The Phenomenology of Oppression and Description in Rankine’s Citizen

The following paper was written for my class Phenomenology and Literature taught by Dr. Jennifer Gosetti-Ferencei at Johns Hopkins University. I extend my gratitude to Professor Jennifer Gosetti-Ferencei for supporting me to write this paper.

In Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine writes poems, essays, and free-verse prose to illustrate a Black person’s experience surviving and living in America.[1] Ultimately, Rankine vividly illustrates and reflects on a Black person’s experience of systematic and structural racism through the use of the phenomenology of oppression. In this paper, I will carefully analyze examples of the phenomenology of oppression in Citizen. I will then utilize examples within Citizen to illustrate how the literature as a whole performs phenomenological description. I will ultimately demonstrate how the phenomenological description of oppression succeeds in challenging readers and philosophers to step out of their comfort zone and thereby be confronted with the reality of what privileges they have, and the privileges they do not have.

Before I begin analyzing examples of the phenomenology of oppression in Citizen, it is important to establish a definition of the phenomenology of oppression. I will be defining the phenomenology of oppression as the following: the study of structures and processes of consciousness as experienced from the first-person view of the oppressed.[2] At the core of the phenomenology of oppression would be the intention of identifying, experiencing, and reflecting on an oppressive experience to recognize the structures and systems causing the intrapersonal, interpersonal, or societal level of oppression. Furthermore, I would like to clearly define how I am using the term ‘White.’ Sometimes, I will be utilizing the literature’s description to describe the actions and behaviors of a White person. Other times, the literature’s description will be vague on race, but I will be referring to ‘White’ as any non-Black individual that takes advantage of systems and structures rooted in white supremacy and thus is benefitting by being complicit in white supremacy. Of course, a non-black person of color can still experience some levels of oppression but would be in the unique position of having privileges in complying with white supremacy that would harm Black people (Saad).

One example of the phenomenology of oppression in Citizen would be the story of when a couple asked a friend to pick up their child from school. The couple is informed by their neighbor of their concern that a “menacing black guy” is walking back and forth, “talking to himself and seems disturbed” (Rankine, 15). Even though the couple tries to reassure the neighbor that the man is babysitting, the neighbor calls the police. The couple returns home to find their neighbor apologizing to their friend and then towards the couple. It is important to note that the story begins as, “you and your partner go to see the film The House We Live In” (Rankine, 15). The in-the-situation perspective pushes the reader to be involved within the situation, where the reader is “feeling somewhat responsible for the actions of [their] neighbor” and then tells their Black friend “that the next time he wants to talk on the phone he should just go in the backyard” (Rankine, 15). The dynamics described here is an example of the phenomenology of oppression because the reader must come to recognize that they are conscious of the reality that a Black person cannot be left alone to pace back and forth in front of a house, a luxury and privilege that a White person has, or a non-Black person color may have.

Furthermore, when the reader is involved in the situation of advising their Black friend that they should go through the backyard, they are witnessing the moment when the Black friend looks at the reader for a “long minute before saying he can speak on the phone wherever he wants” (Rankine, 15). In this interaction, the reader becomes conscious of two layers of oppression involved — intrapersonal and interpersonal level of oppression. At the intrapersonal level, the reader feels responsible for handling the consequences of the casual racism of the neighbor calling the policing on a Black man who is simply walking and talking on the phone. Even though the neighbor insisted that they met the friend and that the friend would be nice, the reader feels responsible to clumsily handle the reality that their Black friend would have been injured or killed by the police had they not arrived sooner, or if their Black friend had not ‘cooperated’ in talking with their neighbor. At the interpersonal level, the reader feels obligated to advise their Black friend to walk a certain way as not to alarm their White neighbor. In the conversation between the reader and the Black friend, the reader finds their friend asserting they should have freedom and choice to be on the phone, illustrating a tension between assimilating to rules that perpetuate the oppression of Black people versus resisting such rules.

