English 252

Hi all, although this event took place a little while ago, I feel it is necessary to discuss! I attended Sapphire’s reading on April 4th, in Jacobus Lounge.

Walking into this event, I did not know what to expect. I knew of Sapphire and her talents, but was unaware of her powerful voice and strength. For those of you who don’t know, Sapphire is the author of 2 best selling novels, Push and The Kid. Push was adapted into Precious, the movie, which received 2 academy awards. Her work is well known world-wide, as it has been translated into at least 13 languages. Her voice is a prominent one in literature, but it’s also well needed, as she gives voice to the people that are set aside to be invisible. She never holds back in her writing. Her work is so intimate, as her characters draw us in to their realities. Sapphire urges us to look at the harsh truths experienced. Sapphires voice is moving, with the ability to affect all who reads. Her voice is crucial. She pushes us to examine our own ideas and preconceptions, so we’re left with the heavy emotions she evokes in us within her writing. Simply put. Sapphire is a captivating writer, and speaker. You cannot help but keep every ounce of your attention on her as she reads. Watching her speak is like witnessing the pain she has seen and experienced within others all over again. I recall her slamming her fists on the podium, just ready to burst. I can honestly say that I am so grateful to have experienced this power up close in personal, and I am lucky that Cortland granted me this experience. If you were unable to attend, I strongly suggest you buy her novels, so you can experience some of this power as well.

I would like to focus on her reading of “Speaker Of The House.” The poem is not necessarily about Dennis Hassett (the longest speaker of the house) but refers to him multiple times. For those of you who don’t know, Hasset went to prison for sexually abusing the young boys that had been entrusted in his care when he was a wrestling coach. This poem is for the victims of this abuse, who were greatly affected by Dennis Hassett. The poem evokes a great amount of anger within me, as it discusses how the abuse impacted the abused boys. Sapphire takes the persona of these young boys, saying that they feel “I’m nothing, watching you on T.V…” These boys are left broken as this man continued to have power of them and their bodies, years after the abuse stopped. One victim in particular was unable to get job, left broken over the abuse. Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality that victims of sexual abuse face every day.

Another important message I gained from Sapphire’s reading/ Q&A was to read and write every single day. When asked how she found time to write, Sapphire expressed that no matter what, or how busy she gets, she finds time to write. Now unfortunately, I have never been able to section out a specific time to focus on my writing. However, since this reading, I have been writing at night before bed, whether it be a simple poem about the day or how I’m feeling, or my thoughts compiled in to a few pages of my journal! I’ve found that if you make a priority, it will get done!

Overall, I cannot express how happy I am to have experienced the strength of Sapphire. During this reading, Sapphire was the “speaker of the house,” and had her audience captivated throughout.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post!

Hi all,

My apologies again that I can’t be in class on Friday! Your homework for Monday is to bring in a short text (article, form, document, song lyrics, bill, etc.) that makes you mad or upset, that feels inaccurate or offensive. Be prepared to write on it. We will be making our own found poems. Also, bring Zong!, since we will continue our discussions.

In order to receive participation credit for Friday’s class, please follow the instructions below and post your comment by midnight on Friday. You will need your copy of Zong! handy.

First, watch this video of Phillip reading Zong 17, 18, 19 (29-34). Start from the beginning and watch until about 4:36. You may want to listen twice: once while looking at the poems she is reading and once without, to take it all in.

Next, please listen to this short lecture (20 mins), which will help you answer one of the discussion questions below. Follow along in your book. (Bonus = my cat interjects throughout!)

In your comment, please respond to one of the following discussion questions. You are encouraged to quote from the text and engage with the ideas of your peers.

• How did watching the video of Phillip reading change the way you read the text? Did it help you see any aspect of the text in a new way?
• In what sense is this an “impossible” story to tell?
• How did you read the names at the bottom of each page? What do they suggest?
• What strategies did you develop for reading these difficult poems?
• Phillip repeatedly compares the process of writing Zong! To the actual Zong massacre itself. Why? What is she inviting us to think about?
• Was there a particularly striking detail, pattern, or theme you observed in the poems for today (20-76) that raised an interesting thought or question? Please explain.

