In English we read Citizen by Claudia Rankine. Citizen is a collection of lyrical essays speaking about the racism in today’s society. For this project, we were tasked with finding a social identity we were not familiar with and interviewing a person who identified with that, before creating a lyrical essay based on that interview.
For this, I chose the LatinX social identity. I interviewed one of my acquaintances who was part of this community, as I knew she was very involved in the community and was passionate about her community.
Here is my lyrical essay:
Criminals, they say.
Their privilege blinds.
They think you don’t mind.
Why wouldn’t you mind?
Their privilege blinds, your situation binds and you do mind.
You’re wrong, you tell them. They stare at you as if you are lying and their mind is a flawless lie detector. Privileged eyes cannot see the struggles.
Illegal immigrants, they claim.
The accusation stings, a knife drawn across the skin.
Citizens, you counter.
You have lived your entire life in this country. You came when you were a baby. You know English just as well as any of them.
You are a citizen.
Paperwork, they point out.
Their privilege blinds. Your situation binds.
My life is greater than paperwork, you speak.
You are a citizen.
Citizens are not defined by paperwork. Citizens are people who have lived.
But it has always been a knife.
A blade to press against the skin of your throat, threatening to draw blood.
Steer clear of the rapists, they sneer.
The words are untrue.
No, we aren’t, you plead.
Drug Dealers, they accuse.
The accusations burn.
Untrue, you snap.
The worst of the worst, they proclaim. The knife presses into your skin further. Tiny droplets of blood appear at the edge of the blade.
Refugees, you cry. Your cries are swallowed by false allegations.
The ignorance bites. The blade presses further.
Refugees, you scream.
The words slip past them. They do not hear the cries for help and a better life.
They hear the stories of jobs stolen from them.
Stolen spots in society.
An injustice, they believe. An injustice that people like you should take a job away from people like them.
You, an illegal immigrant, have taken a job from a citizen.
Their privilege blinds, your situation binds, they think you don’t mind. They think you don’t mind the knife against your skin.
You do mind.
You, an injustice.
You cry foul.
You are not a rapist.
Nor an illegal immigrant.
Nor a drug dealer.
You are a citizen, through and through.
If only they would believe you.
We also had to find an image to go with the essay. Here is the photo:
