Standing in Silence: The Struggle Between Equality and Reality
Literature adapts and evolves to reflect the author's mindset within a specific time period. It leaves room for memories, both painful and beautiful, to be recounted, and allows history to be shared, leaving room for wounds to develop, or rather re-open. At this crucial point in history, a time filled with heavy racial injustice and inequality, in a response to the 2016 Presidential election, extremely racist microaggressions have become more apparent, seeming to have been enabled by the new presidential elect and his views. Trauma is what drives the author of Citizen, Claudia Rankine, as the overwhelming experiences with racism reveal a deeply rooted history of prejudice, which …show more content…
The 2016 presidential election itself, has disrupted the normalcy of what a president is and should stand for. It is not and has never been normal to have a presidential candidate with no prior government experience, a candidate who has repeatedly vowed to violate the constitution, or a candidate that has made blatantly racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and xenophobic remarks. And yet, Donald Trump as the presidential elect is America's new reality. Oppression and exclusion have always been prominent subjects in the U.S. from the beginning. Furthermore, the idea that this country was founded on principles that all men are created equal seems to overlook countless past and present injustices. This country has always seemed to have different interpretations of who exactly is included in the infamous line "We the people", found in the constitution. The illusion of this "greater good" that the U.S holds has always left the most vulnerable excluded to fend for themselves. Trump used the fear of America becoming inclusive as a way to cultivate heinous acts and thoughts of
Literature adapts and evolves to reflect the author's mindset within a specific time period. It leaves room for memories, both painful and beautiful, to be recounted, and allows history to be shared, leaving room for wounds to develop, or rather re-open. At this crucial point in history, a time filled with heavy racial injustice and inequality, in a response to the 2016 Presidential election, extremely racist microaggressions have become more apparent, seeming to have been enabled by the new presidential elect and his views. Trauma is what drives the author of Citizen, Claudia Rankine, as the overwhelming experiences with racism reveal a deeply rooted history of prejudice, which …show more content…
The 2016 presidential election itself, has disrupted the normalcy of what a president is and should stand for. It is not and has never been normal to have a presidential candidate with no prior government experience, a candidate who has repeatedly vowed to violate the constitution, or a candidate that has made blatantly racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and xenophobic remarks. And yet, Donald Trump as the presidential elect is America's new reality. Oppression and exclusion have always been prominent subjects in the U.S. from the beginning. Furthermore, the idea that this country was founded on principles that all men are created equal seems to overlook countless past and present injustices. This country has always seemed to have different interpretations of who exactly is included in the infamous line "We the people", found in the constitution. The illusion of this "greater good" that the U.S holds has always left the most vulnerable excluded to fend for themselves. Trump used the fear of America becoming inclusive as a way to cultivate heinous acts and thoughts of