In the book Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine Parts II and III, there are reoccurring times of the influence of the past in the present, images in perpetuating racial violence, past histories of racial violence and racial discrimination and how they continue to show in the daily life and what happened to professional athletes who are known for the greatness in their game. Rankine speaks about what Serena Williams went through during her career and it is very sad how she was treated. Rankine talks about the struggles of being an African American in an American society, Rankine brings up many scenarios in which African Americans were treated very poorly. In Parts II and III of Citizen: An American Lyric, she includes images and some pages that are just blank, which leaves readers thinking about what they saw in the images, and it is rare for a book to have blank pages, which I think is a unique strategy by Rankine to keep the readers hooked. Rankine mentions scenarios that happen to African Americans and how they are treated poorly by continuing to speak in the 2nd-person so you could pretend to be in their shoes.
In Part II of Citizen: An American Lyric, Rankine’s focus was to speak about the tennis phenomenon Serena Williams and the things she went through during her career, which is still going to this day. Serena is known as one of the greatest tennis players and how she treated during her career is such a disgrace. There are times where she was treated unfairly on the court and people in the stands noticed it. Rankine brings it up in Part II, stating “The most notorious of Serena’s detractors takes the form of Mariana Alves, the distinguished chair umpire. In 2004 Alves was excused from officiating any more matches of the final day of the US Open after she made five bad calls against Serena in her quarterfinal matchup against fellow American Jennifer Capriati. The serves and returns Alves called out were landing, stunningly unreturned by Capriati, inside the lines, no discerning eyesight needed.” (Rankine 26-27). It was clear to many that Alves was leaning one way during the match because the description of inside the lines, no discerning eyesight needed is just proving that Alves had something against Serena Williams for some odd reason and was umpiring in a cheating way. Another example Rankine speaks on is “Though no one was saying anything explicitly about Serena’s black body, you are not the only viewer who thought it was getting in the way of Alves’s sight line.” (Rankine 27). Serena had her response to the unfairness stating, “I am very angry and bitter right now. I feel cheated. Shall I go on? I feel cheated.” (Rankine 27). Serena has the right to be angry and bitter because she is in the right and was cheated and the match was totally unfair. This scenario was an example of racial violence and racial discrimination because Alves was treating Serena in a very unfair way and what happened to her while playing the game she loved.
Also, in Part II, Rankine shows a photo perpetuating racial violence. Rankine shows an image of Caroline Wozniacki, former number one player in the country mocks Serena during a match against her which is awful. Rankine states “Now that there is no calling out of injustice, no yelling, no cursing, no finger wagging or head shaking, the media decides to take up the mantle when on December 12, 2012, two weeks after Serena is named WTA Player of the Year, the Dane Caroline Wozniacki, a former number one-player, imitates Serena by stuffing towels in her top and shorts, all in good fun, at an exhibition match. Racist? CNN wants to know if the outrage is the proper response.” (Rankine 36). This showing by Caroline Wozniacki is another example of how poorly Serena was treated during her professional career.
Rankine speaks on the struggles of being an African American in an American society in Part III. She talks about scenarios where racial discrimination occurs. Rankine states, “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 did not know you were black!” (Rankine 44). That is one of the many scenarios Rankine speaks on in Part III, racial violence and racial discrimination must come to a stop and it should have a long time ago.
In conclusion, Rankine does a great job explaining the struggles of being an African American in an American society by showing many scenarios and that even when you are a professional athlete that everyone loves, you can be treated terribly for no reason and the themes of the influence of the past in the present, images in perpetuating racial violence, past histories of racial violence and racial discrimination and how they continue to show in the daily life and what happened to professional athletes who are known for the greatness in their game shows in Parts II and III way too often and there needs to be changes to how African Americans are treated immediately.
Discussion questions:
- Did Rankine do a good job in Parts II and III by showing scenarios to the readers with what goes on in the daily life of African Americans and the struggles that are battled through?
- Was Alves in the wrong in 2004 in Serena’s match? Why or why not?
Works Cited:
Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf 2014)
Hi Kyle, to answer your second question, yes I do feel as though Alves was wrong in Serena’s math. She was calling out unnecessary call backs, and Serena rightfully got very upset. One scenario that stood out to me was “ Alves was excused from officiating any more matches on the final day of the US Open after she made five bad calls against Serena”(Rankine 26). This just shows me how unfair Alves was and it was stated in the text that “ commentators, spectators, television viewers, line judges could see the balls were good.”(27) if everyone saw that the balls were good why was Alves calling Serena out? Then Serena is called crazy for getting in Alves face. I feel as though there were definitely prejudice and racist acts that went behind Alves calling Serena out making those bad calls.