In the poem that begins with the line, “some years there exists a wanting to escape,” there are several verses that are an example of the phenomenology of oppression as well (Rankine, 139). The very first line refers to how the individual wants to escape the pain of being oppressed, but the pain coexists with their existence. This experience is further emphasized in the following verses, “Even as your own weight / insists you are here, fighting off / the weight of nonexistence” (Rankine, 139). As the poem progresses, the reflection of who is the self continues, battling against oppressive forces that denies their existence, “soon you are sitting around..and you are pulled back into the body of you receiving the nothing gaze…” (Rankine, 141). The ‘nothing gaze’ refers to the gaze given to inanimate objects or things that are not of importance — it is a gaze that washes people of color into the background. Just how in the poem of a customer being unaware of a Black person being in line, the nothing gaze erases a Black person from interpersonal interactions and communications (Rankine, 77). Likewise, just how in the Stop-and-Frisk poem a Black person was pulled over, handcuffed, and assaulted over an inappropriate charge of speeding, the nothing gaze erases a Black person from society, oppressing them to structural and systematic racism (Rankine, 107).

The nothing gaze continues to push an oppressive reminder to the individual that “what happens to you doesn’t belong to you, only half concerns you. It’s not yours. Not yours only” (Rankine, 141). This verse highlights another example of the phenomenology of oppression because it makes the reader conscious and reflective of oppressive experiences, and then pulls them right back out into the present, where they are situated physically in a place, overhearing a conversation that tells them what happens to them only half concerns them. The physical reminder that brings them to the present is a demonstration of how oppression is constant — it is a constant dripping, but weighty feeling that picks at the self, criticizes the self, and demeans the self to oppress the self into believing that they have no autonomy over their mind or body; that they have no autonomy or choice in what happens to them.

The nature of the oppression is well illustrated in the conscious experience of oppression in the last few verses of the poem: “I they he she we you were too concluded yesterday to know whatever was done could also be done, was also done, was never done -” (Rankine, 146). Here, we find the poet conscious of the fact that the oppressors — described as ‘I they he she we’ — are aware of the ways to reduce oppression and disparities, and yet would not utilize these methods. Instead, what could have been done to dismantle systematic racism was never done. Instead, if anything, it ‘was also done’ in a half-hearted effort along with other methods that never achieved dismantling the oppressive systems and instead did more harm than good. One prominent example of this would be the nation’s attempts of dismantling racist policing. An effort that ‘was also done’ in half-hearted effort in some states would be banning chokeholds, but not banning qualified immunity (Mak). In such efforts of reforming police systems, there is a small effort to reduce violent behaviors of the racist police and little to no measures that allow civilians to hold police officers accountable for their inappropriate, unjustified, and racist actions.

These half-hearted efforts would do more harm than good, where racist police would find other means and methods of police brutality, continuing the long list of Black lives lost to police brutality. These injuries and grievances on Black lives are further emphasized by the last line of the poem, where the poet explains, “the worst injury is feeling you don’t belong so much to you-” (Rankine, 146). The oppressors go as far as not only being aware of methods and yet not fully dismantling oppressive systems, but also go as far to conclude a victim’s pain and injury without their input. This action, done at an interpersonal and societal level, removes the self in the conversation of what pain and injustice have been done to them, removing the self of having ownership of their pain and injury, and autonomy in seeking justice from injury. Hence, the poem gives the reader an opportunity of identifying, experiencing, and reflecting on oppressive experiences with the intention of recognizing the structures and systems that cause intrapersonal, interpersonal, and societal levels of oppression.

So far, I have utilized pieces in Rankine’s Citizen to illustrate examples of the phenomenology of oppression. Now, I will illustrate how the literature as a whole performs phenomenological description. The phenomenological description refers to “describing literature phenomenologically and doing phenomenology in literature form” (Rankine, Gosetti-Ferencei, 1). Rankine’s poetry, prose, and essays in Citizen articulate what Sartre and Beauvoir call “situated facticity,” or the existence of an individual that is given in their lives (Rankine, Gosetti-Ferencei, 5). One way this is illustrated is through the lack of discrete calling of characters Black or White. With the lack of a person’s name and race, the reader is involved in the poems, which use ‘you’ or ‘I.’ Situating the reader into the stories pushes the reader to think how the situations would play had they been a Black person, a non-Black person of color, or a White person. In the example illustrated earlier of the couple asking their friend to pick up their child, the poem is written with ‘you’ and ‘your,’ whereby the reader is forced to confront the reality of the privileges they have, versus the privileges their Black friend does not have. By challenging the reader to step out of their comfort zone through the in-the-situation perspective, the reader is pushed to have ownership of the situation. The reader is situated into the poem, reflecting on how or where they are, and where other people can say how they are affected.