Comments are due by midnight on Friday. Looking forward to reading your responses. Have a great weekend and see you Monday!

Hello fellow classmates! I hope you all enjoyed reading parts of Zong! by M. NourbeSe Philip! There is so much to dissect here, but what I found intriguing and also quite engaging was Philip’s use of fugue. So, if you all don’t mind, I’m going to hash out all the ideas I have here.

Fugue is typically seen in a musical sense, which is fitting because Philip sees Zong!’s structure as “…more towards the lyric and less towards language” (197). She uses fugue as “…a frame through which I could understand Zong!” (204). For a while she wrestles with the poems as a whole, saying that there are in fact two poems at play here, “… the one I want to write and the one writing itself” (192).

First, I would like you all to re-read and compare poems Zong! #1 (3-4) and Zong! #5 (8-13), to Zong! #8 (16) and #9 (17). How did you read them? Did you use the same voice throughout, or a different voice? Did you notice any repetitiveness or common themes? This is essentially fugue, defined by The English Oxford Dictionary as “a contrapuntal composition in which a melody or phrase (the subject) is introduced by one part and successively taken up by others and developed by interweaving the parts”, and also “a loss of awareness of one’s identity… associated with certain forms of hysteria and epilepsy” (“fugue,” [English Oxford Dictionary]).

*Here is an example of a birthday fugue, if you’re like me and need extra help understanding the definition! *

Both definitions of fugue are utilized by Philip to place the reader on the Zong during those long, cruel weeks with little to no water, and of course the slaughter of 150 slaves. She appeals to our sense of hearing, and by arranging her poems in this way, gives up snippets of what one might have heard on the Zong: moans, cries, and chants from the enslaved (3), as well as the cold calculative voices of those who doomed them (5). Sometimes, these even occur on the same page (9). There is a feeling of mass hysteria, and loss of individuality. Most likely, many of the slaves could not understand each other because of the many different African languages. Even more likely is that they could not understand the crew’s command to be thrown overboard and sentenced to death by drowning, adding to the hysteria effect. They are no longer Bantu, Ibo or Yoruba; now they are just humans fighting for “…sustenance…” (5,9,11,12, 17) and “…preservation…” (6). We could even venture to suppose that the poems she wanted to write was the voice “…of someone who appears to be white, male, and European” (204), but the poem that seemingly wrote itself were the voices of the slaves.

In this video, if you skip to minute 20 you will get to see Philip preforming Zong! #5, and I believe about five minutes in she switches to another part in the book that I have yet to find. However, I think it’s a commanding visual, and you can also hear the different voices I discussed earlier.

Here is another live reading, much different than the video above. What voice/s do you hear in this reading?

Some questions to consider:

1. How is this book an anti-narrative? (please give specific examples or page numbers!)
2. How did your inner voice read the poems, more like the first video of Philip or the second? Which do you prefer?
3. Did you read the poems in a non-linear way? And if so, how did it change your interpretation, if at all?

Works Cited

“Fugue” def. N 1.2 Oxford English Dictionary, 2019, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fugue. Accessed 8 April 2019.

Philip, Marlene Nourbese. Zong! Wesleyan University Press, 2011.

*Also, sorry for the formatting, this was copied/pasted from Word because I found it easier, I know there’s an issue with formatting of my first work cited, I can’t figure out how to fix it!*

Poetry is defined as a type of literature or artistic writing that attempts to stir a reader’s imagination/emotions. It can help us understand issues that occur not only in the present but in the past as well. In M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! the author composes a found poetry book with a complex writing structure throughout. In the acknowledgments, the author discusses how the book is inspired by “Black Ivory” written by James Walvin. Walvin is known for writing about slavery in the British Empire. With this, readers can expect the book to be connected to slavery in multiple ways. We can get a little taste of the theme that will be prevalent throughout the book.

