Loading
Find your next favorite audiobook
Become a member today and listen free for 30 daysStart your free 30 daysBook Information
Citizen: An American Lyric
Written by Claudia Rankine
Narrated by Allyson Johnson
Book Actions
Start ListeningRatings:
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars4.5/5 (266 ratings)
Length: 1 hour
- Publisher:
- Tantor Audio
- Released:
- Apr 21, 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781494580513
- Format:
- Audiobook
Description
Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV-everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship.
Book Actions
Start ListeningBook Information
Citizen: An American Lyric
Written by Claudia Rankine
Narrated by Allyson Johnson
Ratings:
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars4.5/5 (266 ratings)
Length: 1 hour
Description
Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV-everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship.
- Publisher:
- Tantor Audio
- Released:
- Apr 21, 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781494580513
- Format:
- Audiobook
About the author
Claudia Rankine is the author of three collections of poetry: Nothing in Nature Is Private, The End of the Alphabet, and Plot. She teaches at the University of Georgia.
Related to Citizen
Reviews
Reviews
What people think about Citizen
4.5Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
266 ratings / 34 reviews
What did you think?
Rating: out of 5 stars
Critic reviews
"This genre-defying work is a beautiful and horrifying account of the daily indignities, from the seemingly well-intentioned to the blatantly racist, that erode a person of color's sense of self and belonging. An especially valuable read for anyone who's been skeptical of the idea of microaggressions."
Scribd Editors
"This genre-defying work is a beautiful and horrifying account of the daily indignities, from the seemingly well-intentioned to the blatantly racist, that erode a woman of color's sense of self and belonging. This multifaceted look at feminism is an especially valuable read for anyone who's been skeptical of the idea of microaggressions."
Scribd Editors
Reader reviews
jonfaith
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
Was this review helpful for you?
Citizen is an exploration of attitudes, a loose leaf dispatch on race. Is it a meditation on anger? On images and bodies?Is language as violent as memory? Is it privilege to be oblivious?
I said aloud while reading that, “my mental misanthropy is presently blooming.”
I stumbled upon this book this morning, fully unaware. It was digested in a futbol half.
I said aloud while reading that, “my mental misanthropy is presently blooming.”
I stumbled upon this book this morning, fully unaware. It was digested in a futbol half.
jonfaith
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
Citizen is an exploration of attitudes, a loose leaf dispatch on race. Is it a meditation on anger? On images and bodies?Is language as violent as memory? Is it privilege to be oblivious?
I said aloud while reading that, “my mental misanthropy is presently blooming.”
I stumbled upon this book this morning, fully unaware. It was digested in a futbol half.
I said aloud while reading that, “my mental misanthropy is presently blooming.”
I stumbled upon this book this morning, fully unaware. It was digested in a futbol half.
Was this review helpful for you?
asxz-2
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
Was this review helpful for you?
I don't read enough poetry to judge whether this qualifies as a good or less good example of the modern form. But as a commentary on being Black in 21st century America this is a powerful document. I was most moved by the section on Serena Williams but every little story was heartbreaking and terrible.
asxz-2
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
I don't read enough poetry to judge whether this qualifies as a good or less good example of the modern form. But as a commentary on being Black in 21st century America this is a powerful document. I was most moved by the section on Serena Williams but every little story was heartbreaking and terrible.
Was this review helpful for you?
mpho3
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
Was this review helpful for you?
These lines from the book jacket say it all: "The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging...." Rankine's expositions are either acutely relatable or not. I suspect that if a reader isn't nodding his or her head in knowingness, then the entire work must be for that person enigmatically shrouded. For one it may be reality, for the other a reality check.
mpho3
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
These lines from the book jacket say it all: "The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging...." Rankine's expositions are either acutely relatable or not. I suspect that if a reader isn't nodding his or her head in knowingness, then the entire work must be for that person enigmatically shrouded. For one it may be reality, for the other a reality check.
Was this review helpful for you?
kaulsu
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
Was this review helpful for you?
I am a “liberal” “white” person. We are all so free with labels. Er think we know what everyone knows. And that everyone knows what we know. Or they should...but please don’t should on me. This book made me squirm. When I open my mouth, are my good intentions misunderstood? Pure intentions! In this day of amazing numbers of black men being gunned down by police acceptable?As we used to say about men sexually harassing women, is this OUR problem, that they can’t keep it zipped up? Ranking now points out that white [men/policemen] need to control their imaginations when confronting unarmed black men.
kaulsu
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)
I am a “liberal” “white” person. We are all so free with labels. Er think we know what everyone knows. And that everyone knows what we know. Or they should...but please don’t should on me. This book made me squirm. When I open my mouth, are my good intentions misunderstood? Pure intentions! In this day of amazing numbers of black men being gunned down by police acceptable?As we used to say about men sexually harassing women, is this OUR problem, that they can’t keep it zipped up? Ranking now points out that white [men/policemen] need to control their imaginations when confronting unarmed black men.
