Previous
Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson)
The protagonist’s romantic partner is a man whose race is never indicated in Citizen. However, he is possibly modeled off of the white visual artist John Lucas, who is Claudia Rankine’s romantic partner in real life. A visual artist, he collaborated with Rankine on the multimedia “situation videos,” the scripts of which appear in Citizen and focus on things like the killing of Trayvon Martin, James Craig Anderson, and Mark Duggan. As a character in the book, though, the protagonist’s partner has conversations with the protagonist about her various encounters with racism and gets quite angry when he hears bigoted remarks.
The Protagonist’s Partner Quotes in Citizen: An American Lyric
The Citizen: An American Lyric quotes below are all either spoken by The Protagonist’s Partner or refer to The Protagonist’s Partner . 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 7
Quotes
Come on, get back in the car. Your partner wants to face off with a mouth and who knows what handheld objects the other vehicle carries.
Trayvon Martin's name sounds from the car radio a dozen times each half hour. You pull your love back into the seat because though no one seems to be chasing you, the justice system has other plans.
Yes, and this is how you are a citizen: Come on. Let it go. Move on.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Yesterday, I begin, I was waiting in the car for time to pass. A woman pulled in and started to park her car facing mine. Our eyes met and what passed passed as quickly as the look away. She backed up and parked on the other side of the lot. I could have followed her to worry my question but I had to go, I was expected on court, I grabbed my racket.
[…]
Did you win? he asks.
It wasn't a match, I say. It was a lesson.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Citizen: An American Lyric LitChart as a printable PDF.
