17 thoughts on “Prompts for Rankine”

1. The majority of society is engulfed by darkness. This darkness makes ideas, concepts, and reality invisible to those who allow it to be a part of their lives. The few who have ventured from the darkness have become enlightened and see what was once invisible – now the visible. Rankine, one of those who have left the cave in pursuit of knowledge, has come across the not-so-subtle anti-black culture of the country we live in. The people whom are surrounded by darkness are blind to black death; however, Rankine pushes people out of the cave to realize the reality of black lives in our society. As Rankine writes, “It’s one thing to imagine…and another thing to see it” (148). It is hard to comprehend death without coercing society to understand what it means. The lack of visibility-the lack of visual evidence- is what allows those in darkness to stay unaware. By looking upon the dead, it becomes a method of acknowledgment of the suffering of black lives. It forces a person to decide whether the dead body matters enough to be mourned. Rankine’s objective is to uncover what has been invisible for so long: “History’s authority over us is not broken by maintaining a silence about its continued effects” (155). The lack of recognition of the hardships of black people in our culture, and especially the lack of feeling for another, is what makes a clear distinction of what we want to be visible and invisible. By insisting there be visual evidence of the suffering of black lives, it will break down the walls of the cave. This will allow the invisible to become visible, and allow those who were not enlightened to become knowledgeable.

   For my fellow peers: Do you believe that Rankine’s argument is persuasive, as much as it is valid and sound? Meaning, would Rankine’s argument be able to bring people out of this metaphorical cave?

2. *classmates (I’m sorry I’m not sure why I wrote peers??)

3. Rankine uses her personal experience to deepen the connection between the audience and the real world problems. She uses her experience and throws the reality under the face of the public to let them step into her shoes, to let them feel the sorrow and pain and struggle that she feels.

   Rankine argues that if she had let the funeral home bury his body, her son’s death would go unnoticed and overlooked. With her actions, she brought attention to unjust deaths of african american descents. She made her son’s body physically visible and by doing so, she made all african american mistreatment visible politically.

4. One thing that makes Claudia Rankine’s text so powerful is her copious use of personal experiences to convey that truly, the condition of black life is one of mourning. She does this by narrating in detail, anecdotes of moments in her life when she has been mistreated just because she is black. An example of this is the narration she gave about what happened eleven days after she was born. Ranking not only uses her personal experiences but that of others also such as Emmett Till and Michael Brown’s shootings. What also makes these experiences powerfully connected to the larger issue of racism in America is the way Rankine vividly describes them-in such detail that it moves the reader to understand the grave degree of racism in America. Her use of direct speech while doing this is also compelling such as on page 155 where it says “I am so afraid everyday.”

   Ranking talks at length about the visible. According to her, the visible body is very common in the United States to the point where it is almost a norm and that it has been used to shed light on the injustices. She used the exposure of dead black bodies as a reference point like the example of “Emmett Till’s mutilated and bloated body” put in an open casket for all to see. This “publicized the injustice” of a “criminal-justice system” that rarely offers justice to blacks. Apart from drawing attention to the injustices of the American judicial system, the visible body serves as a way to create a sense of “national mourning” with Black Americans.

5. Rankine adds in her personal experiences by sharing the things she has seen and lived/lives with in her life. By doing this she is able to show us that the black life is one of mourning as it says in the text. She mentioned specific moments in her life where she was mistreated for being black. To make her “big idea” even more vivid she added controversial happenings such as the Michael Brown shooting.

   Rankine argues that the visible body allows people to see the evidence of what actually happened. For example she used the body of Emmit Till body as an example of what actually seeing the evidence will do to society. She says that since the people saw the body that gave “energy” to the civil rights movement at that time.

6. 1. Rankine uses her own personal experience to connect to the larger issue, which is seen when Rankine’s friend had a son. Once this baby boy was born, thoughts of fear surrounded Rankine’s friend. Thoughts such as “I will never feel safe with my boy walking alone at night or during the day,” or “how can i live in this country?” As Rankine heard this from her friend, she realized every parent of the black community is scared for their children and that they all have been affected by the recent tragedies. At this moment, Rankine came to the realization that her friend moving to a different country will not resolve this problem because racism is a world wide problem.

   2. Rankine argues that the visible body was symbolism for mourning. As seen in the text, this mourning wasn’t only for the direct family members, but for the entire community. In addition, the body that was left out for hours can help all people understand the cruelty and strive for better outcomes. This visible body played as a mark for groups such as Black Lives Matter to create and pass political movements that will strive for equality and a safer living.

