54 pages • 1 hour read
Claudia RankineCitizen: An American Lyric
Claudia RankineNonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
CHAPTERS 1-2
Reading Check
1. What is the name of the street in the first image of the book?
2. What is “John Henryism” as referenced in Chapter 2?
3. What does Hennessy Youngman “wryly suggest” in his video series Art Thoughtz?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Rankine signal the passage of time with her character in Chapter 1?
2. In Chapter 2, Rankine asks, “What does a victorious or defeated [B]lack woman’s body in a historically white space look like?” What situation is she referring to, and what does she recognize?
3. Who is Caroline Wozniacki? How does Rankine relate the controversy of her actions within a larger discussion of race in the public sphere?
Paired Resources
- This entry from Britannica discusses the effort being made toward improving the education and employment of minorities.
- This connects with the themes of Microaggressions, The Lie of “Post-Racial” America, and Citizenship.
- What is affirmative action, and how is it perceived by different communities?
“‘John Henryism’: The Hidden Health Impact of Race Inequality”
- This article discusses the history of John Henry, the health impacts of racial inequality, and observations made in studies from the early 2000s to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- This connects with the themes of Microaggressions and The Lie of “Post-Racial” America.
- How does John Henryism link to the lived experiences of Black people in contemporary American society?
“A Content Analysis of Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber’s Racial and Sexist Microaggressions”
- This exploratory study from Scientific Research categorizes microaggressions into six major subscales and considers related data regarding the experiences of Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber.
- This connects with the themes of Microaggressions and The Lie of “Post-Racial” America.
- How do microaggressions manifest in media and sports news? In which ways do Williams’s and Kerber’s experiences comment on inequalities about microaggressions of Black bodies in the US?
CHAPTERS 3-4
Reading Check
1. Who does the subject go to meet in Chapter 3?
2. Which rhetorical question does Rankine frequently repeat throughout Chapter 3?
3. Which two vocal actions does the subject use to get through her days?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does “[l]anguage navigate,” according to Judith Butler? How does the subject respond to Butler’s comment?
2. What Microaggressions does the narrator experiences in Chapter 3? What does Rankine note about the relationship with these terms and the subject overall?
3. What situation does the narrator present in her discussion of sound and memory? Which early vignette does this particular prose connect to?
Paired Resources
- Purdue’s resource on the American philosopher Judith Butler.
- This connects with the themes of The Lie of “Post-Racial” America and Citizenship.
- How does gender, sexuality, and race intersect in the topic of the use of language?
- This page from the Poetry Foundation includes academic and publishing information about the author, Claudia Rankine.
- This connects with the themes of Microaggressions, The Lie of “Post-Racial” America, and Citizenship.
- How does the author’s background inform her chosen subjects of writing?
CHAPTERS 5-6
Reading Check
1. Which color does Rankine frequently mention through this set of chapters?
2. What is mentioned in the video on the subject of Hurricane Katrina?
3. How is it that the person in question is “not the guy” and yet “fit[s] the description” in the “Stop and Frisk” situation?
4. How does the Italian soccer player’s words affect Zidane?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Consider Rankine’s discussion on the first person. How does this pronoun function in relation to power and race?
2. Which eight “situations” in contemporary American history does Rankine analyze in this set of chapters? How does this analysis relate to her discussion of race in society?
3. Consider the two riots that Rankine discusses. What conversation does the subject have with a UK author regarding these riots?
4. What is the content of the segment entitled “BLACK-BLANC-BEUR,” and how does it relate to Rankine’s overall message?
Paired Resources
“When LA Erupted in Anger: A Look Back at the Rodney King Riots”
- This article from NPR discusses the Rodney King Riots 25 years later.
- This connects with the themes of Microaggressions, The Lie of “Post-Racial” America, and Citizenship.
- How did media coverage play a formative role in the Rodney King Riots?
- Rankine’s website addresses the inspiration behind her video series.
- This connects with the themes Microaggressions, The Lie of “Post-Racial” America, and Citizenship.
- What is Rankine’s intent with the Situations project? Do you believe it was successful?
CHAPTER 7
Reading Check
1. How does the narrative perspective shift in this final chapter?
2. Which mantra does Rankine use to respond to the assertion “Yes, and this is how you are a citizen?”
3. What does the woman in the parked car do upon seeing the subject in the final scene of the text?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does the subject reflect on her self-worth? How does this relate to race and structural racism in the US?
2. How does the last line of the text relate to the overall motif and themes of the novel?
Recommended Next Reads
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudine Rankine
- This 2020 anthology of nonfiction essays discusses the concept of race and structural racism in the US.
- Shared themes include Microaggressions and The Lie of “Post-Racial” America.
- Shared topics include nonfiction works, structural racism, and Black female authors.
- Just Us: An American Conversation on SuperSummary
This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga
- This 2020 novel follows protagonist Tambudzai as she navigates life and employment in Harare, Zimbabwe.
