{"id":188,"date":"2019-02-25T18:34:26","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T18:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freestyleacademy.rocks\/~MariaH\/?page_id=188"},"modified":"2019-02-25T18:34:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T18:34:26","slug":"lyrical-essay","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~MariaH\/lyrical-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyrical Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In English we read Citizen<\/em> by Claudia Rankine. Citizen<\/em> is a collection of lyrical essays speaking about the racism in today’s society. For this project, we were tasked with finding a social identity we were not familiar with and interviewing a person who identified with that, before creating a lyrical essay based on that interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this, I chose the LatinX social identity. I interviewed one of my acquaintances who was part of this community, as I knew she was very involved in the community and was passionate about her community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is my lyrical essay:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criminals, they say.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their privilege blinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They think you don\u2019t mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why wouldn\u2019t you mind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their privilege blinds, your situation binds and you do mind.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re wrong, you tell them. They stare at you as if you are lying and their mind is a flawless lie detector. Privileged eyes cannot see the struggles.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illegal immigrants, they claim.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accusation stings, a knife drawn across the skin.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citizens, you counter.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have lived your entire life in this country. You came when you were a baby. You know English just as well as any of them.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are a citizen.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paperwork, they point out.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their privilege blinds. Your situation binds.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My life is greater than paperwork, you speak.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are a citizen.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citizens are not defined by paperwork. Citizens are people who have lived.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it has always been a knife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A blade to press against the skin of your throat, threatening to draw blood.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steer clear of the rapists, they sneer.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The words are untrue.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, we aren\u2019t, you plead.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drug Dealers, they accuse.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accusations burn.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Untrue, you snap.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worst of the worst, they proclaim. The knife presses into your skin further. Tiny droplets of blood appear at the edge of the blade.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refugees, you cry. Your cries are swallowed by false allegations.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ignorance bites. The blade presses further.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refugees, you scream.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The words slip past them. They do not hear the cries for help and a better life.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They hear the stories of jobs stolen from them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stolen spots in society.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An injustice, they believe. An injustice that people like you should take a job away from people like them.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You, an illegal immigrant, have taken a job from a citizen.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their privilege blinds, your situation binds, they think you don\u2019t mind. They think you don\u2019t mind the knife against your skin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You do mind.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You, an injustice.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You cry foul.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are not a rapist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor an illegal immigrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor a drug dealer.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are a citizen, through and through. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only they would believe you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also had to find an image to go with the essay. Here is the photo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Related<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In English we read Citizen by Claudia Rankine. Citizen is a collection of lyrical essays speaking about the racism in today’s society. For this project, we were tasked with finding a social identity we were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-188","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~MariaH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~MariaH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~MariaH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~MariaH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~MariaH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~MariaH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~MariaH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~MariaH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}