I understood that the man's behavior was also his socialization. My own socialization had, in many ways, prepared me for him. I was not overwhelmed by our encounter because my blackness is consent 'not to be a single being.
-- Claudia Rankine ("liminal spaces i" paragraph 1)

Importance: Rankine discusses her encounter with a man at the airport, during which he remarked, "You never know who they're letting into first class these days" (23) in reference to her. She believes this is a statement resulting from racist socialization, which most people living in the United States experience to some degree. Her own socialization, as a black woman, prepares her to be treated with racist disregard—to be viewed not as a "single being," she explains, quoting West Indian writer Édouard Glissant, but as a member of her race.

...'I don't see color.' This is a statement for well-meaning white people whose privilege and blind desire catapult them into...
-- Claudia Rankine ("liminal spaces i" paragraph 3)