- Shared themes include Microaggressions and Citizenship.
- Shared topics include structural racism, second-person narration, mental health concerns, and Black female authors.
Reading Questions Answer Key
CHAPTERS 1-2
Reading Check
1. “Jim Crow St.” (Chapter 1)
2. “[T]he medical term—John Henryism—for people exposed to stresses stemming from racism” (Chapter 2)
3. That “black people’s anger is marketable” (Chapter 2)
Short Answer
1. Written in the second-person perspective, the subject lays in bed at night reflecting on her youth. The reader understands the passage of time from the movement of the memories, beginning first with the subject at a Catholic all-girls school and moving to her receiving employment based on her race as well as driving a car. The underlying link between these memories are forms of Microaggressions against her. (Chapter 1)
2. Rankine presents this question as she considers the frustration of Serena Williams during the 2009 Grand Slam. As she watches the frustration televised, the subject recognizes, “a rage you […] have been taught to hold at a distance for your own good.” (Chapter 2)
3. Caroline Wozniacki is a Danish tennis player who padded herself as a physical imitation of Serena Williams’s body. Rankine concludes the chapter with this example, exemplifying the mass media and American public sphere’s desire: a monolithic representation of “blackness” that is understood and consumed by the general American public. (Chapter 2)
CHAPTERS 3-4
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. The subject reflects on a recent experience with philosopher Judith Butler. When asked the question, Butler responds, “‘Our very being exposes us to the address of another,’ she answers. ‘We suffer from the condition of being addressable. Our emotional openness,’ she adds, ‘is carried by our addressability.’” The subject remarks that “language that feels hurtful is intended to exploit all the ways that you are present.” (Chapter 3)
2. The subject lists the Microaggressions in the form of small comments related to her medical, financial, physical, and professional status, all of which are based on false assumptions in regard to her race. As a result, the subject notes that “[y]ou take in things you don’t want all the time” as racism is still a part of her daily experiences and interactions. (Chapter 3)
3. Rankine writes Chapter 4 in the second-person point of view, describing the physical ailments (e.g., headache) and reactions (e.g., sighing and moaning) one has to experience in the world. She writes about someone watching a tennis match on television with the sound muted, only to turn off the sound to hear, “[t]he player says something and the formerly professional umpire looks down from her high chair as if regarding an unreasonable child, a small animal,” ultimately drawing similarities with the Williams’s incident in Chapter 2. In response, the subject responds, “Move on. Let it go. Come on.” (Chapter 4)
CHAPTERS 5-6
Reading Check
1. Blue (Chapter 5)
2. “Then someone else said it was the classic binary between the rich and the poor, between the haves and the have-nots, between the whites and the blacks, in the difficulty of all that.” (Chapter 6)
3. “[B]ecause there is only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description” (Chapter 6)
4. “What he said ‘touched the deepest part of me.’” (Chapter 6)
Short Answer
1. Rankine explores the power of language, particularly through the first-person pronoun “I.” The power of “I” allows for individuals to create a self linguistically, but this “I” is challenged in the public sphere as the subject is not seen in spaces, such as the pharmacy, or only seen in relation to her race, as in the bar. (Chapter 5)
2. Rankine divides Chapter 6 into the following eight subjects: Hurricane Katrina, Trayvon Martin, James Craig Anderson, Jena Six, Stop-and-Frisk, Mark Duggan, World Cup, and “Making Room.” Each situation is a vignette of a specific microaggression, example of police brutality, or an analysis of structural racism that fits into the larger purpose of negating the concept of “post-racial” society. (Chapter 6)
3. In one section, Rankine explores the media coverage of both the Rodney King Riots in the US and the Hackney Riots in the UK. The section focuses on a conversation between the two writers, where a UK-author insinuates that the subject, an American, should write about the Hackney Riots given her race. (Chapter 6)
4. “BLACK-BLANC-BEUR” (i.e., French for “Black-White-Arab”) centers on the Zinedine Zidane controversy where the French player headbutted an Italian soccer player after the latter said a derogatory racial slur. While this incident does not focus on the concept of “blackness,” it is another example of structural racism in professional athletics. (Chapter 6)
CHAPTER 7
Reading Check
1. The final chapter returns to second-person point of view.
2. “Come on. Let it go. Move on.” (Chapter 7)
3. She drives away. (Chapter 7)
Short Answer
1. Rankine draws larger connections to feelings of worthlessness, dissociation, and invisibility in the Black communities. All of these feelings are tactics of survival in 21st century American society and reaffirm the concept that such experiences, coupled with the pervasive white privilege, indicate the US has not achieved the so-called “post-racial” society. (Chapter 7)
2. Rankine ends her final chapter with this phrase: “It wasn’t a match, I say. It was a lesson.” As an extension of the tennis motif, Rankine observes that she is not fighting, but rather in a state of learning, relating to the dissociation and internalization of blackness that people of color experience in the US. (Chapter 7)
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