The White Card by Claudia Rankine

Author:Claudia Rankine [Rankine, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-55597-886-0
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 2018-03-28T16:00:00+00:00

Scene Two

Gilles Peress, AFRICA. Rwanda. Kabgayi.

April, 1994. Massacre site. Looters captured and killed at the Parish of Rukara church by government troops.

Jeff Wall, Mimic

Kerry James Marshall, Heirlooms and Accessories

One year later. Charlotte is working in her studio. There is a knock on the door.

CHARLOTTE: Charles Spencer.

CHARLES: It’s been awhile.

CHARLOTTE: Almost a year.

CHARLES: I appreciate you taking the time to see me at such short notice.

CHARLOTTE: I was happy to get your email this morning. I’m glad it worked out. How are Virginia and Alex?

CHARLES: They are both fine. We are all fine.

CHARLOTTE: Is Alex still doing his activism?

CHARLES: Still out on the streets. You should know, he mentioned you not long ago. He got it in his head that we should have apologized for not inviting other people of color to our dinner.

CHARLOTTE: Excuse me?

CHARLES: It was just that he felt we put you in the situation of explaining blackness … of speaking for all people of color.

CHARLOTTE: (laughing) Inviting more black people to explain would have spread out the work?

CHARLES: (smiling) I see your point.

CHARLOTTE: Alex is sweet, considerate too. In any case, Virginia did send me an apology. She said it wasn’t your usual practice to devolve into a shouting arena at the end of dinner. That was kind of her.

CHARLES: Oh, I hadn’t realized she’d been in touch.

CHARLOTTE: Did she TiVo the Australian Open again this year?

CHARLES: No, Serena wasn’t playing. We watched Federer win his twentieth Grand Slam in real time. That was pretty exciting … tarnished, unfortunately, by that American from Tennessee who made the quarterfinals …

CHARLOTTE: With his Facebook page of white supremacy likes …

CHARLES: You know, it was a real disappointment to us that you decided to give the Charleston pieces to the Studio Museum.

CHARLOTTE: May I take your coat and scarf?

(She folds them over a chair.)

CHARLES: Do you have a darkroom?

CHARLOTTE: The last time I used one I was in school.

CHARLES: Really?

CHARLOTTE: I’ve always worked digitally. There is so much more freedom if you are willing to lose the romance of the darkness.

CHARLES: Touché. I see you’re a Nikon person.

CHARLOTTE: My mother gave me that one for high school graduation.

CHARLES: Is this her? She’s a beauty. I’m assuming that’s your dad next to her.

CHARLOTTE: That’s right.

CHARLES: Are you their only child?

CHARLOTTE: Yes, they were focused on their careers.

CHARLES: Ah. What do they do?

CHARLOTTE: Lawyer, doctor, except my father doesn’t have patients. He tracks the path of diseases.

CHARLES: I thought you didn’t shoot film.

CHARLOTTE: I don’t. It was a gift to myself. I just think the cameras with their collapsible lenses are beautiful … It’s what I collect.

CHARLES: You have others?

CHARLOTTE: It’s a collection of one. It’s from Berlin, 1936.

CHARLES: You know Ernst Leitz, who manufactured the Leica, helped get Jews out of Nazi Germany?

CHARLOTTE: Yes. The Leica Freedom Train.

CHARLES: Postwar, the Allies blew up photos of the emancipated Jews and the dead bodies in the camps and forced the Germans to look at them to combat anti-Semitism.

CHARLOTTE: Did it ever occur to you it could have the opposite effect? All those bodies could have fed their anti-Semitism.

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