Another example of the phenomenological description would be the verses, “when you lay your body in the body…becoming the body of you” in the poem nearing the end of the book (Rankine, 144). The reader is situated in the self, recognizing how they see the self internally, how they see the self externally through the perspective of other people — like through the eye of the oppressors — and how they see the self externally through outside of themself. This poem not only serves to emphasize the constant effect of oppression, but it also shows the “harm of racism” and how “injustice is all around us, often without any ill-meaning person or institution we can isolate or subdue,” leaving the individual to feel a lack of ownership of their pain (Rankine, Gosetti-Ferencei, 5).

Overall, the phenomenological description of the literature can be best described through the essay earlier in the book, “each moment [described] is like this — before it can be known, categorized as similar to another thing and dismissed, it has to be experienced, it has to be seen” (Rankine, 9). Rankine achieves the description, more specifically the reality and experience of racism in America, through the experience of the reader situated in racist and oppressive situations. Rankine utilizes vivid illustrations, detailed thoughts and feelings, first-person perspective, and broken thoughts and verses to situate the reader into the reality, the facticity of racism. Ranging from daily microaggressive situations at the coffee shop or bus ride to violent racist situations such as stop and frisk or police brutality, the reader is situated right in the moment, experiencing first-hand through the literature the feelings and thoughts of being discriminated against, assaulted by racism, and constantly oppressed.

Before the racist situation can even be known by society at large, the reader must categorize specific situations as racist and oppressive. But each categorization of the situations they experience is constantly dismissed by society, despite being experienced, despite being seen. Furthermore, the dynamics of experiencing a racist situation and then being dismissed from experiencing racism are enhanced through the reader’s perspective. Through every interaction with the literature, the reader is challenged to step out of their comfort zone and confront the reality of what privileges they have (at a coffee shop, on the bus, or at work) to what privileges they do not have. Thus, this effect illustrated in Rankine’s literature highlights the nature of oppression, specifically the nature of systematic and structural racism in America.

In conclusion, I have carefully analyzed examples of the phenomenology of oppression in Citizen. I then utilized the examples within Citizen to illustrate how the literature as a whole performs phenomenological description. I ultimately demonstrated how the phenomenological description of oppression succeeds in challenging readers and philosophers step out of their comfort zone and thereby be confronted with the reality of what privileges they have, and the privileges they do not have.

Works Cited

Gosetti-Ferencei, Jennifer. Phenomenology and Literature: Handout for the Lecture onSartre/Beauvoir/Rankine., 2021.

Mak, Tim, and Monika Evstatieva. “How Decades of Bans on Police Chokeholds have Fallen Short.” NPR, June 16, 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/877527974/how-decades-of-bans-on-police-chokeholds-have-fallen-short#61;President%20Trump%2C%20though%20he%20stopped,a%20law%20banning%20the%20tactic.

“Phenomenology.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. March 11, 2021, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/.

Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Graywolf Press, 2014.

Saad, Layla F. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. Sourcebooks, 2020.

Footnotes

[1] Today, I write this paper as the trial of Dereck Chauvin — the police officer who killed George Floyd — continues. I also write this paper on a day that we lose another life to police brutality — Daunte Wright, who was murdered in Minnesota. I dedicate this paper in memory of them, in memory of Freddie Gray, Tyrone West, Breonna Taylor, and countless number of Black lives lost to police brutality and systematic racism.

[2] This definition was largely inspired by the definition of phenomenology by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines phenomenology as a whole as a “study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality, its being directed toward something, as it is an experience of or about some object.”