Read about another entry on the list.Citizen by Claudia Rankine
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen reads almost more poignantly today than it did when published in 2014. Grappling with the many ways in which racism stains a nation, in retrospect Rankine’s lyric feels like a wakeup call, a warning that many failed to heed. Now, in the wake of the 2016 election and an equally trying 2017, Rankine’s words have become a salve for those of us who know what it means to be Black in a nation that fails to right its historic wrongs. Like Dr. King’s, Rankine’s message is one of tempered hope. Rather than sheer optimism, her poetics don’t just reveal the cancer of racism, but document it and pay homage to the lives its legacy shapes. Her words urge us to resist.
--Marshal Zeringue
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