We are living in a world where the erasure and dehumanization of people of color is slowly becoming a normative. Voices silenced, struggles trivialized, deaths becoming statistics, brutality only brought up for shock factor, achievements hidden and it is all slowly becoming accepted. Through various rhetorical strategies Claudia Rankine illustrates the experience of being part of the marginalized identity in the United States and depicts how subtly and multifaceted the methods of oppression take place in the daily life are and the negative repercussions it holds on the individual.
The ambiguity of her writing with the lack of punctuation and clarification of what is thought and what is aloud allows the readers to input their own interpretation of these various scenarios. The interpretation of when voices are aloud likely differs on if the reader is marginalized or having their privilege thrust forth into their face. This rhetorical strategy of purposeful erasure mirrors the ambiguity of racism. Purposeful erasure enticing the reader to fill in their own blanks. Make their own meaning of the work because the
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One particularly outstanding one is a massive poster of a quote saying “I feel the most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background”. It is a quote by black poet Zora Neal Hurston where she juxtaposes black and white whilst talking about how she is the most aware and ostracized when she is placed in a white environment. For then she is stripped of her humanity and becomes singularized down to her color. The writing slowly becomes less coherent and messier. Almost angrier as it becomes a black background. Almost symbolizing the entirety of her identity is is her blackness and nothing more. “They really stand as they were told to me. I chose language and decided not to include certain details, but more or less these are the stories that either I experienced or I was