Citizen By Claudia Rankine Analysis

Within the first few pages of Citizen by Claudia Rankine the audience is introduced to the term, “John Henryism,” (11). It is a term used to describe those “exposed to stress stemming from racism. They achieve themselves to death trying to dodge the buildup of erasure… the physiological costs were high,” (11). The book then goes on to explore the psychological costs of this erasure, the inner monologue of grief, anger, and confusion that stems from exposure to discrimination. Rankine has turned inwards, focusing on words unspoken and thoughts to never be produced into speech. Silence holds weight in this novel, silence in reference to the subconscious often holds more significance than sound. On the first page of the novel, the author describes a time in …show more content…
The images of our pop culture that speak volumes, that show action, that impact with no sound. On page 122 we are shown images of Zinedine Zidane right before he head-butts a player from Italy, assumedly soon after the Italian hurled slurs and insults in the direction of Zinedine. In this moment we are given silence, we are only allowed to see the gestures. We are only given the “Accounts of lip readers responding to the transcript of the World Cup,” no quotations, no confirmed spoken words. We see the image surrounded by quotations describing the struggles of the black experience, describing how “in order to save his life, he is forced to look beneath appearances, to take nothing for granted, to hear the meaning behind the words. We hear, then we remember,” (126). We see the raw action as Zidane remembers in silence, remembers moments in which those slurs had been used against him, remembered the psychological turmoil he has been forced to face due to others perceptions of his race. Action came from the inner monologue, action came from the implications of the words spoken, action came from