These three books tell of Claudia Rankine's journey over about 16 years. All three center racism, but her reaction to it is different with each book.
BOOK 1: Don't Let Me Be Lonely
She walks around like a bewildered dreamer. Why is no one else panicking. Can't they see what's going on? Look at the news. Look at the news!
This book is the most stylish in its prose-poetry, and perhaps my favorite. Rankine walks us through her interactions with friends and strangers as she processes what is going on in the world. There is a feeling that this book is composed of notes jotted down in a journal while sitting at a coffee shop. That might be because that's how it started (Rankine explains this in the 2024 edition's preface).
I am reminded of Frantz Fanon's casual tone and serious subject matter. I can't say how much inspiration Rankine took from the anti-colonialist, but he is quoted in the first page, before even the dedication, for what it's worth.
BOOK 2: Citizen
She is furious. Look at the news. Look at the news. She cannot believe people are letting this happen, that they are okay with, that they encourage it! Look at the news. Look at the news.
This book is the most incensed. Over half of this book is descriptions of police brutality, racist happenings, and memorials to the deceased. On page 99, there is a video script. I find it to be one of the most potent scene in the book.
BOOK 3: Just Us
She is tired. There is so much wrong in the world. Why does everyone just let it be. She has not given up, but she is tired of fighting. Why don't you look at the news?
This book has a certain fatigue to it. Many of the sections begin with the phrase "I'm speaking to a friend." After her conversation, Rankine will try to dissect the reasoning behind whatever it was that the friend said.
She focuses on the politics of bleached hair. On becoming white by it. She asks black woman on the street why she bleached her hair. "Why not." Oh. Why not.
There is a sense that she is overthinking thing. But she isn't, not really. It's just that these issues are so all encompassing that no one gives them any thought. It's just the way the world is. She's yelling that the sky is blue. Of course it is. What do you want us to do about it?
That is the main question of the book. What do we do? This isn't a fight that is won today, or tomorrow, or the decade after. There are centuries of build-up behind these structures. The book ends with a melancholy tone. A friend tells her that "there is no strategy here". And maybe that is the strategy, to point it out. Hey, look, here's news.
Rankine, Claudia. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely : An American Lyric. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2024. Koller-Collins Collection PS3568.A572 D66 2024
Rankine, Claudia. Citizen : An American Lyric. Graywolf Press, 2014. Koller-Collins Collection PS3568.A572 C58 2014
Rankine, Claudia. Just Us : An American Conversation. Graywolf Press, 2020. Koller-Collins Collection E185.86 .R34 2020
