Citizen

I love that a large part of Citizen is a poetic smackdown over a former colleague's poorly worded poem that he later tried to mansplain away, going as far as to say “this poem is for white people.”

Rankine was having none of that and here creates something that explores how crazy making these small slights can be. A friend who refers to you by the name of her black housekeeper. a colleague bristling over having to hire a person of colour. And then being told not to over react, that it's no big deal.

This daily act of erasure, of quietly moving past these incidents, has a physical toll and she pokes at it here. She will widen her scope to explore Trayvon Martin, James Craig Anderson and the Jena Six.

I like what poetry here can do that novels, long form articles and op eds cannot.