“Perhaps this is how racism feels no matter the context—randomly the rules everyone else gets to play by no longer apply to you, and to call this out by calling out “I swear to God!” is to be called insane, crass, crazy. Bad sportsmanship.”

It’s been quite a long time since I sat down and just read an entire book, but that’s what I did a couple of nights ago, with Citizen, and I’m not even a big poetry person, but it was entirely urgent and readable and too stunning for me to look away.

In Citizen, Claudia Rankine shares experiences of racism, especially in the form of microaggressions, but overt racism, too. It combines essays with lyrical prose. It’s smart and sharp, too - I’m sure I will get more out of this one with every re-read (which I almost never do, but I will do with this one). I highly recommend this one.