Dear Claudia Rankine,
I love your book Citizen, from your language style to the way you described the experiences of black people.
Using your own experience coupled with those of your friends and celebrities, you build images of everyday racist encounters that shocked me. "The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow." When reading your book, the idea that racism is still rampant in nowadays struck me so hard.
Chapter two impressed me most. I am a tennis lover and I have watched a lot of Serena Williams' games. However, I never thought of the hardship she suffered as a black people in such a white dominated sport. The sufferings did not always come from punishments like probationary periods, but from "every look, every comment, every bad call blossom". She tried to fight back once, "reacting immediately to be thrown against a sharp white background", which resulting in loss, fine and probationary period. Later, she learnt to be silence and have no reactions to many questionable calls, but that didn't solve the problems. For years as an audience, I never realize that she was treated unequally in the court. What I attributed to her, was a terrible acquiescence of all the unfair she faced.
"Neither her father nor her mother nor her sister nor Jehovah her God nor NIKE camp could shield her ultimately from people who felt her black body didn't belong on their court, in their world." This line in your book woke me up and made me realize that only shield for her, is that every citizens start campaign and help reduce the discrimination among the whole society.
Thank you for your good writing, I will recommend your book to all of my friends and families. It's worthy for everybody to read.
Yours, Fiona Lin
I love your book Citizen, from your language style to the way you described the experiences of black people.
Using your own experience coupled with those of your friends and celebrities, you build images of everyday racist encounters that shocked me. "The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow." When reading your book, the idea that racism is still rampant in nowadays struck me so hard.
Chapter two impressed me most. I am a tennis lover and I have watched a lot of Serena Williams' games. However, I never thought of the hardship she suffered as a black people in such a white dominated sport. The sufferings did not always come from punishments like probationary periods, but from "every look, every comment, every bad call blossom". She tried to fight back once, "reacting immediately to be thrown against a sharp white background", which resulting in loss, fine and probationary period. Later, she learnt to be silence and have no reactions to many questionable calls, but that didn't solve the problems. For years as an audience, I never realize that she was treated unequally in the court. What I attributed to her, was a terrible acquiescence of all the unfair she faced.
"Neither her father nor her mother nor her sister nor Jehovah her God nor NIKE camp could shield her ultimately from people who felt her black body didn't belong on their court, in their world." This line in your book woke me up and made me realize that only shield for her, is that every citizens start campaign and help reduce the discrimination among the whole society.
Thank you for your good writing, I will recommend your book to all of my friends and families. It's worthy for everybody to read.
Yours, Fiona Lin
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