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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Citizen: An American Lyric, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bigotry, Implicit Bias, and Legitimacy
Identity and Sense of Self
Anger and Emotional Processing
History and Erasure
Summary
Analysis
The unnamed protagonist (called “you”) lies against her pillows. She’s alone and too fatigued to even look at her cellphone or computer, so she stares out the window and notices that the moon is nowhere to be found. Zoning out, she falls into memory. Recalling her childhood, she remembers an experience in her classroom at school, where she sits in front of a white girl named either Mary or Catherine. The protagonist and this girl—whom she now calls Mary Catherine—rarely speak, but Mary Catherine asks her to lean to one side so she can copy the answers off her test. Hesitantly, the protagonist obliges. Later, Mary Catherine tells her she smells good, adding that she almost looks white. The protagonist senses that Mary Catherine says this because she prefers the idea of cheating off of an “almost white person” over cheating off of a black person.
Very little emerges about the protagonist at the beginning of Citizen. The overall lack of concrete information about her is characteristic of the entire book, which is often ambiguous, abstract, and poetic. However, what becomes clear in this moment is that this second-person protagonist is black, since Mary Catherine goes out of her way to suggest that she seems almost white. Moreover, it’s important to note that the protagonist is exposed to racism at an early age, and it is clear that she will have to contend with this kind of bigotry for her entire life. Furthermore, it’s worth paying attention to the fact that Mary Catherine exposes her own racism in a subtle and casual—but undeniably damaging—way, making it clear to the protagonist that she has negative assumptions about black people while hiding this message in a compliment, thereby making it incredibly difficult for the protagonist to push back against this racism.
Themes
The protagonist wonders why her teacher, Sister Evelyn, doesn’t notice that she’s letting Mary Catherine cheat off her test, since it’s obvious that she’s leaning to one side. Thinking this way, she considers the possibility that Sister Evelyn doesn’t care about cheating or, more likely, that Sister Evelyn has never truly noticed the protagonist sitting there at all.
Even at this early point in her life, the protagonist feels invisible when she’s in predominantly white spaces. Although she’s afraid of getting caught by Sister Evelyn, she is also bothered by the fact that Sister Evelyn doesn’t even notice what she’s doing, since this underlines the extent to which her own teacher has failed to not only care about her, but even acknowledge her presence. This draws attention to the idea of visibility (or invisibility) and how other people’s implicit biases can impact a person’s sense of self—a theme that will resurface throughout Citizen as the protagonist encounters these situations time after time.
Themes
A photograph appears beneath the description of the protagonist’s feeling of invisibility in the classroom. The picture is called “Jim Crow Rd.” and is by the artist Michael David Murphy. It depicts a relatively affluent suburban neighborhood with clean driveways, well-cut grass, and decently sized white houses. In the foreground of the picture, though, a sign indicates that the adjacent street is called Jim Crow Road.
Citizen is comprised of multiple different artforms, including essayistic vignettes, poems, photographs, and other renderings of visual art. “Jim Crow Rd.” is the first photograph to appear in the book, and it serves an important role: to show readers just how thoroughly the United States’ painfully racist history has worked its way into the present. Although the picture is of a calm and beautiful neighborhood, there’s no denying that this neighborhood exists next to a road named after the Jim Crow era, the profoundly racist and unjust period (1877-1964) during which African Americans were persecuted by segregationist laws—laws that still bring themselves to bear on the present, despite the fact that Jim Crow policies are no longer officially in place. By presenting readers with this picture, Rankine foregrounds the rest of the book with a bleak reminder that it is irresponsible and naïve to act like racism is a long-gone thing of the past.
Themes
The protagonist considers how many times in her life she has had to ask herself if she really just heard what she thinks she heard and, for that matter, how many times she has struggled to find the words to respond to a racist insult that has been casually launched at her. This reminds her that one of her friends frequently used to call her by the name of a black housekeeper. The protagonist understood that this was because the housekeeper was the only other black person her friend knew, but neither she nor her friend ever acknowledged this. Eventually, the friend stopped making this mistake, and they’ve still never spoken about it. All the same, the protagonist has not and will not forget about it, as much as she’d like to.
As a person of color, the protagonist finds herself having to constantly field racism in what might otherwise seem like unexpected circumstances. Indeed, this means having to contend with ignorance and mistreatment while spending time with people she considers friends. In turn, these experiences undoubtedly change her ability to feel close to people she’d otherwise have no problem connecting with. What’s more, although she chooses not to say anything about her friend’s problematic mistake, that doesn’t mean that she has forgotten about it—a reminder that this kind of mistreatment has a lasting impact, lingering long after it has taken place.
Themes
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Thinking about the way it feels to process racist comments, the protagonist remembers a conversation she once had with a friend about sentences that begin—implicitly or otherwise—with the words “yes, and” instead of “yes, but.” The two friends agreed that a “yes, and” attitude embodies the fact that there is no way of avoiding or running from what life throws at a person. No matter what happens, the protagonist believes, one is forced to simply move on.