It’s clear when we read to the first section of the book how the writing is a little difficult to follow/understand. For me, I had to read the poems out loud in order to try to get a grasp on what was being written in order to comprehend it. In fact, this happened to be the first time I across a poem that allows the readers to read the poem in multiple ways as a result of the way it’s structured. In other words, there is no clear way to read the poems, would you agree?

On another note, the first poem has an emphasis on the idea of water as you can see on pages 3 and 4:

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The water being a main element in the first poem made me think about why the author would decide to start off the book this way. I started to question the importance of the water, and how it had anything to do with race. Water can symbolize a series of things such as life, birth, a right of passage, or refreshment. After doing some research on slaves and water, I found some of the history behind it.

Zong was the name of a ship that was headed toward Jamaica in 1781. The trip was approximately 12 weeks long and on the ship, there were 417 slaves. Toward the end of the voyage, there was a shortage of water and an outbreak of disease. With no clean water or food, it was going to be very difficult for the slaves to fight off the sickness. As a result, the ship’s captain claimed that the slaves were going to die anyway, so in order to save money and himself, he threw slaves who seemed very sick off the ship. He knew that all of the voyages were insured, but didn’t insure sick slaves or those killed by illness. It did however, ensure slaves that died through drowning. 54 Africans were chained together and thrown overboard while another 78 were drowned over the next two days. By the time the ship had reached the Caribbean, 132 people were murdered. When the ship returned to England the owners claimed they should get their money back for all the slaves lost. The case was taken to court and the jury decided since it was allowed to kill animals for the safety of the ship, it was ok to kill slaves for the same reason. Eventually, this became known as the Zong Massacre. It’s clear the poem is alluding to this historical moment as Philip writes, “The some of negroes … over… board” (6) and “Justified a throwing of property (16), which is a clear indication of the slaves being thrown off the ship. Below you can find an image of this moment.

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Finally while reading the poems, I noticed the phrase “negroe” is often repeated. This phrase has a clear connection to the Zong massacre as this was a word African American slaves were called. This language shows the theme of racism and how there was racial prejudice during the 1700s. In addition, it shows how those of color lives were not valued or cared much about. It’s sad to say in today’s society the Zong massacre still exists in its own ways. For example, police brutality against those of a Black/Latino race is still prevalent, and those of color face unfair punishments every day.

With that, I leave a few questions for you guys to think about:

1. How was your experience reading the book? Did some of the complex structures confuse you while reading?
2. How does this Zong massacre image make you feel? What comes to mind when you see this image?
3. Have you ever witness a discriminatory act? If so, how did it make you feel? Did you do anything about it?

In many cases, experience outweighs classroom learning or lecture when it comes to education. Simply being told something does not mean that an individual will understand a concept. Only through encounters can some truly learn an idea. Rankine uses this as a device in her writings. She does not merely invite the reader to experience her experiences; she forces those willing to experience it. In her work, Claudia Rankine’s repeated use of the pronoun “you”makes the reader the subject of her work. While reading this part of Citizen I used a Marxist critical lens to better understand the social hierarchy Rankine works to dismantle. During her poem, Rankine hails her audience by saying, “Hey you—” (140). By hailing her readers directly, Rankine “[I]nterpellates individuals as subjects” (Althusser 119). Interpellates means to give an identity to something. By calling out to her reader, Rankine uses her power as the author of this book to make the reader the subject of the poem and helps her audience understand her position by switching the roles of the narrative. I believe that this gives a new meaning to the following excerpt:

           You are you even before you grow into understanding you are not anyone, worthless, not worth you. (139)

