Claudia Rankine — How Can I Say This So We Can Stay in This Car Together?

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being Studios

Sociology, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Krista Tippett, Arts, Culture, On Being, Society, Society & Culture, Science, Social Sciences

4.7 • 10.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2019

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The poet, essayist, and playwright Claudia Rankine says every conversation about race doesn’t need to be about racism. But she says all of us — and especially white people — need to find a way to talk about it, even when it gets uncomfortable. Her bestselling book, “Citizen: An American Lyric,” catalogued the painful daily experiences of lived racism for people of color. Claudia models how it’s possible to bring that reality into the open — not to fight, but to draw closer. And she shows how we can do this with everyone, from our intimate friends to strangers on airplanes. Claudia Rankine is the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University and founder of The Racial Imaginary Institute. She is the author of five collections of poetry including “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely.” Her plays include “The Provenance of Beauty” and “The White Card.” Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for on-being with Christa Tippett comes from the Fetzer Institute helping build the spiritual foundation for a loving world.
0:07.0	Fetzer envisions a world that embraces love as a guiding principle and animating force for our lives,
0:13.0	a powerful love that helps us live in sacred relationship with ourselves, others, and the natural world.
0:19.0	Learn more by visiting Fetzer.org.
0:22.0	Claudia Rankin says that every conversation about race doesn't need to be about racism.
0:28.0	And she's revelatory for me as a white American about pain points that are woven into the fabric of the American every day.
0:37.0	She models how it's possible to bring this out into the open, not in order to fight, but in order to draw closer.
0:45.0	She shows how we can all do this, hour by hour, encounter by encounter, in ordinary times and spaces.
0:53.0	And I spend a lot of time thinking about how can I say this so that we can stay in this car together,
1:02.0	and yet explore the things that I want to explore with you.
1:08.0	I just think that line, how can I say this so we can stay in this car together?
1:14.0	It's like, it should be a national motto for us.
1:19.0	I'm Christa Tippett and this is on being.
1:28.0	Claudia Rankin's book, Citizen and American Lyric, was a New York Times bestseller and won many awards.
1:35.0	She teaches at Yale and is also the founder of the Racial Imaginary Institute.
1:40.0	And she's published several collections of poetry and also plays.
1:44.0	She joined me at the K Playhouse at Hunter College in New York City.
1:48.0	We were there as part of the 2018 Work It Women's Podcast Festival.
1:53.0	Hello, New York City.
1:56.0	Just before I started, I wanted, oh first I just want to say how fabulous it is to be here.
2:01.0	And I've wanted to interview Claudia forever and I've just kind of been waiting for the right moment and this was it.
2:06.0	And here we all are together for it.
	...

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