Topic > Microaggressions and Racial Injustices: A Review of…

Ranikine sheds light on failed justice systems, microaggressions, the pain and agony faced by Black people, white privilege, and all racial and institutional discrimination. such as police brutality and injustice against black people; The book exposes how, even after the abolition of slavery, racism still existed and was felt by the black community in the form of “micro aggressions in this modern world” that recently emerged. Claudia Rankine's Citizen explores everyday life situations between blacks and whites and reveals how little offensive disparaging conversations in the form of microaggressions are intentionally passed on to blacks by whites and how these racist comments fuel frustrations and anger among blacks. He collected the various incidents, in which in one incident where a white teenager Deryl Dedman ran his truck into the black boy James Craig Anderson while uttering a racial slur, “I hit that nigger” (Rankine 94) (10). This demonstrates the extraordinary powers of whites to oppress the black community and the failure of the legal system. Rankine also shares the horrific tragedy of Hurricane Katrina experienced by the black community, where they fought for their survival before and after the hurricane's catastrophes. He reports that black lives in the disaster came at no cost to the white administration and they delayed aid. He expresses this by writing: “I don't know what the water wanted. He wanted to show you that no one would come” (Rankine 94)(11). In addition to this Rankine addresses the issue of regular 'Stop and Frisk' of blacks by the police. She claims that due to their colour, they always remain prime suspects in the eyes of legal agencies. She writes that "... boy who is always the one who fits the description" (Rankine