Friday, February 5, 2016

Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday

One thing that really stood out to me while reading this article was the lynching of African Americans and how unjustified it was. Once these Africans were lynched their picture would be taken and sold. After I saw that I was completely disgusted with they way they were being treated. All people we created equal and thats what Billie was trying to explain in her songs. During class on Wednesday when we received the quotes and our was "The lynching of 20 black men in 1930 amounted to nowhere near the turn of the century or even the immediate aftermath of World War I". I found this quote interesting because lynching is a brutal way for a person to die and this process was taking many African American lives. This was what Billie Holiday was talking about in her Song Strange fruit. One main point she brought up in here song was racism. She was completely against it and this song really showed it. African have been mistreated all their live and Billie song was a way how she could express the pain her people went through.  

3 comments:

  1. Lynching African Americans was brutal and a horrible thing to do so I have to agree with you said in your post. I love the fact that Billie Holiday stood up to this action in her song.

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  2. I think Billie Holiday took a huge risk by singing that song. The era when she sang that song racism played such huge part in American's history. African American were being killed all for their skin color. Segregation was used. Billie Holiday clearly wanted mainstream success but many people might have and probably opposed to that song. Like Melanie said it was a great thing what she did. She really stood up for her people.

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  3. I think Billie Holiday took a huge risk by singing that song. The era when she sang that song racism played such huge part in American's history. African American were being killed all for their skin color. Segregation was used. Billie Holiday clearly wanted mainstream success but many people might have and probably opposed to that song. Like Melanie said it was a great thing what she did. She really stood up for her people.

    ReplyDelete