Sounds Like Justice, But Isn't

 

     Claudia Rankine isn't here to make you feel comfortable. Her breakthrough book Citizen: An American Lyric (2014) is a poetic exploration of the aggressions, large and small, endured by black people in white-dominated America. Here's a sample:

    You are in the dark, in the car, watching the black-tarred street being swallowed by speed; he tells you his dean is making him hire a person of color when there are so many great writers out there.    

    You think maybe this is an experiment and you are being tested or retroactively insulted or you have done something that communicates this is an okay conversation to be having.

 

     Why do you feel okay saying this to me? You wish the light would turn red or a police siren would go off so you could slam on the brakes, slam into the car ahead of you, be propelled forward so quickly both your faces would suddenly be exposed to the wind.
  

     The book engaged with contemporary events like the killing of Trayvon Martin and the racist harassment of black public figures like Serena Williams. It won a passel of awards. 

     Now, after a summer filled with Black Lives Matter protests and the backlash against them, Rankine returns with a new book called Just Us.  This one is built around (usually uncomfortable) conversations about racism and how it affects everyone it touches. As Rankine told NPR:

  

        I'm really interested in what other people say to me, but I'm also really interested in why I say the things that I say, because we are all socialized inside a system that was shaped with the tenets of white supremacy. So how is that affecting my behavior? How is that affecting the amount of patience I have in conversation with you? What am I hearing when you speak to me?

 

     Like Citizen, the new book is a mixture of poetry, prose, and and photos. If you don't mind literature that makes you uneasy, check out Rankine's NPR interview here.