This excerpt helps the reader understand the deep-rooted, sometimes subconscious institution of racism in America. Rankine invites the reader to imagine being seen as worthless in the eyes of a society before the reader is even born. In this way, Rankine makes her argument by forgoing the writing convention showing, not telling by having the reader experience first-hand what she argues. Rankine employs this strategy again when she says, “what happens to you doesn’t belong to you, only half concerns you” (141). The audience experiences Rankine’s experience of not owning her life. This idea of ownership stems back to the middle passage when Africans were brought to the Americas as slaves. Their experiences, their home, and their autonomy ripped away from them so that they held no ownership over their life. Rankine needs her audience to not only be aware of this fact but live it. Only through this experience can someone truly understand the pain, the injustice, and the inequality of the situation. And, the moment you question this ideology and this institution, “you are pulled back into the body of you receiving” (141). Rankine makes clear that the current system condemns the questioning of itself and has measure to defend itself from someone dismantling it: having them pulled back and become a receiver again. Rankine shows the ridicule people experience when showing any autonomy. The persona of the poem takes on an authoritative tone in the following excerpt:

Who do you think you are, saying I to me?

You nothing.

You nobody.

You. (142)

The pronoun “I” holds a special place in the English grammar: the only pronoun capitalized in any point during a sentence. It also holds the place as the subject of a sentence (me being in the objective case.) The word “you,” on the other hand, remains the same in the subjective case or objective cases. The persona ridicules the audience for assuming they have any power in this society, they have the right to individuality and they have the freedom to define themselves. Instead, the persona of the poem flips it on audience and tells them where they stand in the social hierarchy. Rankine experienced all the problems she has her audience live, and she realizes that silence and tolerance only perpetuates the problem. She recognizes that her audience needs to experience this social injustice in order for them to see that it exists. This shared experience will be used as a first step in dismantling a society that promotes and institutionalizes racism. The first step starts with the individual experience and blossoms from there. Thank you all for reading my ramblings! Here are a couple of questions I’m hoping to get your opinion on:

1. Does Rankine use any other elements in this poem or in the story to make the reader the subject of the story other than using the pronoun “you”?

2. Do you think the subject of the story is not the reader (“you”)? If so, who is it?

3. How do you think the final images of the story contribute to how Rankine includes the reader in her text?

Code-switching is defined by Carlos D. Morrison, a writer from Encyclopedia Britannica, as “[the] process of shifting from one linguistic code (a language or dialect) to another, depending on the social context or conversational setting.” Everybody code-switches all day long without even knowing they’re doing it, and it’s pretty cool. Do you talk to your friends the same way you talk to your Mom or Dad, the same way you talk to your professors? Though you may speak in a single language to all of those people, you most definitely use different dialects depending on who it is. That is code-switching.

Jamila Lyiscott, a poet and educator, delivered a TED Talk back in 2014 about code-switching in which she also explains that she is trilingual. Please take four and a half minutes to watch that TED Talk here…

This is the least boring TED Talk ever. If you’re rolling your eyes at the thought, I swear you won’t regret watching this.

Lyiscott makes it clear that, when done properly, code-switching is a fabulous tool that enables you to speak to various groups of people in their respective dialects, or simply just the way they want to be spoken to. Though it may be perfectly okay for a sibling to call you names, most would agree that it would be inappropriate for a teacher to call you those same names. It is a normal occurence to code-switch, a part of everyday life. It is strange to think that someone would choose to go against this norm.

A particular micro-aggression experienced by the narrator in Citizen happens when she is called a name by a friend: “This friend says, as you walk toward her, You are late, you nappy-headed ho. What did you say? you ask, though you have heard every word. This person has never before referred to you like this in your presence, never before code-switched in this manner” (Rankine 41). Included on the page is a photo of the Rutgers women’s basketball team, relevant because white announcer Don Imus referred to them by the same name during a live broadcast. The women in the photo are angry, but not violently so. Imus apologized soon after. The narrator does not include the race of the friend who said this, but as this is a book about racism and it is a racially charged comment, I would imagine that this friend is not black. The narrator is immediately taken aback by the comment, able to quickly acknowledge the false use of the dialect. To be able to code-switch properly, you obviously need to understand the social context that you are in at any given moment. The friend clearly does not understand that she is not the person to be making comments like that, nor is it the time or the place. Perhaps what is worse is that, after the narrator expresses her distaste, the friend is unable to recognize her mistake and instead insists to the narrator that it was just a joke. The narrator intensely compares this whole event to the reopening of a wound (Rankine 42). This is yet another metaphor that Rankine is employing in this book to help express what dealing with these micro-aggressions feels like. These metaphors create some powerful juxtaposition, since the events may be small (micro) but the feelings are huge.

