CITIZEN: AN AMERICAN LYRIC by CLAUDIA RANKINE

“I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.”

This book is categorised as a collection of poems but to me it transcends genre. It is a collection of observations; some in the form of actual works of art, photographs, and digital prints. Some is in the form of facts. And some is in the form of language manipulation; poetry.

Within these pages is exasperation and disappointment at the treatment received by this narrator - who is black - and by other black people, some in the public eye by choice, like Serena Williams, and some in the public eye because of police brutality. What Rankine documents here are heartbreaking accounts of her daily life. How people will move away from her, second guess her ability and intelligence and generally say offensive and stupid shit.

At the beginning of this collection, I was horrified to read of this treatment in more plain terms, and as the book progresses, it becomes more and more abstract, but no less painful or infuriating to read.

The messages are weighty and pack a punch, but the narrator seems quiet and unassuming, perhaps to add to the themes of the book.

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