To answer your second discussion question, I believe that Alves was in the wrong in the 2004 match. In sports, sometimes ref’s make a bad call that can affect the whole game. Alves, the chair umpire made several calls that were questionable and very unfair towards Serena Williams. The calls heavily favored Jennifer Capriati and those calls were completely off. It is hard to say that the reason that she made these calls were because Serena Williams is a Black woman and Alves had implicit and unconscious biases because in order to officially say that, Alves would have to admit it. After she made several bad calls, she was removed from officiating these matches. Clearly, several people with extreme knowledge of tennis realized how bad her calling was. Being removed as an official at the U.S. open is something I’m sure does not happen often. Serena was treated extremely unfairly and was definitely cheated on in this match. Everyone noticed these bad calls, but Serena was still depicted as overly emotional. I think in several contexts, there was many uses of racial biases and it is very upsetting it was on such a large stage.
Hi Kyle,
I agree with you on how Rankine talks about the different scenarios that African Americans in America suffer from. Specifically racial disinclination and microaggressions. Each scenario brings in another perspective that the reader may or may not have been through and shows that it can happen anywhere. It goes from friends to work and even to celebrities. To answer your first question, yes, I do believe Rankine did an amazing job at showing different scenarios because of the wide variety she talks about lets the reader know that it doesn’t only happen in one place or city. I wanted to point out that in the beginning of the chapter Rankine talks a little bit about how a person should behave and what is entertainment. When Serena Williams won gold in the 2012 Olympics, she was celebrating of course but not everyone saw it that way. I have never seen the video, so I looked it up and you see the crowd has very mixed feelings about her celebration, but why? She was celebrating to a song and dance she knows so why is it a problem on camera? Why did people call her immature and classes? (27)
Hey Kyle,
I thought your perspective on the themes of racial violence in Citizen was very thoughtful and engaging. To answer your first question, Rankine did a great job showing African Americans’ struggles throughout their daily lives. The most impactful example from this part of the book lies in Part II when Rankine describes the story of Serena Williams.
Williams, a world-renowned tennis star, faces harsh criticisms in America, not rooting for her skill but for her appearance. When Rankine mentions that Williams won two gold medals for the United States during the 2012 Olympics, the only two that the nation won in tennis, she was reported by American media to be “Crip-Walking all over the most lily-white place in the world.” (Rankine 32.) A critical aspect of this chapter was showing the rage that Williams had whenever faced with societal unfairness as a result of being African American; the judges, alongside the rest of the tennis community, a white-majority community, constantly ridiculed Williams for acting out in rage over unfair calls during matches.
But can you blame her? Would you also grow quick to anger after building up rage throughout your life over something that you cannot control or ever change? It is a shame that Williams and other African Americans have to go through these struggles on a day-to-day basis, and Rankine explains that perfectly. Rankine’s use of Serena Williams in Part II of Citizen is a perfect example of the typical struggles that African Americans face throughout their daily lives.
Hi Kyle, In your blog post, I felt that you made some good points on the racial injustice found in sports on African American people. I am currently in a Political Race and sports class and we talk about scenarios like this a lot. One of the things that stood out to me in the reading was how over exaggerated the media became after Serena won the 2 gold medals in the 2012 Olympics with her dance. “And there goes Serena Crip walking all over the mostly lily white place in the world… you couldn’t help but shake your head” The Woman just won two gold metals she can’t express her emotions for 3 seconds. Another thing that is a little less blatant but still shows that racism is still in sports is you will hear commentators see a Black athlete make a great play by showing a great athletic feet, and the commentator will say “Wow what a play from the natural born athlete” I believe these comments are unintentional but it’s still racist because they only say it for African American people in certain sports and it implies that they didn’t have to work as hard as their white counterparts to reach that high level of play
Hi Kyle, I really enjoyed reading your blog post in regard to Citizen: An American Lyric and the purpose of Part II and Part III. I like that you mentioned the blank pages that fall in between each section of the second-person narrative. The book addresses readers in a way that may make us feel ‘talked-at’ and gives us concepts that are ‘talked-through’ with us so that the blank pages become necessary upon self-reflection and understanding. To address your first question, as to whether or not Parts II and II gave reasonable and vivid scenarios of what some may say a typical ‘day-in-the-life’ of an African American is in facing struggles of racism, I would say in my understanding, at least through the purpose of this book, yes. I think in Part III the most effective ‘daily occurrence’ is towards the end of the section as we encounter a poorly mannered cashier. “She says nothing. You want her to say something both as witness and as a friend. She is not you; her silence says so” (54). This is very important in highlighting the nature of relationships with, not only strangers, but of friends. Perhaps the friend feared to be judged by the cashier for standing up for her friend, or perhaps the friend imagined that she would be roped into some unnecessarily dramatized scene. Neither of which are good enough reasons to not stick up for a friend and to not interfere with racism head-on. So especially in Part III, yes I would say it was affective. I cannot personally say “yes this is a day in my life” of course, however Rankine’s point of the book is to give us possible everyday experiences of an African American and putting us in those shoes to experience it ourselves. So to this I would say yes this is a good representation of a possibility in the daily life of an African American.