DANE A. VANDERVELDEN
STAFF WRITER

CSUSM welcomed Jamaican- born poet and playwright Claudia Rankine onto its campus for a reading and discussion of her works on Feb. 9.

Organized by Professor Sandra Doller, the hour-long event touched on a number of issues and topics including racism, politics and the corroding ideal of American optimism.

Rankine’s presentation began with a viewing of three five-minute long video essays that she produced with her husband, visual artist John Lucas.

The first video was a slowed-down version of soccer player Zinedine Zidane’s infamous head-butt. As Zidane slowly crept into position to deliver his rib-splitting head butt, Rankine’s voice calmly spoke over the incident about the issue of race itself, quoting a number of famous authors including James Baldwin, Frederick Douglass and Shakespeare.

The second film clip was a collage of various people sleeping on airline flights. The audio for this video was projected in three layers. The sound of a heartbeat could be heard throughout the video, while Rankine’s spoken word and the tragic, final phone calls from those who perished on the various 9/11 flights accompanied it.

The final video of the trio was a somber, yet more hopeful one. It depicted a black man sitting in some sort of car, staring out the window as the vehicle cruised to its destination.

After the video wrapped up, Rankine explained what each video was about and revealed that the final video was actually about of a pair of brothers who had been imprisoned for twenty years of their lives on unfair robbery chargers. The video was filmed on the day that one of the brothers was released from prison.

This segued into a discussion about a murder trial soon to be held in Brandon, Miss. Rankine explained the gruesome story, in which 19-year-old white male Deryl Dedmond intentionally ran over an innocent black man, for no clear reason. Further details explained that there is a chance that Dedmond may get away with his senseless act of brutality. This provided a powerful paradoxical contrast to the two black men wrongly imprisoned for 20 years, bringing up racial issues in a powerful and candid manner.

“Whiteness defines normality,” Rankine said in regards to the contrast between the two cases.

After a few more readings from her book “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely,” Rankine concluded the event by taking questions.

Notable questions were about her opinion of President Obama, to which she replied that while she did initially support his campaign, “No political party or presidency [is] going to have all of the right answers.”

However, she stated that she did not believe hope is slipping away from the American people and that those in power needed to keep their promises and help those truly in need rather than bend to the ways of capitalism.

The next Community and World Literary Series will feature Harold Jaffe on April 12 at 7 p.m., with the location to be determined.