The conversation the protagonist has with her friend about embodying a “yes, and” attitude toward life is worth noting because it underscores the fact that the only way to respond to anything in life is by moving forward. Although some people might think that it’s possible to completely reject anything they don’t like and turn away from these things, the protagonist believes that people are forced to soldier through even the most undesirable circumstances. This outlook is most likely informed by her experience as a person of color who has faced many forms of mistreatment and has been forced to move on. Whereas a white person who has never encountered discrimination might think it’s possible to create one’s own reality, the protagonist sees this as a privileged and naïve perspective.
Themes
In keeping with the idea that there’s no way of avoiding or running away from what life offers up, the protagonist considers the fact that there are only so many ways to process or cope with the hurtful things people often say. To that end, people of color who have managed to find ways of dismissing racist comments still have to experience the initial pain of hearing those comments, since something can only be processed once it has already happened.
In this portion of Citizen, the protagonist highlights a dilemma inherent to the process of coping with racism. Although it’s possible to develop coping mechanisms to help oneself deal with the effects of bigotry, the protagonist is all too aware that these techniques won’t necessarily spare a person of color from feeling the initial impact of a racist remark. According to this perspective, then, there’s effectively no way to escape racism and the seemingly unavoidable pain that comes along with it.
Themes
Driving in the car one day with a colleague at the university where she teaches, the protagonist listens as he complains that his dean is forcing him to hire a person of color. This upsets him, he tells the protagonist, because there are “so many great writers out there.” Hearing this, the protagonist wonders why her colleague feels comfortable saying this to her, baffled that he would ever think this is an appropriate thing to say. She wishes that something would happen to put an abrupt end to this exchange, but nothing does, and she begins to resent that she has to pretend like what her colleague has said is okay. This effort, she notes, gives her a headache and deeply frustrates her, though she doesn’t say anything about this to her colleague.
Once again, the protagonist finds herself in a situation in which somebody who is supposedly a friendly acquaintance has said something racist and hurtful. And though experiencing blatant and intentional racism would obviously be even more upsetting, it’s worth considering that this kind of entrenched, unacknowledged racism is perhaps harder to address. After all, the protagonist’s colleague hasn’t even stopped to think about the fact that he has said something problematic, meaning that the protagonist would most likely have to explain this to him if she were to speak up. In this way, she is the one who would have to expend emotional energy in order to address his ignorance and shortcomings. Needless to say, this is deeply unfair, which is why she decides to not say anything, though this response is perhaps just as emotionally draining.
Themes
When the protagonist gets home after dropping off her colleague, she stays in the car and stares at her garage door. Sitting like this, she remembers that a friend told her about a medical phenomenon known as “John Henryism,” a condition that arises when people experience great amounts of stress because of the racism they face on a regular basis. With this in mind, the protagonist hopes that sitting in her driveway and trying to calm down will help her avoid developing John Henryism.
The existence of John Henryism is a testament to just how much facing discrimination can refigure a person’s life. Encountering ignorance and bigotry seemingly everywhere she goes, the protagonist begins to worry that her physical health will begin to suffer. This, in turn, illustrates how destructive it can be to face the nearly impossible task of coping with racism.
Themes
On a visit to another university, the protagonist eats lunch with a woman she doesn’t know who works there. This woman tells the protagonist that they went to the same school and that her father and grandfather were also graduates of the same institution. Her son, however, didn’t get in—a fact the woman blames on “affirmative action or minority something.” Unsure if she’s expected to apologize for this, the protagonist tries to change the subject by asking what school the woman’s son ended up attending. The woman names an elite college but is still visibly annoyed that her son didn’t get into the school she, her father, and her grandfather attended. For all intents and purposes, this exchange ends the lunch, though the protagonist and the woman have just received their food.
Again, the protagonist is put in the uncomfortable position of responding to a problematic comment, this time trying to figure out what to say in response to this woman’s disparaging attitude toward affirmative action. Of course, the woman is unwilling to consider the possibility that her son was rejected by her alma mater because he wasn’t good enough to go there. Instead, she blames his rejection on a policy intended to uplift people from disenfranchised communities, effectively pinning her son’s failure on people of color. Worse, saying this makes the protagonist feel like she—as a person of color—is expected to apologize. In this way, readers once again see the ways in which other people’s racism unfairly saddles the protagonist with undue amounts of emotional labor.
Themes
One of the protagonist’s friends makes the argument that there is a distinction between the “historical self” and the “self self.” What she means is that friends like the protagonist and herself interface with each other because of their shared interests and well-matched ways of moving through the world. But sometimes, she argues, their “historical selves” emerge and set them apart because of their cultural identities as a black woman and a white woman. Suddenly, the protagonist feels as if a rift has been opened between them, and she wonders if she has heard her friend correctly. All at once, she no longer feels connected to this woman, who is apparently extremely cognizant of the way their races make them different from one another.
In this conversation, the protagonist’s friend attempts to articulate the ways in which history has impacted both her and the protagonist’s cultural positionings. She tries to acknowledge the overall effect of history on the present, but in doing so, all she manages to make clear is that she’s hyper-aware of the protagonist’s race. As a result, the protagonist feels suddenly jarred out of their otherwise close dynamic and unable to feel a sense of kinship with her friend, who is apparently so preoccupied by the supposed differences in their cultural identities.
