White Privilege In Claudia Rankine's Citizen

Effects of White Privilege
Racism: although an ongoing and prevalent issue, it is a foreign topic for many who do not experience the full effects of it on a daily basis or are sheltered from it due to their race. However, through novels, films, and social media, some hope to highlight and end the occurrence of racism. In the novel Citizen by Claudia Rankine, for example, Rankine offers an insightful view of the ongoing racism towards African Americans through descriptions of recent events and personal experiences involving racism. She specifically writes in the second person, allowing readers to fully immerse themselves in the situations that African Americans face in a white-favored society and understand the frustration many African Americans
feel at having to comply to the injustices they endure for fear of repercussions. These injustices are also shown in the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, in which black characters such as Cholly Breedlove suffer the brunt effect of racism and white superiority, distorting their relationship with anger. The occurrence of racism and its effect as detailed in Citizen and The Bluest Eye demonstrates that white privilege affects black people’s expression of anger and violence by limiting their ability to freely express anger and resulting in misplaced violence towards others.
White privilege forces black people to express the anger and hatred they feel towards others and not the perpetrator themself.
For instance, in Citizen, as Williams continues to be disappointed by the unfair calls made against her by yelling at a different umpire, Rankine writes, “every look, every comment, every bad call blossoms out of history, through her, onto you” (Rankine 32). After an innumerable number of instances in which white umpires who discriminated against her and handed out punishments for her, Williams begins to group all white umpires as the same people who are determined to make sure that white people stay superior to white people. The rage she expresses towards them and the fact that she will never be seen as simply a tennis player rather than a black tennis player builds feelings of frustration. As her disappointment and anger towards the false calls reaches its breaking point, she directs her anger onto another umpire. As shown by William’s actions, allowing racism and white privilege will force African Americans to react in anger on another person. Similarly, in The Bluest Eye, after being forced to have sex in front of the two white men, he directs the rage he feels at enduring the degrading act onto Darlene “who created the situation, the one who bore witness to his failure, and his impotence” (Morrison 151). Because the two perpetrators are white, Cholly has not authority over them and is unable to express his rage towards them. If he were to
attempt to challenge a white man, the hatred he would feel as a result of his imminent failure to defend his pride will consume him. Darlene, on the other hand, witnessed his weakness of submitting to white men and being unable to fight them off. The feelings of anger coupled with hatred of his helplessness due to something he cannot control--his race--forces him to direct his rage onto Darlene, a person he can control as she is black and is considered as inferior as him. Not only does white privilege results in the misplacement of anger onto others, it also restricts black people’s ability to express anger.
White privilege inevitably leads to the inability to convey anger and become unresponsive towards injustice.
For example, in Citizen, after black tennis player Serena Williams was fined for yelling at a biased call made against her, Williams claims, “she has had to split herself off from herself and create different personae” in order to win tennis matches (Rankine 37). As a black tennis player in a game dominated by white players, Williams is forced to comply to rules that favor those who are white. Any slight action “showing” her breaking a rule can be manipulated and justified as a reason as to why she can be fined. The realization that attempts to express disdain towards their discriminating calls will be fruitless encourages her to become emotionally-detached and accept the unfair calls made in order to avoid further punishments. Thus, in order for Williams to be successful in the game of tennis, she must create a new version of herself that submits to the unfair calls made by the umpire and discriminating remarks made audience members by dissociating herself from traits that white people would consider her different and uncivilized. The new image she projects would be more allow her to be better accepted in the world of tennis. Such ambiguity as exemplified by Williams is further seen in The Bluest Eye, during which Cholly was humiliated during sex with Darlene by two white men. After the two men force him to continue to have sex in front of them, Cholly states that he
would not have challenged their demands as “they were big white, armed men. He was small, black, helpless” (Morrison 151). As a black boy in a white-superior society, he recognizes that he has no power to oppose the demands made by white people. Their skin color protects them from punishment by law enforcement, whom would have sided with those of their race, giving the two white men unlimited power over the lowest class in their community--black people. Had Cholly decided to fight back against them, more harm--including death--would have come to him and Darlene. Such preference towards white people encourages black people to hide their outrage and true emotions, limiting them from showing anger. It will also distort their view of anger as as an emotion that will result in severe consequences if expressed rather than as an emotion used to express indignation at the injustice they are subjected to.
To conclude, white privilege has a dire effect on African American people’s expression of anger by restricting them of their usage of anger and forcing them to misplace their anger onto other people. Although not a widely talked about subject, the effects of white privilege is severely damaging. Should the issue continue to be ignored, generations of African Americans will inherit the anger and violence from those before them and a cycle of hatred will continue to thrive.