Citizen An American Lyric Analysis

In the reading, “Citizen: An American Lyric,” by Claudia Rankine, she puts you into situations of modern day racism. By using real life situations, she explains how racism fits into all aspects of life, whether it is in the media, at school, in public, or at home. Rankine describes the difference between conscious and subconscious discriminations to relate to the main idea of modern day racism. Rankine uses stories from real-life experiences of people consciously discriminating others. In the video made by a young black man that goes by the name, “Henessy Youngman,” he talks about what it takes to be successful artist if you’re black. The video is called, “How to be a Successful Black Artist.” Youngman describes a successful black artist as having an “angry nigger exterior.” The idea presented by this example is anger. He is discriminating blacks in the sense that they can only be successful if they use their anger to help them produce their music. This is false because making music based on anger is not the only way to be successful. Another reason why this is false is because anyone of any race can make music based off of anger or any specific emotion and be successful, not just blacks in specific. However, some might take the video as true and create the stereotype in their mind …show more content…
You go to meet her at her house and she yells at you to get off her yard. She is questioning you on why you are at her house when you set up an appointment with her. From her first impression, she thought you were there for bad intentions because of your physical appearance. This example is like that saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” which is exactly what the therapist did in this situation. It is important to not make assumptions on someone’s physical appearance, especially race, because then you are discriminating against