Was this review helpful for you?
arubabookwoman
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars(3/5)
Was this review helpful for you?
I'm not sure how to describe this short book--poetry? prose? screenplay? It won the National Book Critics Award in Poetry and was also a finalist for the same award in Criticism. It also won the NAACP Image Award, as well as being a finalist for several other awards.It contains, among other things, a long story about a series of bad calls made against Serena Williams in 2004, 2009, and 2011, all apparently involving racial bias. She discusses friends who have crossed the line with her when they feel entitled to joke about racial matters (i.e. "nappy hair"), or those who have spoken with her on the phone, who express surprise to discover she's not white when they meet her in real life, and other indignities suffered merely because she is black, such as the store clerk asking her if she's sure her credit card will work.She takes a series of quotes taken from CNN after Katrina, and presents them as a poem, which includes Barbara Bush's unforgettable comment, "And so many people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working out well for them."There is a prose poem/script in memory of Trayvon Martin which ends with the following:"because white men can'tpolice their imaginationblack people are dying."This was like a scrapbook of various meditations on race. Many of the individual pieces were moving and unforgettable. However, overall, I found it sometimes disorganized, and some of the pieces did not engage me. (Some seemed to be intended to be presented visually, as in a video). Still, I could see that it is an important work.3 stars
arubabookwoman
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars(3/5)
I'm not sure how to describe this short book--poetry? prose? screenplay? It won the National Book Critics Award in Poetry and was also a finalist for the same award in Criticism. It also won the NAACP Image Award, as well as being a finalist for several other awards.It contains, among other things, a long story about a series of bad calls made against Serena Williams in 2004, 2009, and 2011, all apparently involving racial bias. She discusses friends who have crossed the line with her when they feel entitled to joke about racial matters (i.e. "nappy hair"), or those who have spoken with her on the phone, who express surprise to discover she's not white when they meet her in real life, and other indignities suffered merely because she is black, such as the store clerk asking her if she's sure her credit card will work.She takes a series of quotes taken from CNN after Katrina, and presents them as a poem, which includes Barbara Bush's unforgettable comment, "And so many people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working out well for them."There is a prose poem/script in memory of Trayvon Martin which ends with the following:"because white men can'tpolice their imaginationblack people are dying."This was like a scrapbook of various meditations on race. Many of the individual pieces were moving and unforgettable. However, overall, I found it sometimes disorganized, and some of the pieces did not engage me. (Some seemed to be intended to be presented visually, as in a video). Still, I could see that it is an important work.3 stars
Was this review helpful for you?
jnwelch_1
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)
Was this review helpful for you?
"At the end of a brief phone conversation, you tell the manager you are speaking with that you will come by his office to sign the form. When you arrive and announce yourself, he blurts out, I didn't know you were black!I didn't mean to say that, he then says.Aloud, you say.What? he asks.You didn't mean to say that aloud.Your transaction goes swiftly after that."******"I knew what ever was in front of me was happening and then the police vehicle came to a screeching halt in front of me like they were setting up a blockade. Everywhere were flashes, a siren sounding and a stretched-out roar. Get on the ground. Get on the ground now. Then I just knew.And you are not the guy and still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always fitting the description."******"because white men can'tpolice their imaginationblack men are dying"******"Your friend is speaking to your neighbor when you arrive home. The four police cars are gone. Your neighbor has apologized to your friend and now is apologizing to you. Feeling somewhat responsible for the actions of your neighbor, you clumsily tell your friend that the next time he wants to talk on the phone he should just go in the backyard. He looks at you a long minute before saying he can speak on the phone wherever he wants. Yes, of course, you say. Yes, of course."Being black in America. Claudia Rankine brings that home in a way I haven't experienced before, in Citizen: An American Lyric. It's an amazing, heartbreaking book.
jnwelch_1
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)
"At the end of a brief phone conversation, you tell the manager you are speaking with that you will come by his office to sign the form. When you arrive and announce yourself, he blurts out, I didn't know you were black!I didn't mean to say that, he then says.Aloud, you say.What? he asks.You didn't mean to say that aloud.Your transaction goes swiftly after that."******"I knew what ever was in front of me was happening and then the police vehicle came to a screeching halt in front of me like they were setting up a blockade. Everywhere were flashes, a siren sounding and a stretched-out roar. Get on the ground. Get on the ground now. Then I just knew.And you are not the guy and still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always fitting the description."******"because white men can'tpolice their imaginationblack men are dying"******"Your friend is speaking to your neighbor when you arrive home. The four police cars are gone. Your neighbor has apologized to your friend and now is apologizing to you. Feeling somewhat responsible for the actions of your neighbor, you clumsily tell your friend that the next time he wants to talk on the phone he should just go in the backyard. He looks at you a long minute before saying he can speak on the phone wherever he wants. Yes, of course, you say. Yes, of course."Being black in America. Claudia Rankine brings that home in a way I haven't experienced before, in Citizen: An American Lyric. It's an amazing, heartbreaking book.
Was this review helpful for you?