Explore and discuss what racial injustice feels like in contemporary America through excerpts of Claudia Rankine's poetry and lyrical reflections from her book Citizen.
In her bestselling book, Citizen (2014), Claudia Rankine explores what racial injustice feels like in contemporary America. Some of the moments that interest her are quieter—subtle moments of prejudice which sociologists call "microaggressions." Some of them are louder, such as the ongoing series of deaths of black men and women at the hands of American police. Rankine gathers these moments together and explores them in a unique way. Her book weaves together tiny snippets of story, lyrical reflections, and poetry to create a tapestry of American race relations. In an era when most Americans don't read much poetry, Citizen managed to become a New York Times Bestseller, to win the National Book Critics prize for Poetry AND the award for Nonfiction, and to be named the "Best Book of the 2010s" on LitHub. Provocative, moving, and original, Citizen will allow us to have a rich conversation on the way that race inflects issues from criminal justice, to professional sports, to customer service.
To access the excerpts we will use for the discussion, click here. Or to request a copy of the full book, click here.
This program is the fourteenth in our ongoing "Race and American Culture" discussion series.
About Dr. Ian Afflerbach
Dr. Ian Afflerbach is an Associate Professor of American Literature at the University of North Georgia, where he teaches courses in African-American literature, modern American fiction, and the history of ideas. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and has lived in Montreal, Vermont, North Carolina, and Germany. His first book was published in 2021, and he's currently working on a second, which examines the history of "selling out" in American culture.
TAGS: | Literature | Culture |
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