How do you feel about the idea of code-switching?

Has someone ever wrongfully code-switched when speaking to you?

Are there other instances of wrongful code-switching present in the novel that have stuck out to you?

We have already talked about the importance of the content and the way Claudia Rankine develops her own story in her own way, making the reader feel involved in the situations she is depicting. Citizen: An American Lyric, as we know, is divided in different parts that differ from one another in the way they are written: sometimes paragraphs that portray different racism acts, sometimes stories that require more explanation, as for instance, the Serena Williams’ one… 

Today I would love to go a little bit further and get a bit deeper in the meaning and transcendentalism of the book by analyzing the different images she is using and the different connections we need to understand by the language she is using.

I will start by the very beginning, the cover of the book:

The purpose of Rankine’s “lyric” is to address how prevalent racism is and how we all participate in this. She wants us, the readers, to understand and feel uncomfortably aware of every single act of discrimination, to read what she has to say in two ways: as the victim, and as the oppressor. She tries, and success, with every little detail. 

The cover is the first part of a book we encounter… what does this imply? In an interview with The Believer, the interviewer states he associates the image with slavery, Rankine then explains “it’s a hoodie that the conceptual artist David Hammons made in 1993, two years after the Rodney King beating”, who was a survivor of an act of police brutality. Then the author talks about the murderer of Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old student that was shot in 2012, she claims that “the sense that he brought on his own death by dressing like a hood, made many believe Hammons made the piece in response to his murder. But Hammons knew or knows already.” Let’s focus on these last words. Rankine wants the reader to understand that racism and racist acts transcend beyond time and space, and, as she presents along her work, are still present today.

As we read the first pages, we find the quote “If they don’t see happiness in the picture, at least they’ll see the black” found in a documentary by Chris Marker that deals with issues of the nature of human memory and how personal and global histories affect us. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBYY9LSxylw) When I was rereading the book for the second time, it caught my attention the similarity of this passage and the one in page 46: “Obviously this unsmiling image of you makes him uncomfortable, and he [, the friend she is addressing] needs you to account for that.” (Rankine) This made me think of the relevance of that first line, as the incompatibility of happiness and being black is stated, and will be proved though the book. 

Images continue being a crucial part of this book, and this section we find only three, but I will address two:

These two images have a double duty, first of all, they make the reader feel uncomfortable and uncertain of what is going on as we don’t really understand the meaning of the second one or why the first one is written the way it is written and what she wants us to get from the message. And also, by using these images, Rankine wants us to realize the importance of the contrast of colors, as they are the first pictures in black and white that we find in the book; the first one presenting a text written in black on a white background that slowly degenerates and stars being unreadable but that presents a pattern of two sentences that reads “I do not always feel colored… I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” This message makes us pay attention to a black text in a white background in an ironic way, since all the book is written in the same way: black typing on white pages; but she wants us to pay attention specifically to this one image, and she wants us to realize how the letter start to fade. On the other hand, the second image is challenging this, the common thought of a white background and black images on it, as it is presented the other way round.  