7. Rankine speaks from a perspective that not all people have, and that is from the perspective of a member of an oppressed race. But, with clever writing she is able to share this experience with those who may or may not share that characteristic with her. For the moment that I’m reading this piece I can try my best to imagine what it must be like to fear for my safety and the safety of those around me because of Rankine’s inclusive and open vocabulary.

   Rankine uses the visible body as the universal symbol for what is currently being done to the black community by the nations police departments, and that is murder.

8. Rankine uses her own personal testimonies in order to help her fully develop her emotional connection to such a deep topic. She connects the past and the present by identifying the similarities in both, as a way to enhance the readers understanding of her emotion towards the topic. Throughout the text she recalls specific moments in her life as a form of evidence that clearly helps one understand when she constantly states that “black life is one of mourning”. In addition these experience help us understand her emotional connection towards not only the topic as a whole as I’ve said before, but also to demonstrate that she understands the pain of those who are being directly affected by the historical accounts she narrates.

   Rankine argues that when the body is made visible , it makes it hard almost impossible for the tragedies to be overlooked. She mentions the body of Emit Till very early on and how the mother of till being strong enough to allow her sons body to be seen publicly, helped push the civil rights movement. She basically tries to imply that when the bodies are visible it leads way to social and political reform in these areas. She also mentions that the visible bodies are now a thing of the norm, which only leads me to question if her implication that visible bodies bring about reform and being that these visible bodies are more common, why is it that there’s no longer much being done about the injustices towards black lives that she speaks of?

9. Rankine describes her own personal experience to portray the importance of
   oppression. She starts off by telling a story of her friend giving birth to a baby boy. Typically, the birth of a child is one of the happiest moments of a parent’s life. The feeling of fear was the first thing the mother felt after the birth. This feeling is not just felt by her but by everyone facing racism in this country. Rankine continually uses the phrase “the condition of black life is one of mourning”. She refers to this as being unsure of her and her family’s future that at any point they might lose their reason to live.

   Rankine speaks about the visible body being hard to look past. She talks about Emit Til’s death. She describes how leaving his body out in the public eye paved the way for the Civil Rights movement during her time.

10. Rankine uses her experiences and those close to her to give her audience insight on the current condition of the “black body” and uses the accounts of others to describe the fear many blacks live with in everyday life. She describes a conversation she had with a friend who recently gave birth to her son, and her first thought before naming her child was “I have to get him out of this country”. While this was a joke and Rankie and her friend got a good laugh, it speaks volumes to the truth that lies behind her statement. She truly feared for her son that as he got older he’d be viewed as a threat, or “three-fifths” human. She uses her personal experience to introduce her topic of how the “black body” is viewed.

    The argument is that the visible body has a bigger impact on the public and makes it easier to point out the wrongs that have been done. It allows the body to be viewed as “evidence” of what has been done. When visibility is utilized, like in the Emmett Till case, it brought awareness to a huge issue on a national scale and allowed people to actually see the horrific thing that happened. It opened the door for a lot more Civil Rights movements to force the issue of change. When things are handled without a visual component it does not stick, because it doesn’t give people something to hold on to, and it is easy to become desensitized to a lot of brutalities and executions.

11. Rankine uses her personal experience to portray a picture in the audiences mind. She makes the readers feel the pain she went through as if they were her.

    She also mentions a lot about the visible body. The visible body is the reason that they are treated differently. Emmett Tills body was used as an example to show how people reacted differently to it.

12. Prompt #1:
    Rankine uses her own personal experience to connect to the larger issue about which she speaks by retelling a story so many black mothers can tell about raising a black child in this country. Their fear stems from an understanding of the danger of being black in a society built around white supremacy and deeply ingrained with “institutional racism” (145) that has repeatedly resulted in the most brutal killings of black people. Claudia Rankine (being black herself) can speak on the issue from an extremely aware perspective because she and the black people who are both directly (e.g. friend who she speaks of in the beginning of the text) or indirectly (e.g. Mike Brown, Emmett Till, etc.) apart of her life have faced racism in a way that can only truly be fully understood through direct encounter. However, Rankine doesn’t make this the larger issue; she emphasizes how the “black life is one of mourning” because of the ways in which we consistently see black lives being undervalued or viewed as inferior to those of whites. But also how movements like #BLACKLIVESMATTER or the exposure to black bodies that have been mutilated simply because they are black serves as a way to mourn but also acknowledge black lives do matter and deserve the “recognition” (151) that racism has neglected them of.

13. Prompt #2:
    Rankine use strong historical evidence to support how the visibility of the visible body operates politically. It makes it far more challenging for people to ignore or turn a blind eye to the issue that is so apparent. In this text, Rankine uses the story of Emmett Till to defend this idea and show how the choice of his mother to display his body in an open coffin was a way of refusing to let the public “look away from the flesh of.. domestic murders,…” (148). The viewing of this body encouraged the world to mourn and used as a “method of acknowledgment” to the racism that gave way to the reoccurring and unjust killings of black men, women, and children. On the other hand, I would argue, however, that the visibility of these black bodies (showing the gruesome images or videos in which it might have been slain) can begin to desensitize peoples’ views of black lives and black bodies making it become the norm. People can become so used to seeing black people killed that as it continues to happen, it becomes just like any old news that will die down as fast as it happens.

14. Rankine uses her personal knowledge to connect to the larger issue about which she is speaking by telling a story specifically targeted to black mothers. A simple conversation in passing before a black child is born might not seem memorable, but its definitely something that has had a huge effect on her and encompasses the struggle that many black mothers face to this day. “I have to get him out of this country”. Except where else is there to go? In that simple quote she describes a country that is free for all but not really free for all. Rankine is not only speaking here from the role of a mother but more importantly a black woman

    Rankine argues that the visible black bodies, sheds light on a matter that people rarely speak of. Anti-Black racism is the culture, engraved so deep that when another black person dies it goes on the list of just another black person who died today. We can never keep track of who we’re mourning in this country which is where the visible black bodies come into play. We as a country need to be re-sensitized.

15. Rankine utilizes her personal experience as a way of allowing the reader to gain a broader understanding of the issue at large. She begins by speaking about her friends sons birth. The first thought that her friend had as a mother was to find a way to bolt from where they are. Being aware of their race and the thought that the mother had makes the reader think that the issue that Rankine is speaking of is one of the past. Rankine continues to explain that abandoning their lives here is “Neither an option nor a desire.” Rankine and her friend both have established their lives in this country, holding friends, families and jobs. This is where the reluctance to leave comes into play. The situation that these women are in makes it appear as if the time period has shifted to a more recent one — one in which black people are viewed as equal. Despite black people having more rights than they used to they constantly live in fear. This is where leaving is not an option. No matter where black people run away or move to fear will continue to encompass their lives. Rankines experience provides an insight into what she will be speaking about, it’s a way of her showing that despite many areas of life may be the same on paper, they are not the same in society and through everyday life for black people.

    Rankine argues that the visible body has shaped the way people look upon the issue. Seeing the bodies and the way that they are treated by police and higher authority pries peoples eyes open to the reality of the situation, such as when Michael Brown’s body was left on the street for hours. Mothers have allowed people to photograph their deceased children to raise awareness and to encourage people to do something to prevent this brutality. Allowing for the body to be visible has spurred outrage in people, leading to protests and further attempts at reform. Video taping these killings has shown the public that these killings are not under false pretenses but that this is the reality of our nation. Publicizing what is happening to our nation triggers discomfort in people, seeing these bodies shows the inhumanity in what is happening.

16. Rankine starts the excerpt out by describing an interaction she had with one of her friends, where her friend told Rankine about when she was giving birth. Her friend (Presumably black) joked with Rankine about getting her new born son out of the United States as soon as possible. Rankine describes the proposition of leaving the country as a joke because both Rankine and her friend knew in their minds that leaving was neither an option, nor their real intent. Rankine includes this portion of writing in order to depict how institutionalized racism has because a norm for African Americans. It helps the reader to understand that African Americans (Or at least Rankine) likes living in the U.S. The real issue is that the country is in need of reform. That is Rankine’s true desire.

    Rankine argues that visibility of the dead bodies of African Americans is necessary for the deaths of those people to have a political impact. When someone dies and their body is quickly covered up without pictures taken, or media outlets releasing footage, the general public is quick to shrug off the entire situation in no time. Rankine used the example of Emmett Till too support her point. When Emmett Till was mutilated by a mob of white males, Emmett’s mother allowed his mutilated body to be photographed and published. Because of this, the general public is impacted, and Emmett’s story was not quickly forgotten. His story gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.

17. Rankine use her own personal experience to connect to the larger issue about which she speaks By talking about experiences many people similar to her can relate with. She uses her past experiences as a way of telling people that they’re not alone and the injustices happening to them are happening to others as well including herself.

    society tries to keep terrible things like murder invisible because it is easier to turn away and pretend like it isn’t happening. Rankine says that we need to make this visible and show the world that these terrible things are actually happening for there to be any change. People must open their eyes and see what is going on right in front of them and then there will be reform.