Her strict control registers the strain of writing only in ways that will protect her from racist judgments, of her constant awareness that “witnessing the expression of this more ordinary and daily anger might make the witness believe that a person is ‘insane. One of the marvels of Rankine’s writing is that it so consistently embodies the ways in which the harm done by language turns to flesh, enduring at an almost cellular level, even while she forgoes the sonic fretwork that typically makes poetic language real. They achieve themselves to death trying to dodge the buildup of erasure.”Ĭitizen does much of its work in the body of the readers who stand in for her. As she notes, “a friend once told you there exists the medical term-John Henryism-for people exposed to stresses stemming from racism. American Lyrics Verse 1 Play house, put my favorite record on Get down, get your crystal method on You were like tall, tan, driving 'round the city Flirtin' with the girls like, you're so.

To be black, Citizen insists, is to be audibly, palpably, invisible, and the book is in large part a struggle to make that feeling tangible. That small, momentary shift makes the stakes of her approach unmistakable. It imagines-assumes-an all-white audience and, in the process, erases Rankine, who will resume the role or “you” one sentence later. American Lyrics Verse 1 Play house, put my favorite record on Get down, get your crystal method on You were like tall, tan, driving round the city Flirtin with the girls like, youre so. More than 40 pages in, for just that one sentence, “you” means someone else.

An american lyric