I would also like to address the different connections the author has been using with language through this section, she continues paying attention to Serena Williams’ story, but this time she wants the reader to feel what she is feeling, Rankine is comparing the feelings and frustration of the tennis match Williams lives with feelings in reality, a daily fight: a match that transcends; as we see in these examples: “The ball isn’t being returned. Someone is approaching the umpire. Someone is upset now.” (Rankine 64), “though you can retire with an injury, you can’t walk away because you feel bad”. (Rankine 65)

I also find very interesting the way Rankine talks about headaches in a figurative way. In page 61 we find out “the headaches begin” (Rankine), in page 62, “the headaches remain” (Rankine), and, finally, in page 69 “despite everything, the body remains” (Rankine)… she is addressing how tiring the daily fight gets, how these “headaches”, this pain, begin… and remain; but, in spite of the pain and the memory, the body remains, she stands still, and so does every victim of discrimination.

I have been paying attention to the imagery and pictures of this section, and my question is, do you think the images play such an important role? How do you think they work in the context of the whole book? Do the images break the ideas or the feelings you have while reading the text… or do they intensify them? And also, during this months, we have been addressing the importance of storytelling and having a voice, Rankine is aware of it as she indicates in page 61 when she compares narrative to creating lives. How do you think she is employing the act of telling stories? Do you think her method is effective? Why (or why not)?

Bonus:

Here is the link to Rankine’s website just in case you want to learn a bit more: http://claudiarankine.com/

Bonus (II): 

I found this caricature of Serena Williams and I just wanted to leave it here and see what you all think

Works Cited:

Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Graywolf Press, 2014.

The Believer interview: https://believermag.com/logger/2014-12-10-i-am-invested-in-keeping-present-the-forgotten/

Hello everybody!

I just wanted to let you all know that I will be speaking in the 10th annual student conference on diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice that will take place on Saturday, April 13 in Corey Union (I still don’t know the exact time of my presentation but the whole conference with its different presentations is from 8 am to 4 pm)

The title of my presentation is: Breaking the Stigma: the Importance of Teaching Sexual Diversity in Schools

And the description of it is:

Our stories make us who we are, and we cannot make anybody’s story unheard. The most important fact to keep in mind when we teach young students in schools is that each and every one of them are different and unique, but we are all the same; not better, nor less… Being aware of sexual diversity so as to provide a safe and accepting environment for students is the only way to let them tell their own story. I have my story, and it’s the story of a generation, what about you?

I will leave here the link where you have to sign up before April 1 if you want to come: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdUD6OoHE9ZIUulZQpa0RHUw7ezbQ9KWDvpzkFe1RKaHKFEBw/viewform

Thank you!

The role of the narrator plays a crucial role in telling a story and how that story is interpreted. Claudia Rankine uses the less common method – by immersing the readers themselves into the story – in order to fully engage her audience in Citizen. Just as the other blog posters Lilly and Stephanie have addressed, this engagement with the readers disregards characteristics of the individuals such as their race, gender, sexuality, etc. Rankine places the readers in scenarios in which they’d feel uncomfortable, ostracized and ideally, give the readers an insight as to what racism feels like in all definitions of the word. The book challenges these feelings, particularly anger, and by placing “you” in the middle, one can’t help but wonder how to handle the situation.

                The first eighteen pages demonstrate awkward situations that should evoke many feelings from the readers, ranging from humility to anger. An example from the text which evokes this feeling includes: “You think maybe this is an experiment and you are being tested or retroactively insulted or you have done something that communicates this is an okay conversation to be having” (11). You are meant to feel angry by this situation. People of color are being ostracized and deemed as not as “great” of writers as the implied white people are. Perhaps the acquaintance is naïve in regards to racism, or they find that you’re an exception because you’re not like other people of color (yet another racist implication). Whether or not the acquaintance in your situation is intentionally being racist, this still ignites anger.

