Author: Ryan Rizzo

I chose to do my found poem on an article regarding the events that transpired at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.  A horrific day in history that seems to happen far too often nowadays.  It seems as if a tragedy like this event happens every other day and we’ve become so numb to these horrific murders.

My poem highlights the different aspects, both supposedly good and bad, that contributed to the killing.  Starting with religion, the poem begins the same as any major historical event begins.  One of my favorite quotes regarding religion comes from comedian Jon Stewart, “Religion. Its given people hope in a world torn apart by religion.” In world run by hate, the only justification that people have is faith.  The opposing word from religion is in fact Hate.  I wanted there to be a divide in designing my paper to show the many divisions of this country.  Within the poem it divides “good” terms and “bad” terms, however as a whole it represents the division within our political parties, religions, race, sexuality, genders, etc.  The words underneath Religion and Hate then tell the rest of the story that is American society.  The term “Jews” represents more than those who follow Judaism, but any minority group as well.  Minority groups are being labeled as “invaders”, humanity is injured, Police aren’t keeping us safe from firearms, Liberty comes with a gunshot/bullet, free expression to people means having a handgun collection,  law is relying on killing in order to punish those who kill,  and history of the United States is forever wounded by these horrible acts of violence.  The hate list then continues on much longer due to the representation of hate being the controlling factor of modern day society and it’s future.  In the bottom middle of my poem it shows 2 quotes for our President, of course not offering condolences, but instead stating it was a “terrible, terrible thing” and that an armed guard would have stopped the gunman.  I don’t know why he believes this considering if you add gasoline to a fire you get more fire. I conclude my poem with the number “11” representing the 11 humans who lost their lives in the Tree of Life massacre.  Take note that I said humans and not people, our government doesn’t view us as people.  Their bullets have proven that to us.

Humans are molded by their environment.  From a young age humans are able to interpret different situations and decide the best way to handle them, based off of human nature as well as instinct.  The power of self identification is that of major significance in discovering who one is as an individual.  Over time people go through many phases, obstacles, and challenges which help mold them into the people that they wish to be or to become.   A force, completely created by the mind as a response to change itself and the threat of change, tends to shape minorities as well as society as a whole in America.  That force being racism.  Self-identification is a difficult concept to grasp when people are telling you that your completely normal and civil way of life is incorrect and that you should be murdered for it.  It’s very difficult to discover who you are as a person when you have no idea how the other person is going to interpret you at first glance.  However it is identifying who you are as an individual which is most important when resisting all of this hate. Rankine identifies , “You are you even before you grow into understanding you are not anyone, worthless, not worth you” (311).  Although racists may try to break someone down and make them believe that they are useless, they must remember their roots and who they are as a PERSON.

Racism is a concept which is primarily learned from generation to generation both intentionally and unintentionally.  The true strength of racism is so strong that it tends to linger on within those who are impacted negatively by it.  According to Rankine, this lingering often can lead to many of the feelings of frustration and feelings described before as being worthless. The frustration of racism doesn’t only come with the nasty treatment being perpetuated, but also the fact that often it is impossible to change a racists views of someone, “All our fevered history won’t instill insight, won’t turn a body conscious, won’t make that look in the eyes say yes, though there is nothing to solve even as each moment is an answer” (322).

Throughout Citizen, Rankine often refers to racism effecting people as “injuries”.  She does this in part to show the significance it has in damaging the mental state of those affected, but it also draws some insight in how injuries are usually unwanted and linger as well.  Just like racism, injuries are a form of adversity which one can learn from and it could help their character.  These “injuries” are so harmful that they often can leave one questioning their own being, “the worst injury is feeling
you don’t belong so much-to you” (Rankine 334).  Rankine also highlights the constant fear of the justice system that many people of color live in and then follows it up with the far too common response that is given when a tragedy happens to someone of color, “Yes, and this is how you are a
citizen: Come on. Let it go.Move on.” (342).  Perhaps this instance is one of the major factors into the problem with self identification.  Being told that you need to move on from your justified feelings of angst, hate, and fear.  Being told that the way that you are feeling is incorrect.  Often when a racist microaggression happens, it is either left unidentified by those unaffected or it numbed by some sort of coping mechanism such as “close-the-gap laughter”.  Instead of finding a solution to the problem, society as a whole tends to ignore it and pretend as if it doesn’t exist.  In a world filled with people telling you who you are having never met you, it is almost impossible to find out who you are yourself.  Who you would be without the injuries.

1:  Can you think of any examples from either Citizen or personal experience where a racist event/microaggression was silenced by a coping mechanism such as an awkward laugh or ignorance? What was the overall feeling of the situation afterwards between both parties?

2:  Do you believe that self-identification is equally as harmful as it is beneficial to ones mental state? Why or why not?

P.S. my page numbers refer to the PDF copy I used. (http://1.droppdf.com/files/zBFF0/citizen-an-american-lyric-claudia-rankine.pdf)

Hey there, I’m Ryan and I’m a Business Economics major from Long Island.  I’m a sophomore who transferred from Fairleigh Dickinson University.  I’m an avid football fan (Go Saints!) and I used to play football at FDU.  I’m also a big fan of music, especially rap.  Looking forward to a great semester with all of you!