This is such a powerful book! Rankine uses multiple genres (poetry, essays and various types of images) to bring readers into the discussion surrounding whiteness and white supremacy. She is able to incorporate facts within each genre that leaves the reader with a lot to think about. A must read for all!

Thank you to NetGalley and Graywolf for the eARC of this genre-bending and important book.
The subtitle of Just Us is An American Conversation, and it is striking that Rankine builds this book out of fairly simple and everyday events and conversations, some of which she actively seeks out, some which happen to her, and others which simply happen in a space near her.
One of the earliest events in Just Us, and a good example of how this book will work (for there don’t seem to be too many specific examples of books that work on the reader in the way that this one does), involves a white man stepping in front of Rankine in a first-class line to get on an airplane. The man gets behind her, but says to a white male companion, “You never know who they’re letting into first class these days.” Within the space of Just Us, rather than express an unutterable rage that might have (and maybe did?) overcome her in the moment, Rankine interrogates her reaction, explores possible reasons for the white man’s actions and why he may have said what he said. She also includes pictures from the plane of her line-cutter, and, on the left-hand side the page, captures a social media post of a Black person who recounts a very similar experience. The personal is universal. These are not isolated incidents. This is the structure of our country.
Rankine’s book continues on in this way: fair-minded, inquisitive, unstinting. Throughout, she uses the left-hand page to fact-check herself and others. She recounts conversations with white friends, and allows her friends to read her essay to get a reaction. One even writes a heady response that is included here.
There is so much that makes up Just Us. So much that requires great thought, and perhaps even greater action. Just Us is truly an important addition to this American Conversation

Poems, photos and prose about whiteness and related topics. “notes on the state of whiteness” reproduces portions of an edition of Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, with text not about Blacks removed. It’s powerful. A lot of the prose touches on various ways in which whiteness enables not having to see, and thus not seeing or remembering, both overt racist violence and racist structures. Rankine deeply interrogates her own reactions as a means of interrogating the world’s.

An incredible, nuanced perspective on the current racial situation in the United States. A brilliant follow-up to Citizen and a must-read in college classes (and beyond, of course). Cannot wait to adopt this text for my class.

Thanks to Partner NetGalley for the digital ARC of Claudia Rankine’s Just Us: An American Conversation in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on Tuesday, September 8, 2020.

I will need to read Claudia Rankine’s Just Us again. I think it is brilliant and important and thoughtful, but I know that there’s more to absorb, more to contemplate. I read it too quickly this time, wrestled with the format of the e-book (I’m definitely going to buy it in print), and so I know that I missed details, connections, and nuance that would have enriched my reading experience even more.

Still, even on a first read, I loved it.

As she did in her gorgeous book Citizen: An American Lyric, Rankine uses a mixture of poetry, essays, and images through Just Us: An American Conversation. The book moves between the main pieces and connective pieces that are woven alongside the text, providing sources, in-the-moment fact checks, and further reflection.

Rankine uses the intensely personal to explore the universal. She is wrestling with her own experiences as a way to grapple with American experience. She is both keenly aware of when she has been wronged . . . but she’s reflective and vulnerable enough to admit when she wrongs others, too.

Her scope is wide ranging. She uses brief meetings with strangers in airports and on planes, longer conversations with friends that puzzle her, and disagreements or moments of dissatisfaction with her husband to explore her topic. She’s aiming to define whiteness, as she does in one of her classes at Yale, to try to figure out what it means to be white and how her own identity relates to that definition. She’s constantly challenging her own assumptions, her friends’ assumptions, small comments that seem to offer a key that will unlock a new insight into race in America.

As she did in Citizen, Rankine presents her response in abstract and lyrical poetry, in meditations on things like tennis and college admissions, in social media, in her cancer, in her interracial marriage to a white husband. She’s looking for answers wherever she can. Often, after having written an essay about a conversation with someone, she then shares the essay with that person and shares his/her response. It’s fascinating, a true series of conversations that she’s developing with others and with herself.

At one point, a friend critiques what Rankine has written because “there’s no strategy here,” and Rankine replies, “response is my strategy. Endless responses and study and adjustments and compromises become a life” (334). It’s what we all do, on some level, I think (or at least I do!): we respond to what happens and then test our responses, absorbing new information and events and meetings and conversations into our understanding. And then we do it again.

This is a book I’ll be thinking about for a long time.

