Summary Of Citizen An American Lyric

In Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen: An American Lyric” black people have been put through many tragic experiences. The Black culture has been stripped of many opportunities to be successful by the white people. So YouTuber Hennessy Youngman depicts a way for the black people to be successful in the art world. The African American race is seen as entertainment in the art and music industry by the white people to keep them occupied, but the black people use the white people to build their way to become successful. Youngman devalues black culture by talking about expressing fake anger instead of real one.
Hennessy Youngman causes African Americans to believe that anger to amuse white people is a good thing since it is to make a profit. Youngman tells …show more content…
In Hennessy Youngman’s video “How to Be a Successful Black Artist,” the idea of being unpredictable and angry appears to be the aspects of creating successful art for all aspiring black artists. Youngman uses the video to depict the necessary elements to be used for black artists to be prosperous. The Jazz principle is used for “white people to consume the exotic other” or imitate the art forms and culture of other races or ethnics. Since white people supposedly conquered the world and witnessed all of its wonders, there is nothing for them to do, so the black people need to entertain them. By making their work unpredictable it keeps the white people guessing and to stay amused. White people may want to be part of it, even to possibly have control over that part of a race’s culture. So blacks need to keep the whites entertained by being different and unpredictable, and if not, then the black people will be replaced by another race of a similar skin color. Youngman does not want the white people to know about the blacks’ identify, so if they are found out they cannot make a profit so they use the tactic of faking their traits. If the true aspects of the black people were revealed, then white people will see the black race as their parallel with no unique features. Once the white people realize the true image and aspects of the black people Youngman believes that …show more content…
The issues of wrongful accusations towards Serena were first brushed under a rug, then later it was brought into light and addressed to the public. Serena had to face being persecuted by her white audiences for her outrage against the umpire, for ruling out terrible calls such as the ball being out of bounds. “He doesn’t say… Serena Williams” (page 24-25), she was saying Serena exploded out of anger because of being called out. Youngman says “our” anger is enjoyable, but when she does it, it’s supposed to be serious. People see it as uncalled for, as opposed to Youngman’s anger which they see as enjoyable, her anger has been kept inside of her ever since she had to deal with the white culture that is a part of tennis. Due to Serena’s outrage it has caused to face consequences such as an 82,500 dollar fine, a two year probation period and a loss of the match. Then two years later, Serena ends up in the US Open finals where she is once again given a terrible call by the same umpire. She was critiqued by her audience for the Crip walk that she performed since she grow up in Compton, so a man confronted her about it and called her a gangster. This interaction between the two can be shown as racist since that man probably thinks that all black people are gangsters and thugs. The true anger