing the bell - from experience, they know not just what to look for, but also why suspicion alone merits the concern being brought from shadow into light. Only those who know the pain of these abuses will notice the approach of another similar situation, or the evidence left behind by the same. This lesson from Citizen, perhaps entirely the accidental result of this soccer fan reading a timely book seven years later, is likely the one that will stick with me over my remaining years.
TOA Rating: Three stovetops out of four.
