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Marco Materazzi
Trayvon Martin was a black boy who was shot and killed in 2012 when he was only 17 years old. This took place in Sanford, Florida, where Martin was visiting family in a gated community. While walking back to the house of his father’s fiancée, he encountered a member of the neighborhood watch who had already reported him to police. By the time the police arrived, this man had shot and killed Martin. In the aftermath of this event, Trayvon Martin became an important cultural figure in the debate surrounding contemporary racism and hate crimes, especially because his killer was eventually acquitted. Although Rankine doesn’t enumerate the details of this story, she mourns Trayvon Martin’s death in a section that she dedicates to his memory.
Trayvon Martin Quotes in Citizen: An American Lyric
The Citizen: An American Lyric quotes below are all either spoken by Trayvon Martin or refer to Trayvon Martin. 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 6
Quotes
Those years of and before me and my brothers, the years of passage, plantation, migration, of Jim Crow segregation, of poverty, inner cities, profiling, of one in three, two jobs, boy, hey boy, each a felony, accumulate into the hours inside our lives where we are all caught hanging, the rope inside us, the tree inside us, its roots our limbs, a throat sliced through and when we open our mouth to speak, blossoms, o blossoms, no place coming out, brother, dear brother, that kind of blue.
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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.
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Get the entire Citizen: An American Lyric LitChart as a printable PDF.
Trayvon Martin Quotes in Citizen: An American Lyric
The Citizen: An American Lyric quotes below are all either spoken by Trayvon Martin or refer to Trayvon Martin. 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 6
Quotes
Those years of and before me and my brothers, the years of passage, plantation, migration, of Jim Crow segregation, of poverty, inner cities, profiling, of one in three, two jobs, boy, hey boy, each a felony, accumulate into the hours inside our lives where we are all caught hanging, the rope inside us, the tree inside us, its roots our limbs, a throat sliced through and when we open our mouth to speak, blossoms, o blossoms, no place coming out, brother, dear brother, that kind of blue.
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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:
