Synthesis Essay About Language

Do we contemplate language when thinking about the origins of racism? We most likely do not think about it since language and racism does not appear to be correlated. But aren’t they associated? Yes, they are associated in the sense that language itself can take the form of racism. It is essential to recognize language as one of the most influential contributors to racism in order to see the connection between them. Words have the power to create great things just like they have the power to destroy them. Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric illustrates the idea that racism has become an everyday component of our society. The book argues that language normalizes the existence of racism.
A story was being narrated where two characters
A pulse in a neck, the shiftiness of the hands, an unconscious blink, the conversation you have with your eyes translate everything and nothing. What will be needed, what goes unfelt, unsaid – what has been duplicated, redacted here, redacted there, altered to hide or disguise – words encoding the bodies they cover” (Page 69). This quotation has more abstract writing than the previous citations as it allows Rankine to stimulate a deeper thought process from the reader’s side. Rankine refers to words as a form of liberation that allows people to express their thoughts with freedom. She mentions that they make an appearance as “an unconscious blink,” just like the situation with the “friend” in the previous paragraph. We have to pay close attention to the following expression: “What will be needed, what goes unfelt, unsaid – what has been duplicated, redacted here, redacted there, altered to hide or disguise – words encoding the bodies they cover.” She is talking about racism and how it has been normalized using words. The author chooses the words “hide” and “disguise” to signal the way in which words can cover the presence of discrimination contributing to the standardization of