I liked the style this book was written in, I guess you could loosely call it a poem. The only poem I've ever written has been on racial aggressions and the racist media; I felt at the time it was a way for me to get my thoughts across clearly and it turned out to be very cathartic. And reading this was also cathartic. Brown, DeNeen L. (2015-10-23). "Laila Lalami, Elizabeth Nunez, Claudia Rankine win 2015 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286 . Retrieved 2022-01-28.

Every great transformation requires a new story. A story that reveals new possibilities and points toward an optimistic alternative to the current situation. Citizens presents just such a story.' The shift from consumer to citizen is a truly big idea. If you’re in a position of strategic influence, I strongly recommend you engage with this and consciously explore what it might mean for your organisation.' – Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE, Former Director General, National Trust, and Trustee, BBC We constantly hear and tell stories about who we are and our capacity to act. "Leaders" may tell us they can save us from all manner of problems, if we clear their path to power. Their story is that we should live as subjects - cogs in their machine. Or they tell us that our narrow self interest will make things work out via the magic of the marketplace. Their story is that we should live as consumers - liberated - yes, liberated to be cogs in another machine whose ownership we are all a bit vague about. Aren't these people dreadful to fill our heads with these stories of how our lives should be lived ! But wait, we tell ourselves the same stories, we tell them to each other. We are complicit. The stories are all pervasive. Winners of the '46th NAACP Image Awards' | Press Room". NAACP. 2016-06-22. Archived from the original on 2016-06-22 . Retrieved 2022-01-28. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link)I hate this kind of material. Every other line, I'm shouting: "what are you talking about? What has happened? What are you trying to say? What is 'The memory of a memory isn't a memory, but it cuts to the soul and bares forth the fruit of the ghost of a passion, leaving the cold imprint of a leaden shadow hanging on the heart's beat'". [I just made that last sentence up. But you'd never know, would you?]. This is a collection of small moments and media-saturated ones: the injustices experienced by Serena Williams on the tennis court or Zinedine Zidane on the soccer pitch are repeated in the intimate moments when stranger or colleague or friend lets slip a slight or blurts an ignorance they may not even recognize as racist, because they just can't see. The face that fills the hoodie is invisible. Sixty years after Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and America has yet to accept an identity for that space. We allow. We create. We deny. We control. We appropriate. We define. But we don't see. We don't hear.

Possibly the most memorable essay in here examines Serena Williams and her experiences in tennis - how she is portrayed, how she is treated on the court, her reactions and how those in turn are portrayed. Citizens opens up a new way of understanding ourselves and shows us what we must do to survive and thrive – as individuals, as organisations, as nations, even as a species. The wonderful thing is that he not only gives us hope but more importantly he lights a pathway to make this new paradigm a reality through the years of deep work, thinking and action that have formed the basis of his book.' I did find moments of lucidity (on Serena Williams; on everyday racism; on Zidane). But for the most part, I found this terribly self-indulgent, formless adolescent gloop that felt like listening to a cultural studies student breathlessly talking about last night's dream in a therapy session. Look at the cover. A hoodie. The iconic image of American fear. Urban danger. Gang-bangers. A seventeen-year-old boy in Miami Gardens, FL.

About this site

Citizens opens up a new way of understanding ourselves and shows us what we must do to survive and thrive as individuals, organisations, and nations.

Claudia Rankine is an American poet and playwright born in 1963 and raised in Kingston, Jamaica and New York City. Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director, Stanford University Cyber Policy Center, and author, Democracy.com Citizens is a powerful and intriguing contribution to the search for a genuinely sustainable future. I am particularly interested in how the Citizen Story might help businesses to engage more fully with their employees and customers to accelerate sustainability and might also help businesses to become more transparent and accountable.' – David Grayson, Emeritus Professor of Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield University School of Management and co-author of The Sustainable Business Handbook

Advice

I've never been more convinced he has one of the few big ideas that's easily applied, fundamentally needed and genuinely offers a chance of change. Get on board for his new work, now. I am.'

Adviceline’s available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. It’s usually busiest at the beginning and end of the day. It's not available on public holidays. Jon is working with a set of ideas and tools that have the potential to change politics forever. In fact, they could change everything forever.'Alexandra Alter (March 12, 2015). " 'Lila' Honored as Top Fiction by National Book Critics Circle". The New York Times . Retrieved March 12, 2015. Kellaway, Kate (2015-08-30). "Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine review – the ugly truth of racism". the Guardian . Retrieved 2022-01-28.