Wouldn’t it be nice if you could make your political positions register internationally by the simple act of, you know, reading a book? Johari Osayi Idusuyi, a student in Springfield, Illinois, has done just that. By a sequence of accidents, Idusuyi found herself sitting in the VIP area of a rally for bizarre presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Perhaps in the hope of presenting Trump as friendlier to African Americans than most people would assume, one of his people ushered the black student into a seat directly behind the entrepreneur turned demagogue.
She had apparently hoped that Trump would “talk about something of substance”. Once this innocent hope had been dispelled and she had registered the crowd’s aggressive treatment of protesters – with the candidate’s apparent endorsement –she decided to very publicly disengage. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out the copy of Claudia Rankine‘s Citizen – a personal exploration of racism in 21st-century America – and began to read. With the cover facing conspicuously out and in view of the cameras, this note of dissent did not go unnoticed.
A woman, in an attempt to counteract the crazy, reads CITIZEN during a Trump rally. Hat-tip: @JeffShotts1 pic.twitter.com/iNZ10gBPOv
— Catherine Lacey (@_catherinelacey) November 10, 2015
All of which does leave one wondering which books to keep to hand, ready for when you find yourself adjacent to your political enemy and in view of the press. A colleague is now carrying a copy of Pyg by Russell Potter, “the memoirs of a learned pig”, primed to do rhetorical damage next time David Cameron invades his personal space. I’ll be packing a copy of Aleksandar Hemon’s Book of Lazarus – his wry, bleak look at the fate of immigrants will come in handy for pretty much every mainstream politician. How about you?
