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Frederick Douglass
Hennessy Youngman is a fictional persona created by Jayson Musson, a young American man whose YouTube series “Art Thoughtz” serve as tutorials that teach viewers about contemporary art. Rankine references a video in which Youngman claims that the key to becoming successful as a black artist is to be angry. She uses this to further examine the idea of anger, juxtaposing this notion of “sellable anger” with the genuine rage people of color feel on a daily basis.
Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson) Quotes in Citizen: An American Lyric
The Citizen: An American Lyric quotes below are all either spoken by Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson) or refer to Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
Youngman's suggestions are meant to expose expectations for blackness as well as to underscore the difficulty inherent in any attempt by black artists to metabolize real rage. The commodified anger his video advocates rests lightly on the surface for spectacle's sake. It can be engaged or played like the race card and is tied solely to the performance of blackness and not to the emotional state of particular individuals in particular situations.
On the bridge between this sellable anger and "the artist" resides, at times, an actual anger. Youngman in his video doesn't address this type of anger: the anger built up through experience and the quotidian struggles against dehumanization every brown or black person lives simply because of skin color. This other kind of anger in time can prevent, rather than sponsor, the production of anything except loneliness.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Citizen: An American Lyric LitChart as a printable PDF.
Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson) Quotes in Citizen: An American Lyric
The Citizen: An American Lyric quotes below are all either spoken by Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson) or refer to Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
Youngman's suggestions are meant to expose expectations for blackness as well as to underscore the difficulty inherent in any attempt by black artists to metabolize real rage. The commodified anger his video advocates rests lightly on the surface for spectacle's sake. It can be engaged or played like the race card and is tied solely to the performance of blackness and not to the emotional state of particular individuals in particular situations.
On the bridge between this sellable anger and "the artist" resides, at times, an actual anger. Youngman in his video doesn't address this type of anger: the anger built up through experience and the quotidian struggles against dehumanization every brown or black person lives simply because of skin color. This other kind of anger in time can prevent, rather than sponsor, the production of anything except loneliness.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
