Citizen: Beginning to End

Beginning To End

                One thing that I noticed and liked about the book are the titles, or lack of. I saw the book as three parts. Part one is where the poems were untitled except for the roman numerals. I feel that without the title you have to really listen more than you may have before to find the meaning. Coming into this book I already knew it was poetry, protest related and written by a black woman. With that information you look into the poems and pull out things otherwise not found. This book felt like three parts: how a black person lives in awkwardness and being thought little of, how black people are targeted by white people (mainly police) and then how they feel it best to not bring up such things due to backlash of some sort.

                At one point she mentions a meal with a woman she just met. The woman claims her son could not get into the college because of her. She knows it wasn’t her fault but, “You are not sure if you are meant to apologize for this failure.” (13) Even at twelve one is looked down on, “she (Sister Evelyn, teacher) cares less about cheating and more about humiliation or she never actually saw you sitting there.” (6) At this age she feels even teachers, ones who are support the student and give them every advantage, look away when a black child is at center stage.

The second part has moments such as “Then the pickup is beating the black object to the ground and the tire marks the crushed organs.” (94) This is when James Craig Anderson, a black male, was run over by a group of white teens. They may have not gotten away with it as Zimmerman did when he fatally shot Trayvon Martin protected by the “stand your ground law.”

                Near the end of the book Claudia Rankine writes this passage. “..the feeling that was born from understanding and now stumbles around in you- the go-along-to-get-along tongue pushing your tongue aside. Yes, and your mouth is full up and feeling is still tottering.” (154) The way I read it sounds like the blacks have the knowledge of what is going on. They know the mistreatment. Something should be said, but they also know what happens if a black person tries to defend themselves. At times they “accidentally” go away.
               Overall when asked about the audience she is trying to reach or who this book is intended for I believe it is for anyone. For the blacks as support to show there are others (including black) that know what is happening and are willing to stand with you. It is also for the white. Try to show them what seems to slip their mind. The unheard to soon be heard.