Citizen My Thoughts

Citizen talks about what it is like to be an African American. The book brushes over various instances that discrimination and prejudice is highlighted. By reading this book, I've noticed that is a way of protesting  that shows her passion on bringing the oppression of African Americans. This differs from poetry as she is stating more factual based information rather than elaborating on a story. As I read the book I did not think that Rankine addressed the book to a certain audience but she informed those who decided to read. The genres in the book all seemed to be the same. The main genre I see is non fiction as it uses figurative language; not as much as poetry. Non- Fiction could also be viewed as a creative piece; almost like an essay that contain factual information such as a paper regarding science. This is shown throughout her book. Once specific instance is where she talks about   the real estate woman who constantly repeated how safe she felt with her own kind. Rankine then showed us an art piece with the words, " I do not always feel colored, I feel most colored when i am thrown against a sharp white background" (Rankine, 53), this shows how she incorporated a factual situation that had occurred whilst showing a creative piece. The visual references in the book seemed to have depth and meaning. I believe the images could be viewed as various things depending on the stand point you are looking at it from. For me, the pictures show some sort of history, how a certain group of people are viewed and also pain. After reading this I have picked up on a sort of anger/paranoia that begins to intensify from page 60 -78. Rankine seems to become consumed by the thoughts and injustices so my question is why does Rankine let these memories that she has eat away at her? Initially, What struck me the most was what the book was actually all about. Just from reading the title, I had came to the conclusion that the book would be about the way of living for a specific individual in the United Sates. After reading it, I was shocked to learn about the amount of emotion and stories she tells that revolve around injustice and fear.