Themes
The protagonist and her romantic partner go to a movie together, asking their friend to pick up their child from school. On the way back from the movie, the protagonist receives a call from her neighbor, who tells her that there is a suspicious black man “casing” the neighborhood. This man, the neighbor says, is walking back and forth in front of the protagonist’s house and talking to himself in a “disturbed” manner. The protagonist says that it must be her friend, whom the neighbor has met, but the neighbor refuses to believe this, saying that he has called the police. The protagonist’s partner then calls their friend and asks if there’s a man outside, and the friend says that he is outside. In the background of the phone call, sirens begin to blare.
That the protagonist’s neighbor assumes her friend is a “disturbed” man who’s “casing” the neighborhood spotlights the unexamined assumptions he has about black people. Instead of level-headedly seeing this man for the person he is, the neighbor quickly decides that he’s a criminal. This assumption is made even worse by the fact that the neighbor has met this man before, proving that his implicit biases have usurped his ability to truly see him as a person rather than as an inaccurate, negative, and unfair stereotype.
Themes
When the protagonist and her partner return to their home, the police have already left. Their neighbor is talking to their friend, apologizing for calling the police. The protagonist feels awkward, as if she is partially responsible for what has happened. Turning to her friend, she suggests that he should go in the backyard the next time he needs to take a phone call outside. Eyeing her for a moment, the friend says that he can talk on the phone wherever he wants. Embarrassed, the protagonist agrees, saying, “Yes, of course.”
The protagonist’s feeling of guilt is obviously unfounded, since she had nothing to do with what happened between her neighbor and her friend. All the same, though, her guilt once more highlights the emotional strain that racism causes her. What’s more, though, she seems to respond to this by internalizing her neighbor’s point of view and telling her friend to speak on the phone in the backyard. She most likely suggests this because she herself is constantly trying to think of ways to cope with and avoid racist situations. However, her friend helps her see that acquiescing to her neighbor’s racism is no way of responding to such a situation, reminding her that he has a right to do what he wants.
Themes
Standing in line one day at a Starbucks, the protagonist hears the white man in front of her call a loud group of teenagers by the n-word. “Hey, I am standing right here,” she says. Turning around, he asks her why she cares, so she points out that the teenagers are just kids being kids, adding that there’s no need to “get all KKK on them.” In response, the man says, “Now there you go.” The protagonist can hardly believe that this is his response. “There I go?” she asks.
In this scene, the protagonist encounters a much more blatant form of racism than the kind she experiences on a daily basis. All the same, though, the man who calls the teenagers the n-word refuses to acknowledge his own racism, acting as if it’s not problematic that he has just used the most offensive and racist word possible to refer to black people. Needless to say, the n-word is closely associated with bigotry and an entire history of injustice, including American slavery and the Jim Crow era. And yet, the man tries to act as if the protagonist is the one who has racialized the conversation by objecting to his hateful language. By doing this, he makes it even harder for her to stand up against racism, since it’s difficult to address bigotry when people are unwilling to acknowledge its existence in the first place.
Themes
In another scene, one of the protagonist’s friends tells her a story about seeing a white man run into a young black boy on a train, knocking him to the floor. Instead of stopping to help him up, the man walks away, so the protagonist’s friend catches up to him and tells him to apologize. Hearing this, the protagonist is overwhelmed by the infuriating fact that the man not only failed to acknowledge the boy, but also that he has most likely never been able to see anybody who isn’t “a reflection of himself.” The only good part about this friend’s story, the protagonist realizes, is the way it ends: a number of men approach and stand behind her as she tells the white man to apologize, giving her their silent support as they face him.
Again, the idea of invisibility surfaces. This time, the protagonist considers the idea that this white man only ever sees people who are like him, effectively ignoring black people because he only relates to other white people. This kind of ignorance makes it even harder than it already is for people to push back against racism, since individuals like this man are apparently completely unaware of the impact their own behavior has on others. In these moments, then, it’s especially meaningful when people of color stand together, giving each other the support necessary to call attention to injustice.
Themes
One day, the protagonist goes to an appointment with a new therapist. She has spoken to this therapist on the phone, but they have never met. Upon arriving at the therapist’s home office, she rings the doorbell. When the therapist finally comes to the door, she takes one look at the protagonist and screams at her to get off her property, asking what she’s doing there. Astonished, the protagonist explains that she has an appointment. After a moment of consideration, the therapist realizes that the protagonist is her new client, and she begins to apologize profusely.
Yet again, the protagonist is forced to grapple with the fact that many white people don’t see her for who she is, instead focusing solely on the color of her skin. More to the point, people like the therapist fixate not just on the protagonist’s race, but on their own bigoted assumptions about black people. This is why the therapist screams at the protagonist—not because the protagonist actually poses a threat (obviously), but because the therapist has the preconceived (and deeply racist) idea that black people represent danger. Needless to say, this exchange has irrevocably ruined any chances of developing a productive therapeutic relationship, since the protagonist won’t be able to simply ignore the fact that her therapist has such negative assumptions about black people.
Themes