                Let’s imagine we’re in Serena Williams’ situation (or to follow along with Rankine’s narrative, let’s say you are in her situation). You’re talented, athletic, and to suggest you’ve worked tremendously hard to be where you are now is an understatement. You’re doing everything you physically and mentally can to win, however there are people who want to see you fail because of the color of your skin. They insinuate you’re making bad calls and yet no one notices this except for the umpire. How would you respond to that? How would you feel and how would you manage those emotions during an important play? You can’t pause life to react accordingly. Feelings aren’t black and white. Rankine writes “John McEnroe, given his own keen eye for injustice during his professional career, was shocked that Serena was able to hold it together after losing the match” (27). Serena did her best to compose herself amidst a racist fallacy. She later admits that she was “angry and bitter” and felt “cheated” (27). During her career she is notorious for outrages, throwing her racket, and shouting. She later learns to co-exist with her anger – the majority of that anger is most likely due to the racism and politics of the sport – but it doesn’t just occur in the court. It appears that Serena uses this racism as a driving force and despite it all, she wants to make America proud, and yet she must work twice as hard and control her somehow unjustified feelings in the meantime.

                The ball is not in her court. How is someone supposed to react to this kind of racism? You’ve worked hard and dedicated your life to this sport, but something you have no power over is going to determine your success.

 The two articles we read for Wednesday connect to Citizen. Which one do you think Serena Williams’ control on her anger connects to more? Which emotions did you feel (or if you didn’t feel much, what were you intended to feel) during the first eighteen pages of Citizen? How would you handle this kind of anger; would it be discouraging or would you use it as a driving force to prove them wrong?

Claudia Rankine immediately introduces her audience to a personal anecdote of her youth. Ofen in literature, readers find it very hard to connect to something they have never experienced, yet Rankine makes this objective easy to obtain. She gets very personal with her readers, taking them to a memory that greatly impacted her life, and continues to even years after its occurrence. It is normal to wonder why we are getting thrown into this story. It is also common to think about the reasoning behind Rankine’s direct address to the audience.

In the story, Citizen, Rankine makes multiple references to the audience. She does this by introducing the idea of “you”. By doing so, Rankine is pulling us all in, thus forcing us to connect. I use “force” because without this aggressive nature, many would not even consider relating to the life of the author. Rankine wants us to see life through the experiences that she has overcome. She places us in the middle of her anecdotes, throwing us into a world that many of us would not know. This then opens up a new door of interpretation and understanding.  The use of the pronoun “you” is rather ambiguous. Rankine does not know the audience, yet she involves them in her story regardless of their race or gender; it can be applied to anyone. But to me, that is simply her point; it doesn’t matter your race nor gender, but only that YOU understand the string of stories coming from years of experienced racism. Rankine wants the readers to realize the harsh effects this reality had, and still has, on her everyday life.

The color of her skin has separated her from other children throughout her childhood. Even as a young girl, Rankine would experience backhanded remarks. At 12 years old, she is told that she “[has] features like a white person” by another young (white) girl in her class (5) As a child, Rankine does not know how to interpret this, so sadly enough, she understands it as a thank you in return for letting this girl cheat off of her test (5). 12 years old… these are the things running through the minds of a 12 year white girl. And Claudia, naive and unable to detect the blatant racism, received this as a thank you. Racism is not innate, it is taught. Another example is when a young girl tries to take ownership of the seats on the plane, stating, “these are our seats” while the look on her face gives way to how she really feels– she really does not want to sit next to an African American woman on the plane (12). The mother, clearly sensing her daughter’s uncomfort, does not correct her actions, but condones them by saying that she’ll “sit in the middle” so that her daughter doesn’t have to sit next to this woman (12).

Through these narrated experiences, Rankine uses the pronoun “you” to create a variety of emotional experiences in the reader as they interpret the story. How did you feel when reading this opening stories? How did you react to Rankine’s direct address? More importantly, what emotions does it pull out of the reader? Is it anger, or maybe even disgust? Rankine throws “you” into her experiences because she wants the reader to feel the discomfort she experiences on a daily basis. She wants this to provoke an uncomforting feeling. If this in fact does happen, Rankine succeeds in her goal of forcing the reader to connect to experiences. These introductory stories are supposed to provoke an uneasy feeling. If you look at these stories and scowl in disgust, Rankine has done her job in making you a part of her experiences.