Claudia Rankine is an artist, skillfully weaving poetry, essays, images, and other forms of verbal and visual communication into a detailed portrait of whiteness in America in this time. "Just Us" is no didactic tome, no flat analysis of living in the US as a Black person. Instead, the book is presented as a conversation holding humor, hard questions, persistence and truth.

I will be purchasing a hard copy of this book and will be urging everyone else to do the same. Rankine is a truth-teller, a prophet, a lover of humanity. Her book is an important contribution to the work of dismantling white supremacy and building a just and humane world.

Through poetry, shared conversations, social media, and more, Claudia Rankine explores racism and whiteness in public spaces. From the classroom to the airport to Twitter, Rankine shares personal experiences and viral moments that open a window into the ways racism is deeply embedded in our lives. Her writing is conversational but also full of critical theory, making it a very approachable text. I didn't love the way references were formatted, but I recognize in it the need for Black women to prove the facts of their own lives in a society that constantly gaslights them instead of accepting their arguments as credible. For that reason, the references have an important power on the page. Overall, a very necessary addition to the conversation on racism in the U.S.

"Just Us" by Claudia Rankine is an awesome collection of poetry, images, essays, and facts about racism and whiteness in America. The essays speak to Rankine's experiences with racism, how racism is highlighted by the colorblind narratives that white people embrace, and overall, how Black people have to navigate through American life. Also, when you are the phrase "A picture is worth a 1000 words," it helps me convey how impactful the selected images are and how their placement in the book form their own stories. American society has created the cruel reality that racism is always at play, from waiting in line at the airport to the color one chooses to dye his/her hair. This book further solidifies Rankine's reputation as one of the most important writers of our time, and "Just Us" falls into the top of my list of one of the best books of the year.

This was an interesting look at racism through a more free-form, conversational lens, while still feeling fairly academic. It felt a bit like a memoir-style analysis of a professor's class experiences, merged with personal experiences with everyday racism. There are often not solid answers, and generally more questions, and in this way, the book felt like it was discussing philosophy. I'm not sure this style will resonate/connect with everyone, and it didn't quite get there with me, but it is definitely a good book to add to the antiracist cannon. I can imagine anyone teaching about antiracism or African American Studies or Black Studies, would find this an invaluable resource to support and add further discussion points and sources to turn to.

Another incredible book by Claudia Rankine. In this book, she provides numerous exhibits and examples from history while also exploring the personal. Beautiful, painful, educational, moving, and so many other things.

Claudia Rankine is an exceptional writer who tackles race head-on. Clever integration of multimedia elements.

Once again, Rankine blows us away with another collection of powerful essays, poems, and images that become poignant conversations, conversations that we have in our heads, with friends, strangers, conversations where we find ourselves quoting Rankine.

Perfect book for today when America finally seems to be addressing Black Lives Matter and police brutality, and what is meant by "whiteness."

I read this as a PDF from Netgalley, but I do want this one in my hands, in print.

I'm a big fan of Claudia Rankine, and this book was no exception. I wasn't expecting so much factual information, but I loved how she incorporated facts with anecdotes, observations, imagery, poetry & prose. It was unlike any other book I've read about the state of racism in America, and it gave me a lot to think about. It would give anyone a lot to think about, and it's a topic we all need to be spending time with.

In short, read this book. It's worth it. It might make you uncomfortable, but that means you really needed it.

I know from reading previous works by Claudia Rankine that when I delve into her work, I need to prepare myself to be all consumed. Rankine's writing has a way of being strikingly conversational and deeply profound simultaneously. (Because I am neither, I don't even know if that's the best way to describe it.

"Just Us" is a timely book. A collection of essays, poems, photographs, and academic information centering around white supremacy in America, this book opens conversations, inviting the reader to question and consider white privilege, white supremacy, and ways to understand each other through the mess of our culture and society. As in her phenomenal book "Citizen", Rankine's format intermixes lyrical poetry with anecdotal intros to insightful essays and exhaustively researched statistics. Rankine relates her own experiences in bridging the gaps between what we understand and talk about when it comes to race by engaging in conversations in her everyday life and sharing experiences from her relationships both professional and personal.

Like she did with "Citizen" Rankine sets a new standard for writing about, thinking about, and talking about race. This is essential reading for our time.

A very informative and interesting look into race relations in the U.S. The author brought up quite a few thought-provoking conversations that I'll continue to think about long after this book.