Opinion
The power of Rankine’s poetry
By Caroline Harrington ’16
February 11, 2016
Tags opinion
What is racism? Though seemingly straightforward, this question has sparked debate and subsequent movements across college campuses nationwide. On Monday Feb. 8 the poet Claudia Rankine graced the Hamilton College Chapel and attempted to answer this question.
Rankine’s award-winning book of poetry, Citizen, is home to many short poems on microaggressions that she accrued by asking acquaintances to “tell me a story where you were doing something ordinary and someone said something that reduced you to your race.” Having previously read this book for a current Creative Writing course, I was intrigued to find out how her works held up in a public setting. My first reading of the book left me in awe. I was unable to finish it in one sitting as the content made me feel too uncomfortable. Rankine very blatantly points out tendencies of daily racism in the form of microaggressions that most people do not notice they are perpetuating. The reactions of the crowd during these readings did not disappoint. Even those who had not experienced Rankine prior to the reading were still completely enraptured by her presence and her subject matter.
A contemporary poet, Rankine plays with form and composed some of her works into short videos that combine her reading, music and imagery to create a sensory experience catalyzing an emotional response. An interesting technique that Rankine utilizes is a strong monotone in reading. Despite her personable nature and humorous personality—she had us laughing even when she mentioned heavy subject matter—Rankine exclusively read her poetry, in video and live, in monotone. Through this she demonstrated just how common these moments of racism and microaggression are. Without inflection, Rankine seemed to challenge the listeners to listen to the words themselves and then react to the content. She also allowed for the personal interpretations of each audience member.
One video, “Situation 8,” evoked particularly powerful reactions. I heard sniffles break out throughout the campus’s spiritual hub. The video’s poem was a surprise for the audience as it was not one published in Citizen. Backed by a montage of clips with evidence of blatant racist police brutality, the poem speaks of trust. Is there trust in our society? Are black citizens safe if they place trust in authority figures?
This is a really difficult question, and one that I am not comfortable even attempting to answer. But what I do know, and what Rankine emphasized, is that “The only reason the same problems continue is because all of us are letting them continue.” It is the daily microaggressions—the slip of the tongue, the “you look like a white person, not a black person,” the “sorry, I didn’t see you,” the “can I touch your hair,” the averted gaze—these are the things that perpetuate racism in modern society. To me, it seems that things such as police brutality and systemic racism only come from the prior mentality that allows for racism to happen on a less obvious scale.
I would like to leave my readers with this challenge that Rankine set for herself: to not be the person who can sit back and accept daily racism. If you are white: be cognizant of what you say. If you are a minority: don’t accept any accidental—or worse, intentional—racism. Speak out, be loud, make that effect to someday shut down racist tendencies. Though amazing, one book of poems is not sufficient to do this on its own.