Citizen: An American Lyric

Citizen: An American Lyric Character List

You

Most of this poem is told in the second person, addressing "you."

Serena Williams

World-class tennis player, Serena Williams, makes an appearance in this poem through her racial identity.

Zinedine Zidane

International soccer player, Zinedine Zidane, also makes an appearance in the poem through his racial identity.

He She They Him Her

Rankine frequently opens up poetic monologues to include more than a single identifiable subject, replacing a person's preferred pronoun with a slew of pronouns.