Paper One- Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen” Connection to Black Lives Matter: The racial atmosphere of American society has always been overwhelmingly glaring since the foundation of the country through the establishment and institution of chattel slavery. This unique and particularly brutal form of slavery established the trend of discriminating against a group of people solely based on skin color, particularly targeting those of African descent, which has been ongoing in some form all throughout the history of the United States, and continues to this very day. Concerning the debate of racism in the United States, one side of the spectrum argues that the U.S. is now a post-racial society, with the commencement of the first “black” president, Barack Obama, in 2008 leading to drastic changes in public poilicies such as the revision of voting rights
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However, there is also another side of the spectrum that argues racism and race still play a significant role in modern U.S. society, and two authors delve into this argument through their writing, utilizing two uniquely different approaches. Claudia Rankine’s book titled “Citizen” is a collection of various instances of overt, as well as subtle acts of racism that are committed against African Americans, and whose roots can be traced back to the institutional structure of racialization that has been embedded into U.S. society. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s book “Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation” explores the historical aspect of African Americans navigating U.S. society primarily in the 20th century, and how the Black Lives Matter movement was formed, coincidentally during the timeframe of the 2nd term of the first “black” president. Many people only consider certain acts to be classified as “racist” if certain derogatory terms or elevated levels of aggression are involved in these acts, however this misconception does not
However, there is also another side of the spectrum that argues racism and race still play a significant role in modern U.S. society, and two authors delve into this argument through their writing, utilizing two uniquely different approaches. Claudia Rankine’s book titled “Citizen” is a collection of various instances of overt, as well as subtle acts of racism that are committed against African Americans, and whose roots can be traced back to the institutional structure of racialization that has been embedded into U.S. society. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s book “Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation” explores the historical aspect of African Americans navigating U.S. society primarily in the 20th century, and how the Black Lives Matter movement was formed, coincidentally during the timeframe of the 2nd term of the first “black” president. Many people only consider certain acts to be classified as “racist” if certain derogatory terms or elevated levels of aggression are involved in these acts, however this misconception does not