Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Citizen. Una lirica americana by Claudia Rankine

17 reviews

ejlance's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

draven_deathcrush's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense fast-paced

(I don't rate nonfiction)

This is a really great, important read. I think everyone should read this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality

Moderate: Hate crime and Violence

Minor: Body shaming

calamitydane's review against another edition

emotional reflective

5.0

This book was vulnerable and intense and infuriating and made me examine my own actions and ideas. The visual art used along with the poetry and essays was perfectly chosen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Grief, and Murder

ac_rva's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

barnesbookshelf's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

This book shares a lot of themes with "American Fiction" the movie, for good reason. I also had to look back at when this book was first published as there were several pieces that ring true to more recent events. Every person working towards being anti-racist should read this book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Racism

avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism

Moderate: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, and Grief

rieviolet's review

challenging reflective fast-paced

2.5

I am sorry but this book was really not for me. I did not get along with the writing style nor the way it was structured, these sort of fragmented and episodic reflections were too difficult for me to follow, I mostly felt confused and clueless about what was going on. 
Honestly, I understood maybe a third of what I read and while that is certainly on me, it really hampered my fruition of the book and the general appreciation of the reading experience.

I also struggled with the final section in verse and most of it went over my head.  I admit that I am not a devoted poetry reader and, when I actually read it, I am usually drawn to a more prose-like and matter-of-fact type of poetry.

I think a book like this is just too much experimental for my personal taste. However, I did appreciate the section focusing on Serena Williams and the racism she experienced in her career as a tennis player, it might be because it was the part that more closely resembled a traditional and straightforward essay.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Police brutality

Moderate: Hate crime and Violence

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Death, Racial slurs, Rape, Blood, Vomit, and Murder

eve81's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

savvylit's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

Citizen is a brutal look at Black identity, microaggression, police brutality, and erasure. Rankine interweaves personal recollections of microaggressions with examination of racial hatred in the public sphere. For instance, there is a significant section of this book that reflects upon racism faced by Serena Williams. Juxtaposing public instances of racism and police brutality with her own personal experience allows Rankine to emphasize the broad spectrum of a distinctly American brand of racism.

As I tend to do when reviewing poetry, let me leave you with a fragment of Rankine's own words:

"You are you even before you grow into understanding you are not anyone, worthless, not worth you. Even as your own weight insists you are here, fighting off the weight of nonexistence. And still this life parts your lids, you see you seeing your extending hand as a falling wave— I they he she we you turn only to discover the encounter to be alien to this place. Wait. The patience is in the living. Time opens out to you. The opening, between you and you, occupied, zoned for an encounter, given the histories of you and you— And always, who is this you? The start of you, each day, a presence already— Hey you—"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Police brutality, Murder, and Gaslighting

readbycarina's review against another edition

challenging emotional fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny