Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us

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A wonderful guide to how to be human in the 21st Century' - Ece Temelkuran, How to Lose a Country: the Seven Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship Morse, Sandell (2016-01-18). "A Review of Claudia Rankine's Citizen, An American Lyric". Brevity . Retrieved 2022-01-27. Adviceline’s available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. It’s usually busiest at the beginning and end of the day. It's not available on public holidays.

Jon Alexander's New Citizenship Project speaks to action in the real world but has an immensely solid base in ideas as expressed in words, the meanings and applications of which he first teases out and then rams home with elan and gusto in this bravely inspiring book.' Brown, DeNeen L. (2015-10-23). "Laila Lalami, Elizabeth Nunez, Claudia Rankine win 2015 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286 . Retrieved 2022-01-28. Lately it seems every time I turn on the news I come across a story that reminds me of this collection. The further I get from it, the more it grows within me. Rankine argues with teeth for a world where we can look bigotry in the face and pulverize it. A world where cops don't shoot unarmed citizens, regardless of race or creed. A world into which we can be proud to have birthed new lives. Citizen: An American Lyric is fiercely important to us all, not limiting to race, gender, nationality, etc, et al. I hope Rankines message is taken to heart.A wonderful guide to how to be human in the 21st Century' – Ece Temelkuran, How to Lose a Country: the Seven Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship Because when our institutions treat people as creative, empowered creatures rather than consumers, everything changes. Best of the Decade: What Books Will We Still Be Reading in 10 Years?". Literary Hub. 2019-09-24 . Retrieved 2020-02-18. The belief that every single one of us has both the potential and the desire to make the world better drives me every day, in everything I do. In Citizens, Jon shows how taking that belief as a starting point really could transform our world. This is a truly powerful book, in every sense of the word.' - Josh Babarinde, Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur There is such a thing as an idea whose time has come. This is that idea.' – James Perry, Board Member, B Lab Global, and Founding Partner, Snowball Investment Management

Ms. Rankine notes the reason she writes in the second person: "Sometimes “I” is supposed to hold what is not there until it is. Then what is comes apart the closer you are to it." Victor Hugo said that there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Recognising and acting on our power as Citizens is an idea whose time has surely arrived. Democracy and the institutions of power are broken. And, as the book’s subtitle says, the key to fixing everything is all of us. That’s a great line. Jon and I share a past in advertising, so I appreciate the craft required to load so much meaning into just a few words. Teasley, Lisa (28 March 2023). "Introducing Claudia Rankine's 'Citizen' ". Alta . Retrieved May 25, 2023.

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Citizens opens up a new way of understanding ourselves and shows us what we must do to survive and thrive – as individuals, as organisations, as nations, even as a species. Rankine talks of tennis, of Serena and Venus, of foot faults and bad calls. I didn’t know these things: I don’t watch tennis. But foot faults and bad calls are happening on our streets, not within the civilized constraints of a rule-bound tennis game. These I do watch. The agony of the small daily slights crescendo, collapse, avalanche when the police become involved. No wonder people run away from police, our ‘guardians’. We have all learned something these many years and it is not that police are guardians. Nichola Raihani, Professor of Evolution and Behaviour, University College London, and author, The Social Instinct

Foley, Hugh (2015-10-13). " 'The Full Force of Your American Positioning' ". The Oxonian Review . Retrieved 2022-01-28.

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Kellaway, Kate (2015-08-30). "Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine review – the ugly truth of racism". the Guardian . Retrieved 2022-01-28. Winners of the '46th NAACP Image Awards' | Press Room". NAACP. 2016-06-22. Archived from the original on 2016-06-22 . Retrieved 2022-01-28. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link) But however you read this book, read it. And I am sure that, if you love Coates' Between the World and Me as much as I do, you will like this book very much. Although I've always been a huge fan of Serena Williams, reading about her experiences with racist refs and tennis players made me respect her even more. Citizens opens up a new way of understanding ourselves and shows us what we must do to survive and thrive as individuals, organisations, and nations.

Constant, Paul (2017-01-05). "A room full of citizens, by Paul Constant". The Seattle Review of Books . Retrieved 2022-01-28. We constantly hear and tell stories about who we are and our capacity to act. "Leaders" may tell us they can save us from all manner of problems, if we clear their path to power. Their story is that we should live as subjects - cogs in their machine. Or they tell us that our narrow self interest will make things work out via the magic of the marketplace. Their story is that we should live as consumers - liberated - yes, liberated to be cogs in another machine whose ownership we are all a bit vague about. Aren't these people dreadful to fill our heads with these stories of how our lives should be lived ! But wait, we tell ourselves the same stories, we tell them to each other. We are complicit. The stories are all pervasive.

The wonderful thing is that he not only gives us hope but more importantly he lights a pathway to make this new paradigm a reality through the years of deep work, thinking and action that have formed the basis of his book.' Nichola Raihani, Professor of Evolution and Behaviour, University College London, and author, The Social Instinct Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director, Stanford University Cyber Policy Center, and author, Democracy.com She relates how it feels to be judged and hated because of the colour of her skin. To not even feel her body belongs to her because it is always up for judgment and criticism. As she says, "The worst injury is feeling you don’t belong so much to you"