Do you feel that is an American lyric? What is an American lyric?
Have you ever experienced racism either personally or witnessed a racist moment like one in Rankine’s book? Does this moment change how you view the stories in the book?
After reading about Serena Williams, on page 37 we have a picture of white woman that has her bra and back end stuffed to “look like Serena”. Is this playful joking or is it racist? What is the purpose of having this image in the book?
What did you get from the spread image layout of page 52 and 53? What is the significance of color, or lack thereof in this image?
Starting on page 82, we have parts of an excerpt from CNN coverage of Hurricane Katrina. What is the purpose of this in the book and what role do the excerpts play? When Hurricane Katrina happened, I was in elementary school… do you remember moments of racism revolving around Hurricane Katrina?
On pages 134-135 there is- again an unusual textual/visual double page spread. How does it make you feel? “In memory” is repeated several times… what is the effect? Would you look at this differently before the recent controversies?
Would a new edition of this book be beneficial or is it too soon?
Citizen is an interesting, loaded term. For me it evokes (with the title imag) the partial-ness of the rights enjoyed by some in our nation. It’s also kind of strange though in that, to self-identify as a “CITIZEN” seems somewhat nationalistic or excessively patriotic. Here perhaps it is ironic?
I think you nailed it. We’re all technically citizens but like you said in class when we go somewhere else around the world we can feel ashamed about some of the things our nation of citizenship has done. So there’s that aspect of it too. Unfortunately, I think our nation is full of a few first class citizens and then A LOT of second class citizens. I don’t mean that in a mean way, it’s honestly quite sad if you think about how many people are treated poorly by the government.